Another overlooked detail is that the biker who begins punching the back window at 6:21 in the video abruptly stops a few seconds later, probably because he saw there was a child in the back seat.

There was no reckless riding shown in the video prior to the chase, except perhaps when Cruz turned in front of the SUV to stop the hit and run driver.

Ultimately, whether some or most of these bikers were riding recklessly is a red herring and of little consequence when compared to an act of attempted murder that has left one rider, Edwin Mieses, paralyzed. This would be relevant only to decipher whether Lien was reasonable in believing he had to run over the bikers in self-defense. An analysis of the video shows that this was not the case, as the bikers had already started to disband when Lien gunned the SUV in an apparent act of road rage.

The original, overly simplistic, and patently biased story of ‘Family Terrorized by Outlaw Biker Gang’ begins to further melt away as more facts surface. As Slate reported, “[t]he Stuntz crew has been repeatedly referred to as a motorcycle gang . . . the reality of this situation [is that] whatever the Stuntz riders were, they weren’t a motorcycle gang,” adding that “the riders seemed to have had no formal affiliation; rather, ‘Hollywood Stuntz’ was just the name given to the rally that brought them all to New York last weekend” (t.co/GF4BaOorH4).

Reportedly, an NYPD detective and several other officers were participating riders. Any of these off-duty officers could just as easily have been the ones plowed over and left paralyzed which, at the end of the day, demonstrates just how irrelevant the injured rider’s criminal rap sheet is in assessing culpability.

If Mieses was actually trying to diffuse the situation prior to being struck, as some witnesses have claimed, vilifying him just adds another tragic dimension to the widespread misrepresentation of the incident.

For many motorcyclists, not charging Lien with attempted manslaughter if the evidence bears this version of events out would send a chilling message. One that would effectively give free rein to enraged motorists to hit bikers they feel are riding aggressively or in large groups--and to flee the scene under the guise of self- defense.

The most troubling aspect of media and public reaction to this incident is not just the prevalent anti-biker sentiment, but the expression of a strong racist and classist undercurrent, both seen in the assumptions made by police and the press, and in the charges issued (and not issued). While multiple bikers have been charged by police, Lien has not been charged with a single offense.

Instead of more salient headlines such as “SUV Runs Over Motorcyclists During Road Rage Incident,” we had headlines like “Gang of Bikers Attack Driver In Front of Family”, “Bikers Terrorize Family in High-Speed Chase”, and “Manhattan Motorcycle Gang Terrorizes SUV Driver”.

As one biker blog commented, “it's tragic that a large group of motorcyclists think they can take over a highway and intimidate drivers. It's tragic that a car driver got scared [and beaten]. But what's most tragic is the media's coverage of it” (eatsleepride.com).

Since the incident, motorcyclists in New York have widely reported that they are routinely targeted by police. Most are not stunters or packs of bikers creating mayhem, but law-abiding motorcyclists who are often stopped for minor infractions, or for none at all.

In an even darker development, an NYPD officer admitted on camera that one of his bosses is Lien's uncle who "sent the word down that all these bikes are gonna get stopped, are gonna get written" for "anything over 5 over the speed limit".

Notwithstanding shades of nepotism and police corruption, automobile drivers' anger towards aggressive bikers, or even a general anti-biker sentiment, may be the real reason behind the public’s troubling reaction. One online news poll found that only 4% supported pressing charges against the SUV driver.

So in the popular mind, Lien just might be motorists’ answer to Bernhard Goetz. However, unlike "The Subway Vigilante", a victim who shot his attackers, the facts here indicate that Lien was both instigator and perpetrator, assaulted only after fleeing from a series of criminal acts and felonies he committed that left an innocent motorcyclist paralyzed.

Where there is so much unnecessary suffering involved, there are important lessons to be learned.

Circumstances somehow led a law-abiding citizen to commit a heinous crime. Yet any solutions to preventing this from happening again must start by not being distracted by misleading generalizations--biker, criminal, family man--but by seeing all actors involved here as human beings. The widespread misunderstanding of what really transpired here has led to a string of injustices that scream to be revealed, remedied and prevented from occuring again.

To this day, although there have been arrests of many of the bikers involved, Lien has not been chargd with even a traffic violation.

My hopes for recovery especially go out to Mieses and his family, and to Lien's daughter, who had to witness the traumatic event.