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Gehr 1.
Gehr 1. Sendmail

Hate Crime......I think so!

posted about 2 years ago | Report

I've been cycling for many years now, 26, and raced for most of them and this has been a topic of discussion for awhile now. It first started when talking to a friend of mine, lesbian, who said "you don't know what it's like to be a target of people's hatred" I said, actually I do!

What cyclist hasn't had stuff thrown at them, yelled at, car doors open on them, cars swerving at them, bottles broken on the road in front of them, spit at..........etc. If you haven't, count yourself lucky!

This is the current definition for hate crimes "criminal offense against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by an offender's bias against a race, religion, disability, ethnic origin or sexual orientation."

I feel it lacks somewhat, in that, no one can tell ethnicity of a cyclist nor should it matter and we have every legal right to use the road (obeying traffic laws etc of course). And in no way would I diminish the hatred other minorities have to endured but feel cyclist are, at the time, a visible minority. Shouldn't we have the ability to have attackers charged under the hate crime law?

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  • Stephanie Y.
    Stephanie Y. Sendmail

    Gah, I hate the term "hate crime." A crime is a crime is a crime.

    But not to get in a political discussion here, I'll stop there.

    Luckily, since we do have a legal right to use the road, we do have recourse within the normal set up of the justice system. Maybe we should just use it more?

    posted about 2 years ago

  • Gehr 1.
    Gehr 1. Sendmail

    I understand what you mean but don't you think if someone goes out of their way to target someone and say, hits them with their car as oppose to just accidently hitting them, the charge should be much harsher? There was a guy in L.A. that had 3 separate incidences against cyclists, wouldn't that meet the criteria?

    I feel bicycle advocacy groups need to focus less on infrastructure and more on rights and education, it's no use having bike lanes and paths if it's too dangerous to use them!

    posted about 2 years ago

  • Stephanie Y.
    Stephanie Y. Sendmail

    3 strikes you're out?

    I just think all crimes are intentional.

    posted about 2 years ago

  • Pam R.
    Pam R. Sendmail

    Like Stephanie, I also find the idea of "hate crime" distasteful. I think all intentional crime is based on hate. Why isn't rape a hate crime? ANYWAY....

    I do completely agree with your final point that advocacy groups do need to spend some time and some of their grant money on educating people on cyclists' rights. It is weird how much animosity there is from people who don't ride towards people who do. Weird and scary.

    posted about 2 years ago

  • Daniel W.
    Daniel W. Sendmail

    I understand how you feel, but I think "Hate Crime" is an extremely dangerous term. It implies we derive our rights from belonging to a certain group. As a result, those "rights" can differ depending what group you belong to. True rights, however--the right to life, liberty, and property--are derived from our Creator who gives them to us because we are individuals. Each of us are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights. Whenever any of these rights are violated, by anyone, by any means, by any motivation, it is a crime.

    posted about 2 years ago | edited about 2 years ago

  • Kim D.
    Kim D. Sendmail

    I'm not so sure I'd say it was a "hate crime" but you can definitely file charges against these people for other offenses. Get the license plate number and call the police. If more people did that the word would spread to leave bikers and runners alone! They are just slobs that are jealous.

    posted about 2 years ago

  • Gehr 1.
    Gehr 1. Sendmail
    in reply to what Kim D. said:I'm not so sure I'd say it was a "hate crime" but you can definitely file charges against these people for other offenses. Get the license plate number and call the police. If more people did that the word would spread to leave bikers ... read more

    I don't think the term "hate crime" is inappropriate or distasteful and rape does have it's own laws regarding that most disgusting crime (although I think the punishment should be castration to the sick bastards) but at one time there wasn't such laws for women that were raped.

    Cycling is one of the only sports where the athlete needs to be with the general public to train, therefore I think some extra protection is needed.

    And that's the problem Kim, the police don't care, the courts don't care. Most driver's that kill a cyclist get minimal, if any, jail time! I have yet to hear of an appropriate sentence for one of these driver's!

    posted about 2 years ago

  • Greg S.
    Greg S. Sendmail

    I'm not a lawyer but my first question is "Has it been tried?" Somewhere there's an ambulance chaser waiting for this idea to pop into their head.

    Next time someone "doors" you or swerves in front of you get their plate. Call a lawyer. Listen to what they say. Don't be surprised if you don't generate interest. We cyclists don't generate near the press that "real minorities" generate.

    Next time someone "does something." Get their plate, stop at the next payphone and call the cops with the plate and tell the cops they tried to sell you dope and it scared you really bad. You might also want to carry a spare bike chain and keep it handy.

    posted about 2 years ago

  • Jules C.
    Jules C. Sendmail

    I was out with the club ride this past Sunday and I had a close one when a car buzzed me while merging left. I did everything I was supposed to do (signal, no sudden changes) but I guess trusting the car to slow down a bit was unsafe. The guy nearly clipped my elbow when I felt the car zip by me. All the riders who were behind me thought I was road kill.
    I'm glad to be alive. Anywhoo, lesson learned; don't trust cars to do the right thing.

    It's pretty hard filing police reports on cars when you don't have the time to catch their license plate. Even when you do, the best the police can do is file it as a complaint and hope they have more of that jerk. I going to side with some of the replies that crimes are crimes. It's a slippery slope when the law starts defining one crime from the other, specially "hate crimes". I advocate bicycling rights and education, but you can't reach those who don't want to learn. The best we could do is push for laws and being defensive when on the road.

    posted about 2 years ago | edited about 2 years ago

  • Gehr 1.
    Gehr 1. Sendmail

    I agree and in 26 years of riding I've never been hit, (by a car at least) so I must be pretty defensive. It's the BB gun shots, rocks, cigarettes, bottles, apple cores, grapes, a waffle with syrup (on Dec. 24th Merry Xmas Asshole!), diaper (the most disgusting so far), paint ball and other unknowns, that make me feel there needs to be anti-harassment laws for every state, I know Louisiana just passed one, why not everywhere?

    Accidents happen but many a cyclist has died from something other then a mistake!

    posted about 2 years ago

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