I am trying to find the name of this particular plant, which are grown
in abundance around my neighborhood. Anybody know?

http://snipurl.com/plant-from-hell-1

http://snipurl.com/plant-from-hell-2

The second image in particular shows what I hate about them: the tips
of the leaves are as sharp as needles, and have drawn blood from me on
more than one occasion when I've passed them on the sidewalk. A couple
of times it damned near pierced my eyeball -- if I hadn't been wearing
glasses, I'd be blind in one eye today. I will often return with a
kitchen knife and amputate the more menacing of of the leaves.