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800 Maynard Ave S, Suite 200, Seattle, WA 98134
800 Maynard Ave S, Suite 200, Seattle, WA 98134
This story has less to do with cycling and more to do with the breed of animal that has infected Seattle in the last 10 years.
"The report notes that the cyclist may have closed the door on the woman's leg.
As the cyclist pedaled through the intersection, the Cadillac again pulled up next to him. The driver then got out, walked up to the cyclist, and punched him in the face, sending his helmet flying, cutting his lip and damaging his teeth."
I get it, he shut the door on her leg and then ran the red light. But why didn't the bicyclist just keep away from the Caddy driver? If a driver pulls up next to a biker and stops and gets out of his car, wouldn't the biker be half a block down the street? Maybe the biker thought he was on a CM ride and a buddy was going to clock the driver.
1. white Cadillac
2. "gently pushed" the door shut
Sure.
I would've punched him too.
Where was his u-lock?
I call bullshit on the bike rider.
There I was, driving my eco-friendly city car in front of the Westin Hotel, obeying all the rules, smiling and waving where appropriate, and suddenly this sweaty tatooed THING runs the red right in front of me (I so TOTALLY had the right-of-way)
I braked abruptly, so she wouldn't be on my hood, honked a friendly honk, to alert her in case she was distracted by what was probably her overwhelming funk and didn't realize what she had done, and she flipped me off! Flipped ME off!
Now, I've done my share of traffic "boners" in my day: Not long ago, I totally blew through a busy four way stop. and some lucky deity or something intervened on my behalf, and no one was hurt. But there was a whole lot of honking, and I was chagrined and chastened. The last thing I would have thought to do was flip someone off.
I don't want to wade into the whole bike vs car thing, but I really don't understand why anyone - motorist or cyclist - would have that kind of reaction when they are so blatantly in the wrong.
oh, and a cadillac driver's lady? don't fuck with that shit. uptight seattleite.
Yes, there do seem to be a lot of asshole bicyclists. As a group, however, they do seem more aware of what's going on around them than drivers and pedestrians. In general. And frankly, I think that's where a lot of their aggression comes from (at least I, as someone who is apparently more alert than most commuters, sympathize more with cyclist anger than I do with all the oblivious morons who go into high dudgeon whenever someone wakes them up).
It wasn't like the door was opened and he approached and in a fit of self-righteous cycler irritation he closed it. The car pulled up in front of him and the door popped open. He was about to be clothes-lined, he reacted and tried to react in a responsible, non-harmful way. He barely closed the door. By his account and the accounts of the half dozen witnesses that gave testimonies, there was no question about his actions. He wasn't being an asshole, He simply responded in the most responsible way one can in a split second decision.
In a fit of rage, the driver then pulled up in front of him and corked him. The man and the woman popped out of the car and started screaming at him. The woman then spat on him. Literally. Then he got hit. Could he have high-tailed it out of there? Maybe. He's a peaceful guy, he's not an aggressive cyclist, and he's not an asshole. He's not used to this kind of conflict. Again, every witness on the street sided with him. There was no one that sided with the driver and the passenger. It was a straight assault and it was uncalled for.
Also, the reason why the guy that punched him couldn't be identified is that the car belonged to the woman's mother.
1) Car pulls up next to stopped cyclist, within 3 feet
2) Lady partially opens door (and maybe sticks her leg out) but is distracted talking to the driver
3) Cyclist does not say watch out. Cyclist does not let her open the door into his leg, or whatever, and laugh. Cyclist "gently closes" the door (maybe on her leg).
What is corked? And if it happened the way Jonah described, how was he ever in danger of being "clotheslined"?
Your account doesn't actually make sense. How does a car "pull up next to" a bicyclist pedaling through an intersection, and the driver get out, and WALK to catch up to the cyclist (who is presumably moving 5-7mph)?
and deserved to get
his teeth knocked out.
Let him explain why:
"On... a cyclist was stopped at... when a white Cadillac pulled up beside him."
He is stopped and waiting at the intersection...
"... the cyclist told officers that he saw a woman in the passenger seat trying to get out of the car. The cyclist, concerned that the woman would hit him with the car door,..."
He knows she is trying to get out at the intersection.
Evidently his stationary bike overlaps and blocks the passenger side door.
WHY DOESN"T THE ASSHOLE ROLL HIS BIKE FORWARD OR BACKWARD TO ALLOW THE LADY TO OPEN HER DOOR?
(because he is an ASSHOLE)
Instead he:
"gently pushed" the door shut to "let [the woman] know he was there." The report notes that the cyclist may have closed the door on the woman's leg."
Stripped of the self-serving BS, the ASSHOLE on the bike shoved the door shut on the leg of the lady who is trying to get out but is blocked in by the bike.
Obviously Cadillac couple should have let ASSHOLE ride away and then let lady get out.
But then we'd have no story-
Instead they follow him through the intersection and...
"the Cadillac again pulled up next to him. The driver then got out, walked up to the cyclist,..."
and?
and then?
This part is good.
Why does ASSHOLE sit their and wait for Cadillac dude?
Is he now terrified and immobile?
Is there no room to curl up on the ground in the fetal position?
Does he think Cadillac dude is coming over to thank him for the lesson in vehicle-cycle relations?
We shan't speculate, because we want to hurry up to get to the best part...
"The driver then got out, walked up to the cyclist, and punched him in the face, sending his helmet flying, cutting his lip and damaging his teeth."
Allright!!
Our Hero!!!
(And ASSHOLE will be waiting till Monday at least before he finds a Dentist in to repair those teeth...)
Who is Cadillac dude?
"police were able to identify him through booking photo records."
Like you, I am 'surprised' to discover that White Cadillac dude has a record.
Shocked, actually.
Also shocked that ASSHOLE urban hipster dude's "This Guy Might Kick My Ass"-dar is so poor.
(not really)
We will not digress into speculation about testosterone or melanin or punk-assed faggots who have graduated from passive-aggressive dickery to "I'm not going to take it anymore! bravado as a prelude to getting their ass kicked".
There will be plenty of time for that later.
The issue at hand is starting a defense fund for our hero.
The "White Cadillac Urban Hero" Defense Fund.
Come on Slog, give till it hurts!
The car pulled up next to a stopped bicyclist, and someone opened a door into him. If you've ever been on a bicycle in the city, this is not a difficult scenario to imagine. If he hadn't pushed back, he would have been knocked over.
Moreover, even if he somehow could have moved out of the way (the physics of bicycles make this difficult), he still would have been RIGHT.
What is wrong with you?
Perhaps he is just paying the price for the CMers and all the aggressive bikers that break the laws and then flip people off.
Last night on Eastlake I watched ten bikes go by without lights or even reflectors - not directly related but goes to the attitude of many bikers - on street, cut across crosswalk in front of car just passed on right , ride through pedestrians, cut across in front of peds, back on street, pass cars waiting for light on right, jump out in front of line of cars, move to center of lane, ignore pedestrian in crosswalk, jump back on sidewalk ride at 10 mph down sidewalk by doorways...
then there's a pause and it's clear the driver and the lady agreed to come after the cyclist. they pursue, block him, and both get out and acting in concert they attack him. one with spit. one with a fist.
dear cyclist: sue the motherfucking lady. you know who she is. depose her and find out name of the driver and sue him too. sue them for assault and civil conspiracy to commit assault. whatever happened prior to the time they came after you is legally irrelevant, even if the cyclist committed assault in pushing the door shut, or slamming it shut, even if he committed assault, we don't have vigilante justice and it's no excuse for the driver's felonious assault and for the lady friend helping him. Sue for medical bills, and pain and suffering and emotional distress. it's not unreasonable to make this a medium sized lawsuit. the cops won't help you. the slog commenters won't help you. but you can get a jury of your peers to help you.
that will be $250 please.
Hell yeah. I am sick of bike rider aggression towards even the most normal of actions of car riders. It seems to only happen to me downtown. Just the other day this cyclist (male) tried to get physical with me (female) as I was parking on 1st Ave at the corner of Virginia. I was just rolling up the windows of my car, grabbing my dog and purse, and getting ready to exit the car. He rode up next to me and heard my large pit bull (who was excited to go on a walk) barking. He did a double take (her barking must had scared him as he rode past) circled around and then pulled up next to me, blocking me in on the driver's side. He began screaming at me about opening my car door on him (even though he had initially passed me) and then he began taunting my dog. I unrolled the window and told him to move out of my way, and he stood there with his hands on his hips. I tried to open my door slowly and he slammed it shut on me. By them I was pist and I got out of the passenger door with my dog. He met me on the sidewalk and got off his bike and began making arm gestures like he was going to swing. A crowd stood there and I said "if you touch me you will get bit the fuck up" as my dog was facing him with her tail and ears up. Needless to say, he got his hipster ass on that bike and rolled off with his finger up in the air behind him.
I see this at least five times every time drive downtown. Make that 25 if I have to swing by the hill.
That was the first thing I was thinking when reading it. A ridiculous amount of people wear helmets wrong. Of course, most helmets suck and would get pushed back off the head even when wearing them right. It's 2009 and we still have mostly crap helmets.
According to the asshole cyclist the lady did not touch him:
"...the cyclist told officers that he saw a woman in the passenger seat trying to get out of the car. The cyclist, concerned that the woman WOULD hit him with the car door, "gently pushed" the door shut to "let [the woman] know he was there."
The lady had not touched him- he initiated contact, crushing her leg.
Go ahead, sue.
When we get to court I'll eat your ass. And my client will spit on your's. Again.
And her boyfriend will beat both your asses as soon as we get in the parking lot.
If someone hit me hard enough to send my helmet flying, I'd have to guess they knocked my head clean off my body. Properly fitted chin straps will not allow the helmet to separate from the head except under hulk-tastic circumstances.
As a pedestrian, I have doors open in front of me along Broadway all the time. Should I get in the habit of pushing them shut on people?
The cyclist's bad behavior here is a direct result of all the 'downtrodden, oppressed cyclist' bullshit that this blog spouts. The cyclist saw his mental prototype "car" ... the wiring in his fucked up brain immediately re-routed to "evil", and in a petty, petty passive aggressive way his bad wiring led to him closing a door on a woman.... And he got what he earned. Hell, if he had done it to my girl, I'd have hit him more than once. And since he started it, it's not illegal, and thus not assault. It's his fault for buying into the 'drivers=oppressors of bikers' nonsense.
The title of this should be, 'pent-up aggression pettily displayed by pussy against a woman gets pussy knocked out with one punch.' I'm no journalist.
Oh, and mister biker, when you finally get around to reading this after you get your wittle teef put back in. Remember this is NOT a cars vs. bikes issue. It's a dick who closed door on woman vs. woman's boyfriend issue... And it sounds like things came out just about as they should have. 'Assault,' my ass.
But as it stood, all you did from their POV was try to slam the car door on her leg. The assault was an overreaction, but you did appear to provoke them both without giving much of an indication to the contrary. I'd probably be pissed as well from their POV, and I'm not a motorist.
(This assumes, of course, that the report is genuine and you aren't trying to cover up any malicious activity. I'm willing to assume so.)
How well does that gig pay?
And what city do you live in where this is the norm? I mean, in general?
Why do you ask?
Just as we suspected.
We'll add you to our watch list.
#26 you too. The report never said the door was opened into him. In fact, the report was extremely confusing, hence my questions.
why do you say that?
I had no idea that cyclist rights had actually trumped civil rights and women's rights. It's great to see that we're in a post racial society where whites can kick around black women because they've become the oppressors now that they have cars.
A few new possible headlines for this story:
"Cyclists are the new blacks, blacks with cars the new KKK"
"Anti-cyclist sentiment gaining ground among black women"
"White male cyclist oppressed by black female, black motorist"
"All white crowd sympathizes with white cyclist after black woman dares to open car door"
"Terrible gorilla-creature instinctively defends mate when angel on bike stands up for cyclist rights"
"Martin Luther King, Suffragettes, out of the way! Lance Armstrong the new civil rights demigod"
Actually, I don't, but they still made me laugh.
Slog Hates Blacks.
(ps- you're good...)
Do you dislike the guy who shoved a car door shut onto the leg of the lady?
That strikes me as a perfectly reasonable reflexive response. As I said, it also strikes me as a perfectly reasonable considered response.
What you're doing is essentially saying "the report didn't specifically deny that the bicyclist was 50 yards away from the car door, so clearly he was." Basically, I think you are imaginging far-fetched scenarios in which the cyclist was the aggressor. Imagining far-fetched scenarios in the name of skeptical inquiry pisses me off, by the way.
The other option is that you are implying that the bicyclist should not have pushed back until he was actually hit by the car door. This is less absurd, but I really don't believe that society has anything, overall, to gain from expecting people to react so passively toward those who are unable to watch where they are going.
The bottom line, for me, is that opening a passenger side car door without looking at what's outside of it is dangerous, selfish, and stupid, and people who do this deserve what they get. The cyclist in this case did not deserve what he got.
you're right, the cyclist did not deserve what he got- which was one punch in the face... he deserved a Rodney King urban ghetto BEATDOWN.
money has gone to far in Building these dam bike lanes...People that bike
should get a bike license and go thru an pay annual bike permitt fee's..
(give that idea to Mayor Greg Nickels) Its a good idea as he leaves
office
my newphew got killed in Chicago on a bike. His fault. More license
NOOOO!! His main mistake was doing this to a black person. Look at CM, 99% white kids, plus two gay, black messenger riders!
Clearly this cyclist forgot the golden rule. Real oppressed people don't give a shit about your tricycle wars. SEriously, file this one under 'Stuff White People Like"
1) How quickly was the passenger opening the door?
2) Where exactly were the cyclist and the car door positioned relative to one another when the passenger began to open the door?
3) Could the cyclist simply have moved to avoid the door? If so, how easily?
4) Did the passenger not realize there was a cyclist next to the door, or did she rudely and intentionally open the door into him?
One possible scenario: Passenger did not realize cyclist was there, passenger opened door slowly, cyclist was at least 18 inches away from the car and had room to his right to slide out of the way (probably not possible to roll forward or backward quickly enough). In this case, the cyclist was being a jerk by pushing the door closed. Whether he deserved to get punched is a separate issue.
Another possible scenario: Passenger does realize the cyclist is there but (thinking: fuck this fleece-wearing white motherfucker) opens the door assuming the cyclist will move, passenger opens the door quickly, cyclist is within 18 inches of the car, cyclist cannot slide to his right in time because of a high curb, mailbox, traffic sign, etc. is trapping him. In this case, the cyclist was in the right. Again, whether he still deserved to get punched is a separate issue.
I'm guessing that what happened was some kind of combo of the above two scenarios.
Without weighing in on the justice or lack thereof of the beating, I will say that cyclists who are concerned for their own safety should take into account whether or not they can fight before making contact with vehicles, regardless of whether they are in the legal or moral right.
What? I didn't say anything about the distance, except that in my point 1, I presumed cyclist was indeed within 3 feet of the door. Again, learn to read.
What far-fetched scenarios am I imagining, exactly? Here's what I think: you need to learn how to read.
How am I implying that? Again, learn to read.