WHY WE FIGHT

Bill Weinberg

From the New York Post, March 4:

Woman knocked into coma in parking fight
She was only trying to save a parking spot—and now doctors are trying to save her life.

A petite young Bronx woman was pummeled into a coma by a thug who was furious that she was holding a parking space in the East Village, The Post has learned.

“She’s 25 years old. Her life was just starting, and it might be over,” said the woman’s mother, Angie.

“You have no idea how horrible this is and the senselessness that it was over a parking spot.”

Lana Rosas was holding the spot for her boyfriend between two parked cars outside 520 E. 14th St. at 11:40 p.m. last Friday when Oscar Fuller drove up in a silver minivan.

Fuller—whose prior busts include weapons possession and felony assault—jumped out and started screaming at Rosas when she claimed she was holding the space, police sources said.

Fuller then “punched [her] in the face with so much force that the woman flew off her feet,” according to court papers.

“She was on a date with the man she loves, and this horrific thing happen to her,” her mother said.

The victim’s uncle, Mark Rosas, fumed, “We have idiots out here who try to take matters into their own hands… Animals like that need to be caged up.”

A police source added, “The victim suffered permanent brain damage. It’s uncertain whether or not she will survive her injuries.”

Fuller, 35, allegedly sped from the scene, which is across the street from Stuyvesant Town, but cops got his plate number and two witnesses picked his mug from a photo array.

Detectives arrested him at his home on 195th Street in Jamaica, Queens, Tuesday night, and he was picked out of a lineup at the Ninth Precinct station house, sources said.

The electrician, a father of two, was charged with felony assault and remains jailed at the Manhattan Detention Center in lieu of $100,000 bail.

Of course the knuckle-draggers at the NY Post can only view this through their habitual tough-on-(street)-crime lens, blind to how the hegemony of the private automobile in a city that was really not designed for it has turned the quest for parking spaces into a ruthless Darwinian struggle. Ironically, that very same edition of the Post has a sneering editorial that savages NYC Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan for promoting bicycle lanes! And they are doubtless blind to their own unintended irony. This certainly does not let Oscar Fuller off the hook, but incidents like that which has left Lana Rosas struggling for her life are inherent to the reigning car culture, which is itself an inherent part of petro-oligarchical rule.

See more reasons WHY WE FIGHT.

  1. Yes, they will kill for parking spaces
    Lana Rosas survived, with permanent brain damage. Oscar Fuller got one year in jail — the maximum punishment under the law. From the Daily News, June 22:

    In an emotional statement before the court, Rosas’ mother, Angie Harrison, told the court how her daughter’s bright future was crushed in February 2011 as a result of the punch.

    She spoke of the anxiety and the horror of seeing her daughter’s head swell with fluid from the injury. Her daughter still has a shunt in her skull to drain excess fluid.

    “I know you want to believe that the sidewalk did it, but it was you,” said the mom. “Never forget, Mr. Fuller, that my family has a life sentence. Never forget.”

    Meanwhile, a school bus driver dies in a similar case. From Gothamist, June 23:

    An elderly Bronx school bus driver who was put into a coma earlier this month by an angry driver—who attacked him because the school bus hit his double-parked car—has died. Bus driver and grandfather Juan Del Valle, 65, never regained consciousness at St. Barnabas Hospital after he was beaten into a coma by 30-year-old Joey Scott. “The family had been struggling all week with whether or not to take him off life support,” Carolyn Daly, a spokeswoman for Atlantic Express bus company where Delvalle worked for eight years, told the Post…

    The incident took place on June 11, when Del Valle clipped an illegally double-parked vehicle at the intersection of Anthony and Echo Avenues, knocking off the side view mirror. Del Valle, who was driving two middle schoolers home, got out of the bus to see what happened—and an enraged Scott punched him twice in the face. Del Valle fell and struck his head on the pavement.

    Scott, who fled the scene, was eventually arrested and charged with felony assault. The family and Daly are now hoping that charge is increased to homicide. “Now he’s been murdered,” said Daly. “This guy was double-parked, and the only thing that happened was that his rear-view mirror was scraped. You don’t lose it over a mirror and you certainly don’t punch a 65-year-old man wearing a uniform who’s got children in his care.”