How about a statue?

http://www.arthistory.sbc.edu/imageswomen/papers/kottkegorgon/Perseusandmedusa.jpg

Regarding the Perzeus Forte story:

“I swear to God I thought I was a dead man,” the shaken Mohammed said. “He was going to kill me.”

Mr. Mohammed, you don’t know how many times I thought the same exact thing about drivers who nearly killed me while I was riding my bike in a perfectly legal manner. Most of the time the actions by drivers were just careless, other times they were intentional homicidal!

Now you know how it feels to face potential death. I hope you learned how fragile life really is.

Don’t get mad at individuals, get mad at decades of poor public policy. Most people behind the wheel are just sheep grazing in a field of unfairly-subsidized infrastructure.

As for the homicidal maniacs, I won’t judge you for how you chose to use your U-lock. Any damage you do to an inanimate machine is forgivable when said machine has been used to threaten a human life (just the machine–leave the misguided, emotionally-charged human being encapsulated inside alone). Would the general public get upset if somebody damaged the gun of a street gangster? No, of course not. Who would complain about causing harm to a mechanical device which is posing a threat to public safety?

I thought my response the last time I got clipped by a car was appropriate:

Rode up to the guys open window shouted, “Watch where you are going you fucking asshole you just hit me with your car.”

Then when he drove up behind me and started honking I flipped him off and pedaled away.

Sometimes I feel like pulling off my u-lock and smashing a window in. But if I gave in to the urge, it’s the same as a driver giving in to urge of running down a biker for fun, because they can.

It’s inevitable, simply human nature, that eventually when one’s life is constantly threatened by one group of people during the carrying out of one’s daily activities, that they’re going to act out in this manner sooner or later. Was he legally right to assault somebody? No. But do I think he was necessarily in the wrong, morally? Well, why is physically assaulting someone any worse than hitting them with your vehicle and then running off? They should both be in handcuffs and facing charges.

An easy way to prevent these actions is simply to enforce the laws, and begin to cite reckless and dangerous drivers (or as I’m tempted to begin calling them, in the same spirit with which newspapers tend to refer to bicyclists, “automobile enthusiasts”) who don’t seem to consider anybody else’s safety besides their own in the first place. And if they keep on endangering other people’s lives, take them off the road until they can begin to act like decent human beings. Operation of a motor vehicle is a privilege, not a right. I don’t understand why this is so hard for public safety types to figure out. I really want to think they don’t hate bikers and pedestrians for their choices as to mode of transportation, but evidence does tend to point in the other direction doesn’t it?

I don’t bike myself, I walk and ride transit. But even in my walkable inner city neighborhood here in Portland, Oregon, I constantly feel under siege in certain locations myself by careless and inconsiderate jerks behind the wheel of tons of fast-moving steel. Drivers in Portland are mostly (key modifier) as considerate as, or more than, any others in this country, but of course it still only takes one of “the others” to kill you.

It’s interesting to me how the attitude of police vary by region. To his great credit, here near my apartment one Portland police officer actually did go after a motorist who almost ran me down as I was crossing a street, right in front of him last year. On the other hand, I grew up in Northern New Jersey and I have to say I remember a few times when it was a police officer him-or-herself who was the one who almost ran me down in a crosswalk. And forget about hoping for most of them to take seriously violations committed by motorists against pedestrians, even right in front of them. I definitely feel like a second-class citizen most times in my own public space.

Joanna: maybe you should come to New York sometime and see how many drivers nearly hit people on a daily basis. A very high percentage of them are sociopaths.

It’s really time people start fighting back, with clubs and fists if necessary.

i thought it was great that the driver was talking about how he thought he was a deadman. awesome irony. welcome to our world, buddy — you belong in jail.

re: Chelsea: Bike Messenger Chases Down, Attacks Limo Driver After Hit-and-Run (Post)

While easy to identify with the cyclist hopefully both have learned: The driver must be a lot more careful around cyclists; the cyclist to control his temper which can be difficult because of the constant threats by cars on the streets.

All too often drivers confront pedestrians and cyclists by cursing at them, gunning motors from close behind, speeding past too close and honking from their cars which is essentially harassment with a lethal weapon with no recrimination.

Recently, hit but not hurt by a car (with no damage to the bike) the driver got out and calmly tried to talk with me after I confronted him further down the street when he continued driving.

I took his license plate number and he said he would give me his driver’s license to take the appropriate information.

He said he honked though he seemed like a nice guy.

Quite loud and angry I said that he hit me and that does not give him the right of way.

He said that he just got out of the hospital.

Angrier, I said again that then should not have been driving and again that he hit me.

At that point he probably realized that he was completely at fault and jumped back in his car and left.

911 was dialed and the two women police officers that soon arrived were really quite nice and sympathetic writing out the accident report. A copy of the report was obtained from the local precinct a few days later for a $10 fee.

Seriously doubting that anything else will come of this except that perhaps, that the driver will steer clear of cyclists in the future and that it demonstrates the serious inequity, dangers, and monopolistic practice of cars on our streets and the importance of safe local transportation for all.

Transportation systems based on cars are structurally violent systems with minimal accountability near exclusively promoting transportation by extremely dangerous, costly, and environmentally destructive vehicles; and, the rule of law is much skewed in the favor of cars with little relevance to justice, equity, and good common sense.

“He said he honked though he seemed like a nice guy.”

The one time I’ve been hit by a car (its side mirror) it was a livery cab whose driver had just honked the horn. He got away. Some of their drivers are under the impression that after a honk, any human still in their path is fair game. That’s far from being the law and far below the conduct we should demand from licensed professional drivers.

Violent retaliation is wrong, but it does not void the undisputed and serious crime of hitting someone with a car and driving off.

Anyone can type “Joanna” into the Name field, and there are probably several Joannas who read this. How are we supposed to know it’s the same Joanna?

That said, Joanna, you went on the attack against Streetsblog after one favorable, pseudonymous comment, even though the blog’s actual coverage was neutral.

-Cap’n Transit

Joanna is rationalizing the behavior of sociopaths. Okay, fine, *if* the biker is at fault, he doesn’t deserve a medal. It’s really besides the point. Drivers committing attempted assault or successful assault is a daily occurrence; drivers getting beaten after they commit assault is rare enough to make the news.

(And really, Flushing’s drivers are the pits. They don’t even pretend to acknowledge that there’s life outside their sedans.)

Alon: next are you going to tell me I can’t tell the ignorant to “open their eyes”* or use any number of other hyperbolic cliches the English language has to offer? I’m well aware that ignorant people literally have eyelids that open and close. I really shouldn’t have to explain why I said “maybe you should come to New York sometime” while fully expecting that she probably lives in New York City or is at least nearby enough to know her way around it (being that this is the NYC Streetsblog and all).

And really, the race card? This isn’t about race or ethnic background. It’s about paying attention to the environment in which you live. I suspect the major hurdle to that is empathy with those around you, not American-ness. If Joanna really lives in NYC, all the more reason for her to recognize the incongruity of complaining about Perzeus and /defending/ the guy who initiated the assault in the first place. It goes back to a social, cultural, and systemic bias our society has towards drivers and against the victims of driving – a subject Streetsblog has covered rather admirably, I think. (And no, it doesn’t /necessarily/ justify punching the driver.)

* To be clear: the “ignorant” comment is not aimed at Joanna. It’s just a counterexample to the above comment. I’m sure Joanna is overall a very nice person, and I only took issue with one narrow comment she made.

Yeah, those racist New Yorkers always telling people to come to New York because New York…(does?/doesn’t?) welcome people into its pasty, white hegemon! Why, telling someone to /visit/ New York is exactly like what George Allen did! It’s quite abundantly clear reading over what I said, that I simply neglected to throw in an ethnic slur! Silly me! Making light of someone’s views about traffic enforcement is the same thing as racism! I suppose since “Joanna” is a Biblical name, I must be anti-Semitic now too!

I brought up ignorance, a perfectly forgivable state of being, as a counterexample to make a point about how people use language; the comment wasn’t even directed at another person, but directly at a specific point — a fact I intentionally, explicitly made clear out of courtesy. You played the race card as a cynical, hamfisted rhetorical tactic to get me associated with racists and force me to cry, “I’m not racist!” Again, I shouldn’t have to explain the difference.

As for the reasonable objection you have: yes, I grudgingly think violence is appropriate sometimes. Sorry, but even if I thought civil authorities should have a monopoly on use of force, I know they really care that much when drivers wantonly put other lives at risk. Hell, I’ve even seen way too many cases of police attacking the victims in such cases (and Streetsblog, again, well-documents them).

If you disagree with that position, fine. But it’s no excuse for accusing me of racism.

What does being pissed off have to do with whether it’s justifiable? That’s too ambiguous to comment on, and I don’t see what the above has to do with shooting anyone. Perzeus was merely a victim of assault, probably because of indifference to other people or negligence on the part of the driver – I can see where he was justified in using force, but not in killing the idiot.

I don’t think anyone should shoot anyone just because they’re pissed off, but there are certainly legitimate cases where deadly force can be justified. It’s obviously a losing battle for whoever makes that decision against the state though. However, if you want an example of a case where I think someone could be justified shooting an agent of the state, take a look at the Calvo incident in Maryland where local stormtroopers broke into an innocent person’s home, refused to show a warrant, and shot the family pets apparently for the hell of it – all because of some pot shipment (about the most harmless drug ever) the police *knew* was probably intentionally sent to their address as a ploy.