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Students Accidentally Catch Cyclist Assault On Tape
Tuesday May 8, 2007
http://www.citynews.ca/news/news_10783.aspx
A group of students on a field trip in Toronto investigating the pros and cons of public surveillance cameras ended up catching a slice of big city street hostility on their own cameras Tuesday.
The Grade 12 students caught a road rage incident between a driver and a cyclist on tape, and could play a key rule in the meting out of justice after turning their evidence over to police.
The kids' mini-cam was pointed at the scene near Queen and Bay when the driver on four wheels got into a dispute with a cyclist on two. As the students watched in disbelief, they saw the motorist get out of his still idling car, approach the cyclist and punch him boldly in the face. He pushed the stunned bike owner onto the sidewalk where the assault appeared to continue for several more moments.
Apparently the driver was enraged that the cyclist, who lost a tooth in the attack, had stopped at a yellow light and blocked him from going through.
"I'm going to pray for that guy, you know, because why he did it, I don't know. Maybe he's sick. Maybe he needs help," bike rider Andre Sokol said after he was assaulted.
Allison Mann, the media teacher at Ursula Franklin Academy, was with her charges when the incident took place. "We're on a field trip with about 40 students and looking at public and private space in Toronto. It's ironic this happened this morning because each group had a video camera."
"Surveillance is a hot-button issue in the media, so one of the things we're looking at is the usefulness of cameras. So it's interesting that they caught this on tape," she adds.
Mann, who gets rave reviews from her pupils on "Rate My Teacher.com", claims she's proud her students kept rolling and capturing clear images of the incident. A copy of that tape is now in the possession of Toronto Police. It will eventually be used as evidence in court.
"Initially when the cop came over, he didn't look like he would have believed him," said Gabriele, one of the students on the trip. "With video footage, you can't deny it any more. It's right in front of your face."
Crazy!! But why did the cyclist pick his bike up? It looked like he was going to swing the bike around and hit the car driver.. or was going to go on the sidewalk? Crazy shiet though...
every other article ive read about this tries to pawn it off as a sob story, not because a cyclist was attacked, but because the victim is a cancer patient.
Oh shit, I am sorry, I posted about this here:
http://midnightridazz.com/forums.php?topicId=640&pgnum=1
I should have checked the forum first.
Anyway, what I said in my forum post was:
"Can we get a crew together to put up some sort of reporting website for shit like this? Monica at the LACBC has talked to me about it, Stephen Box has talked about this, Lars who runs Bikeboom has brought this up to me a bunch of times, and other people I've spoken with (dozens) want to see something like this to exist in L.A.
When and where should we meet to figure out what sort of site to create, what to call it, and how to divvy up work and get a site built?"
I'd love to help on the layout of a site, I am not too l337 at coding skillz.
I see people throwing around whens, wheres, and hows for getting a website made.
Well, I am saying lets do it the Second Week of June. Arbitrary date, but it is soon enough.
Lets pick a day, organize a ride to a location, such as a restraunt that we have called beforehand (unless somebody wants to voulenteer their livingspace), and we can hold a roundtable discussion to discuss who is going to Host, code, plan, layout, and maintain the site.
As for a url, do we want to go with a regional name (LA) or have a general site for nation (world?) wide access, and then break it down from there, database style, or some other way?
I think a more widespread page would be better, but then it would need to be that much more ready for heavy traffic should it take off.
I know this is a bit off topic, but this is he first thing you tube thought to associate it with on my computer...
back on topic...
aye a registry is a good idea, the biggest problem i forsee is getting people aware of such a registry, there has been one for stolen bikes for a long time, yet most people don't even know about it (it's http://www.stolenbicycleregistry.com/ ). Hell, I'd bet most police depts don't even know it exists (or they probably don't care).
Hi Sparky... what do you think about The CYCLIST Self Defense spray? This one comes w/ the spray and holster. Is this strong enough? I don't know much about pepper sprays. Thanks in advance...
We don't need a national registry. We need a resource to allow us to work as a community to cover each other's asses when our rides get stolen, we get run over, hit, beat up for no reason, or harassed.
I think that an L.A. based site is the best bet, with a few folks helping to keep new posts rolling, and making sure our hook-ups with the local PD and politicians are in good shape.
User accounts should allow someone to post pics of their bikes, in case the get stolen. It should also serve as a way for us to aggregate stories about people hitting and killing cyclists so that we can act collectively to fix streets and organize to make conditions better for cyclists in this region.
Posting a phone number to spur law enforcement into action, with an accurate story, with pictures, about someone getting run over by a driver will do a lot to change the law enforcement climate in L.A.
This type of thing works! In a city with only 9,000 cops, the LAPD has 3, count 'em 3, detectives (that is a lot o' detectives) assigned to animal abuse cases! Animal abuse! I love animals, but that is a lot of detectives for a city of 3 million with only 9,000 cops.
We get ignored, and our interests get ignored, by the police and by local politicians.
If you want to help put this together - please email me at ubrayj02@yahoo.com or come to the Spoke(n) Art Ride this Saturday night.
here's an idea for the registry I was cooking up today. lets say you get assaulted and you have witnesses... you get the license number... you find out who the person is.... armed with this info, a legal representative can then mail the offender with a letter stating that they are about to be turned in to the police for assault and a civil liability case. At this point the offender is given a choice... decide to allow the civil case to move forward which would involve punitive damages possibly ranging into the thousands based on how severe the assault was, OR they can choose the option to donate a sum of money (maybe $500) to a worthy bicycle charity or perhaps to fund the registry itself. The lawyer would present the letter to the offender on behalf of the cyclist who could even be anonymous if they so wish.
this in addition to having their name and address registered in the database. what ya think?
this is just a small thing i could add, but i've got access to a program that could map all intersections/address where assaults occur. it help could identfy hot zones and create an easy visual. on my computer it's interactive and the dots on the maps "pop" information up when you scroll over it. i'm not sure how it would translate in a website, but just an idea.
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Ridazz Roulette!
Hi Sparky... what do you think about