MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE
by Michael Wolraich
|
|
Victory (sort of)
By Donal on Tue, 06/14/2011 - 10:09pm |One night, back in February, I was riding a Capital Bikeshare bike home (I was doing the Winter Weather Warrior contest, remember?)
I was stopped at the intersection of 13th and Kenyon St. NW at a red light, waiting to turn left onto 13th St. Kenyon is a one-way street going west, and I was on the left side of the street, since I would be turning left. While waiting for the light I heard a car speed up Kenyon St. behind me. I could sense the car stop immediately behind me, extremely close. It was aggressive, but fairly typical aggressive driver behavior. I didn't think much of it because we were at a red light, and there was no where for him to go anyway.
And that's when I felt a *BUMP* from behind. Nothing too hard, but enough to intimidate. Now, remember: I knew he had STOPPED behind me. So this was a conscious decision by the driver to hit me with his vehicle. I could hear laughing coming from the car behind me. They thought this was HILARIOUS. Also, there was a taxi to my right, waiting for the light as well that even remarked on this behavior ("asshole" is what I think the taxi driver said).
I ignored this. Why? 98% of the time, it is not worth it to engage with an aggressive driver. At best, you end up getting angrier, at worst, you get hurt. Plus, I spend the majority of my day dealing with people like this and by the time I'm done with work I Just. Don't. Want. To. Anymore.
The light turned green and I started to proceed. And then I felt *BUMP!!!!!* again, this time a bit harder.
Oh no. No. No. No. I can't ignore this. I just can't.
So I stopped. Pulled out my police badge (yes, I'm a cop if you didn't know before. No I really don't want to talk about it, thanks) showed it to the driver and motioned him to stay right where he was.
URL:
http://girlonabicycle.blogspot.com/2011/06/victory-sort-of.html
- 708 reads
Comments
This is an interesting story and assuming all of it is as presented it is an example an idiot criminal getting at least a bit of what he deserves. Did you follow the link within the link to see the lady bicycle cop's first account of the story where she says,
"So I debated whether to say something to this dick of a driver. The light turned green, and I decided to let it go and instead ride reeeallllyyyy slllloooowwwwwlllly in front of him to piss him off."
That is hardly "letting it go" as she says earlier that she had decided to do. She came off sounding like an idiot to me who just happened to have the law on her side in this instance of meeting up with another idiot.
by A Guy Called LULU on Wed, 06/15/2011 - 11:31am
Suppose you were sitting in your car at a light, and a dump truck nudged you? She reacted exactly as many auto drivers react to a pushy driver honking or driving too closely from behind. That's not surprising because many American cyclists develop their traffic behavior in cars first.
by Donal on Wed, 06/15/2011 - 11:57am
There is a huge difference between being in a car exposed to an idiot [Assuming the bump was deemed deliberate as in the story] and being on a bicycle. Trust me on this, I understand road rage. I have been on both sides of it. I understand why she was angry, but the woman was bumped deliberately and from the laughter she knew that there was more then one idiot in the car that thought doing something as stupid and dangerous as bumping her was funny and she proceeded to try to deliberately piss them off. If you disagree that that is acting stupidly then we just disagree. Another quote from her original description of the event.
"Now, I ignore a lot of crap when I'm off duty. Like I said I encounter rude, impatient & distracted drivers all the time. 99% of the time its not worth getting into an argument over, not to mention it can be dangerous. You never know who you might be dealing with or what could set them off."
She didn't know what kind of nut was behind her or what might set them off but she was willing to push them in order to find out and to do so from an extremely vulnerable position. I once read a news story of a young woman psychology major who did an experiment for her thesis. She moved in with a male roommate and intentionally tried to aggravate him every chance she could and to document his response to various things she did. It made the news because she was in the hospital laying in a coma from the guy beating her to a pulp when he finally snapped. I hope it does not need being said that I am not defending the actions of either of the guys in either situation but I think the woman cop was in a better situation than most to understand how severe the consequences can be if you piss off the wrong person.
by A Guy Called LULU on Wed, 06/15/2011 - 1:00pm
But most Americans learn their driving habits in cars, and I see auto drivers drive slowly in front of others to piss them off all the time. I even see them swerve around to stay in front. Does it work with a bicycle? Obviously not, but learned behavior is difficult to unlearn. She probably won't do it again.
by Donal on Wed, 06/15/2011 - 1:09pm