[*BCM*] Bostoncriticalmass Digest, Vol 53, Issue 12

[Rachel Elizabeth Dillon]

On Tue, Nov 18, 2008 at 06:59:14PM +0000, Martin Rodriguez wrote:
> OK, correct me if I'm wrong:  the kid in the car was trying to do
> what exactly to a cyclist?  Hit him?  Knock him off his bike?  What was
> his intention?  Suppose he had been successful in knocking the cyclist
> off of his bike, and it was the cyclist who was seriously injured?

It's hard to tell for sure, but it looks like he was trying to injure
the cyclist; or, rather, he was trying to somehow spook or shove the
cyclist in a way likely to cause injury. A brief googling hasn't turned
up anything authoritative.

> I got on this email list because of an incident on my bike where some
> passing motorists threw something out their windows at me as they passed
> in their car.  I really don't like people in cars who do stuff like this
> to cyclists.  My sympathies are ALWAYS with the cyclists, and I hoped
> that viewpoint would be shared by others in this group.

I like to think I have enough sympathy for both the cyclist and the kid
who got hit by the car; it's not a zero-sum game. The cyclist didn't
deserve to get injured by some kid pulling what he thought was a prank,
and the kid didn't deserve to die for pulling a dangerous prank at
someone else's expense. I'm not rushing to pay his funeral expenses
and console his family, but if he had injured the cyclist, been caught
on camera, and been brought to trial, I don't think any of us would be
seriously advocating the death penalty. (At least, I would hope that 
viewpoint to be shared by others in the group, too.) 

-r.