Quote:
Originally Posted by greglepore
Jeff, the point isn't that the cyclists were lily white, maybe they were, maybe they were not but--
you have a ccw; you and a guy have words about something and it escalates into a shouting match for whatever reason, and maybe he even questions your heritage-does this allow you to brandish your weapon or even fire a shot over his head? That's my point here--hitting a cyclist with a car, even just knocking him over, is never justified unless somehow your life has been endangered by the cyclist, and I have difficulty conceiving of how that transpired.
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That's fully understood, Greg, and a good analogy. The one possessing the means to inflict greater harm does indeed have the greater responsibility. I agree completely. If the driver did indeed swerve to hit the bikes, he deserves all of the wrath expressed within this thread. I've never said otherwise.
But - and this is a big "but" - your analogy doesn't necessarily fully equate to this situation. What if the cyclist(s) tried to cleat his door and, in doing so, lost it and crashed? As I mentioned in one of my first posts on this thread, I've ridden in these peletons, and witnessed many an aberrant act of aggression, from motorists and cyclists both. I saw guys cleat doors on passing cars. I saw guys club passing cars with their pumps. I saw guys throw rocks at passing cars. All because the motorist, after being held up for awhile, had the audacity to honk, or maybe even flip off or verbally berate the pack as he passed.
And, of course, when a knucklehead like that missjudges or misstimes his kick and crashes, the whole pack will stand together and tell the cop that the car swerved into them. Been there, seen that.