January 27th, 2006
Road rage in Kensington
By Matthew Blackett // No Comments
photos by Adam Krawesky
Spacing contributor and photoblogger Adam Krawesky of www.inconduit.com is everywhere in this city. On Tuesday, he captured a confrontation between an aggressive car-owner and a cyclist, something rarely seen on camera, but a regular occurrence all over the city.
According to Adam, the story goes like this: Motorist throws food out of window; Courier riding by picks up food and throws food back in car; Motorist dumps coffee on courier; Courier scratches car with key. And then the sequence of photos.
You can find all of the images of the altercation on the CityNoise.org website.
I think the most interesting aspect of Adam's photos is the 100-plus comments on who is to blame. While most are sympathetic to the female courier, some dislike the righteousness of throwing food back into the car, while others think she did nothing wrong at all. Others note that the actions of the motorist are considered physical assault, while her responses never endangered the dude. Some wished she used the U-lock, tucked into the back of her pants, to ward off the angry mofo.
UPDATE: The courier in question posted the accurate version of the story. It is pasted below:
...Although I am a courier, I was WALKING my bike up Augusta when the incident took place. He was driving and opened his door (while driving) and yelling profanities he threw his beef patty on a bun out of his door. I walked over to his car, and right or wrong, I opened the door and "gave" him back his food (which he MUST have dropped by accident!) He then lost it, and jumped out of his car and threw 2 large Timmies at meand then grabbed me by my helmet and tried to toss me around a bit.It was at that point that my bike lock key (that I wear on a bracelet around my wrist) scratched his car. I have read all the postings about people sympathetic to the car driver due to the expense of repairing the scratch but sorry folks, i doubt that it will cost him anything to repair as it was a 1.2cm mark in the clearcoat only(did not damage the paint) but regardless a scratch none the less. Then with some "encouraging" from some helpfull bystanders he got in his car and drove away...or so I thought! People were comming up to me and saying that I should have him charged but at that point I just figured I had made my anti-littering point and and eye for and eye with the coffee shower, I mean I did throw that patty right. But just as I was getting on my bike to ride home he came running back and thats when the photos start. He had driven half a block and decided that the scratch was worthy of a more thorough beating I guess.
And as for the police charging him.... He took off in his car as soon as he heard the sirens....they chased him down but it is not a crime to leave the scene. They were going to charge him with a variety of things including assult with a weapon x2, mischief x2, aggravated assault, etc, but the police informed me that if I went ahead and placed those charges then they would have to charge me with mischeif for the scratch.
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