No doubt you have seen Alvin Graham Jr. cycling around town or biking on his roller trainer on his iconic USA-themed bike and matching kit. You may even have donated to support US veterans, a cause he tirelessly supports.
For years he has set up his stationary roller trainer on city sidewalks or at big events to raise funds, and he has become a fixture outside major sporting events. So of course he was outside CenturyLink Field raising money during the Seahawks’ playoff game against the Panthers.
Unfortunately, some awful jerk leaving the game early did not appreciate Alvin’s work and attacked him, seriously injuring Alvin’s eye socket with a punch, King 5 reports.
We wish Alvin a fast recovery. It’s inspiring to see someone so dedicated to his cause, and so upsetting that someone would want to attack him.
Here’s the King 5 report:
Comments
11 responses to “Terrible person attacks Seattle’s favorite cycling patriot after Seahawks game”
Terrible news. Tom, please keep us updated on this story.
This is screwed up on many levels.. but the fact of the matter is that SPD let this happen. Every single seahawks game day there is an unchecked amount of egregious behavior on the part of the 12th man that is absurd.. People stumbling all over pioneer square as drunk as possible, vandalizing cars and buildings, dumping garbage everywhere, with absolutely zero enforcement by the police. They show up, trash downtown, then drive home drunk as hell, and this behavior is practically condoned by SPD. Add the anti-bike sentiment encouraged by right wing “news” sources favored by the 12th man hillfolk and this incident comes as no surprise. A disappointment, but not an unexpected one.
Reprehensible as it may be, when you’ve got the second (Seattle) and first (Portland) whitest cities in America, don’t expect shitty, xenophobic, racist behavior to be a “hill people” thing. Hill people have to get along to survive. City people don’t.
But what if your city is nothing but hills, what then?
Aah. Literally hill people, not figuratively for anyone living outside a city… keep forgetting Seattle’s hilly since I usually traversed it on the train or on I 5, which is pretty much the only flat way through.
Preach on, Paul. Seattle doesn’t realize just how insulated and isolated it is from the real world.
That said, don’t mistake me for totally hating on Seattle. It’s got some redeeming qualities. Close proximity to Canada, one of the few spots on the Cascades line that isn’t a real pain to go to either end of the line from, good transit, legal weed and way more ways to get hammered than anybody without a bionic liver could possibly handle. It’s basically Portland with a regressive tax structure and at least a token effort at ethnic diversity.
It’s just juxtaposed with the kind of bizarre stereotypical “redneck” behavior often attributed to places like the appalachians, southern plains, Ozarks, and the deep south, but it’s like everybody’s wearing Zaphod Beeblebrox’s peril sensitive sunglasses regarding the situation. At least in the southern plains, people see the walking stereotype and are like, “OK, let’s go ahead and let the crazy go sail over there with the rest of the crazy and not get sucked into the gravitational pull of their crazy.”
Alvin gets this shit all time poor guy. I was drafting him for a while during the STP and on the highway section before you make the turn by JBLM there were some sterotypica rednecks in a truck yelling racist stuff at him and “rolling coal” on all the riders.
How horrible for Mr. Graham! The man who assaulted him needs jail time and SPD needs to prioritize apprehending him. What an opportunity for the cycling community to step up and support Alvin. Could we show up at his next Seahawks spin to show our support? Wear our Seahawks gear or not, but show up. Maybe the Seahawks themselves could also participate?
Sounds like Alvin might need surgery. Does anyone know if the VA will cover the whole thing?
[…] we reported last week, Seattle’s iconic biking patriot Alvin Graham Jr was assaulted outside the Seahawks/Patriots […]