Nuxx:4e334b24$0$2491$db0fefd9@news.zen.co.uk

Path: num2.nntp.dca.giganews.com!num1.nntp.dca.giganews.com!number.nntp.dca.giganews.com!border3.nntp.dca.giganews.com!border1.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!goblin2!goblin1!goblin.stu.neva.ru!feeds.phibee-telecom.net!dedekind.zen.co.uk!zen.net.uk!hamilton.zen.co.uk!prichard.zen.co.uk.POSTED!not-for-mail Message-ID: <4e334b24$0$2491$db0fefd9@news.zen.co.uk> From: Nuxx Bar  Newsgroups: uk.rec.cycling Subject: Re: Bexley driver "'severely embarrassed' after attack. Date: Sat, 30 Jul 2011 01:06:58 +0100 References:  <998b11F9raU1@mid.individual.net>  Lines: 28 User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.7; en-US; rv:1.9.2.18) Gecko/20110616 Thunderbird/3.1.11 MIME-Version: 1.0 In-Reply-To:  Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Organization: Zen Internet NNTP-Posting-Host: 716f71e4.news.zen.co.uk X-Trace: DXC=7WFIahTP82;G>2Zgg858V:0g@SS;SF6n7R9OH0:RnEN4\AH@4W On 26/07/2011 18:15, JNugent wrote: > >> Why do some cyclists fail to understand that "slapping" (ie, banging on >> the bodywork of) a motor vehicle can cause expensive damage and that it >> is bound to be seen and experienced as provocative and aggressive? > > Not that I've had need to do it, but I'd rather a slap the side of a car > or van if it stopped me getting knocked off or squashed. If that happens > to put in a small dent or scratch, it wouldn't be my intention but > tough. I drive my car respectfully around other road users, is it too > much to expect for other people to do the same?

If it's done as a genuine, necessary effort to prevent someone from knocking you off or squashing you then that's one thing. Of course your self-preservation is more important than any vehicle. But if it's done as a rebuke or "revenge" then it's taking the law into one's own hands and it's not on. No-one (not even a police officer) has the right to punish someone on the spot by deliberately damaging their property.

There's no doubt that some of the more extreme, psycholists, who consider all motoring to be antisocial, take perverse, warped, possibly even sexual pleasure from damaging cars. The police (the real police) should throw the book at them when they do such damage. Wasn't there one case a few years ago when a psycholist went round indiscriminately slashing the tyres of hundreds of cars? Such behaviour beggars belief. It's certainly true to say that such sick people give normal cyclists a
 * very* bad name.