Enough whining bull****, here's a story

On Wed, 11 Sep 2013 12:36:46 -0500, jnugent
wrote:

On 11/09/2013 11:32, Mrcheerful wrote:

Two cyclists just couldn't let it go, went back for a fight with
youngsters and lost.

http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news...-shard-5910747

The main participant seems to have been one Tiffany Crockett.

Is Shard End a bit of a wild frontier?

Cars seem to be parked in curious places.
http://goo.gl/maps/WEI7E
http://goo.gl/maps/U6oAE
http://goo.gl/maps/uJ9Bs
http://goo.gl/maps/zXKEz
http://goo.gl/maps/jzmDV
http://goo.gl/maps/fQuD1
http://goo.gl/maps/TrNJR
http://goo.gl/maps/OROmD
http://goo.gl/maps/MmqoI
http://goo.gl/maps/osgqR
http://goo.gl/maps/z6UWf
http://goo.gl/maps/RKsqJ
http://goo.gl/maps/25kbH

Is this sort of parking on public open space legal?

There are no yellow lines along the side of the road, and while I feel
that on-street garaging of cars should not be permitted, it is, and
that would seem to me to be a more appropriate place for parked
vehicles.

On 11/09/2013 17:21, Bertie Wooster wrote:

jnugent wrote:
On 11/09/2013 11:32, Mrcheerful wrote:

Two cyclists just couldn't let it go, went back for a fight with
youngsters and lost.

http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news...-shard-5910747

It really doesn't look as though it had all that much to do with cycling.
Just one group of chavs scrapping with another.

There is nothing in that report which suggests to me that Mr and Mrs
Brady were louts (my interpretation of your racist term "chavs").

*Apart* from the fact that Mrs Brady is said to have grabbed the hair of
Ms Crockett and slapped her in the face, you mean?

"Chav" is certainly not racist. It is a class descriptor, not a racial one.

As they cycled by, they may well have felt it their civic duty to
challenge the offensive behaviour apparently displayed by the three
young women.

Even if the non-cyclists had "started it", when did performance of civic
duties start to tolerate (or even require) confrontational assault?

I must have missed that change in the law.

The pulling of the girl's hair and punching her face by Mrs Brady does
not appear, from the news report, to have been a criminal act, and
therefore self defence.

It *is* a criminal act. At the very least (I know you are thinking of
distinctions between various levels of assault), it would be assault
occasioning bodily harm. You cannot strike an adult in the face without
causing some harm, even if it's just a cut lip or a black eye.

My advice: don't persist with this. You're on very thin ice.

In particular, don't be tempted to test out your theory that it's
acceptable to grab the hair of a stranger and slap them in the face.
You'll find that it is not.

But I assume much, and cannot know for sure, but I certainly would not
want to label Mr and Mrs Brady as "chavs" (or even louts) on the
evidence from that report.

Given the evidence, I can't see any other reasonable conclusion.

QUOTE:
Timothy Cray, prosecuting at Birmingham Crown Court, said in the course
of the struggle, when they ended up on the ground, Mrs Brady had grabbed
hold of the teenager’s hair and may have hit her in the face.

The defendant responded by biting the victim’s ring finger on her left
hand with “very great force”.
ENDQUOTE

Fancy retaliating for something as trivial as having your hair grabbed
hold of and a mere blow to the face, eh?

They sound well-matched.

Don't they?

On 11/09/2013 17:39, Bertie Wooster wrote:
On Wed, 11 Sep 2013 12:36:46 -0500, jnugent
wrote:

On 11/09/2013 11:32, Mrcheerful wrote:

Two cyclists just couldn't let it go, went back for a fight with
youngsters and lost.

http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news...-shard-5910747

The main participant seems to have been one Tiffany Crockett.

Is Shard End a bit of a wild frontier?

Cars seem to be parked in curious places.

It looks like a council estate.

http://goo.gl/maps/WEI7E
http://goo.gl/maps/U6oAE
[snip]

Is this sort of parking on public open space legal?

It certainly is in (the actually, very similar) Rochester Way west of
the Well Hall roundabout.

There are no yellow lines along the side of the road, and while I feel
that on-street garaging of cars should not be permitted, it is, and
that would seem to me to be a more appropriate place for parked
vehicles.

Each to his own.

And while we're about it: Whoosh.

On 11/09/2013 22:46, Mentalguy2k8 wrote:

"brianrob1961" wrote in message
...
On 11/09/2013 17:32, Mrcheerful wrote:
Two cyclists just couldn't let it go, went back for a fight with
youngsters and lost.

http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news...-shard-5910747



You really should try cycling for a while and see the abuse that we
endure just for being where we are on a bike and then see if you want
to go back.

According to the criteria laid down by your predecessors, you spend the
majority of your travelling time in a motorised vehicle, therefore you
are a motorist. You're not part of the "we cyclists" minority,
especially since you admit that you hardly cycle any more.

Right! I get you. So riding a bike doesn't class me as a cyclist. I
didn't know that.

On Wed, 11 Sep 2013 17:54:15 -0500, jnugent
wrote:

On 11/09/2013 17:39, Bertie Wooster wrote:
On Wed, 11 Sep 2013 12:36:46 -0500, jnugent
wrote:

On 11/09/2013 11:32, Mrcheerful wrote:

Two cyclists just couldn't let it go, went back for a fight with
youngsters and lost.

http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news...-shard-5910747

The main participant seems to have been one Tiffany Crockett.

Is Shard End a bit of a wild frontier?

Cars seem to be parked in curious places.

It looks like a council estate.

http://goo.gl/maps/WEI7E
http://goo.gl/maps/U6oAE
[snip]

Is this sort of parking on public open space legal?

It certainly is in (the actually, very similar) Rochester Way west of
the Well Hall roundabout.

Here?
http://goo.gl/maps/WheQa

While I can certainly see similarities, in the case you cite, parking
on the public open space appears to be actively encouraged, and even
legal within certain boundaries.

This is quite disgraceful parking on the same road:
http://goo.gl/maps/wfJ40

There are no yellow lines along the side of the road, and while I feel
that on-street garaging of cars should not be permitted, it is, and
that would seem to me to be a more appropriate place for parked
vehicles.

Each to his own.

And while we're about it: Whoosh.

"brianrob1961" wrote in message
...

According to the criteria laid down by your predecessors, you spend the
majority of your travelling time in a motorised vehicle, therefore you
are a motorist. You're not part of the "we cyclists" minority,
especially since you admit that you hardly cycle any more.

Right! I get you. So riding a bike doesn't class me as a cyclist. I didn't
know that.

Oh yes, if you cycled everywhere but hit a pedestrian while on your annual
10-minute car drive, you'd be a motorist. Or motorscum, or whatever the term
is this week.

Similarly, if you got *off* your bike to assault someone, you'd be a
pedestrian unless you owned a car and then you'd be a motorscum. But if you
got off your bike and got assaulted, you'd be a cyclist.

All established by precedent in this group.

On 12/09/2013 11:05, Mentalguy2k8 wrote:

"brianrob1961" wrote in message
...

According to the criteria laid down by your predecessors, you spend the
majority of your travelling time in a motorised vehicle, therefore you
are a motorist. You're not part of the "we cyclists" minority,
especially since you admit that you hardly cycle any more.

Right! I get you. So riding a bike doesn't class me as a cyclist. I
didn't know that.

Oh yes, if you cycled everywhere but hit a pedestrian while on your
annual 10-minute car drive, you'd be a motorist. Or motorscum, or
whatever the term is this week.

Similarly, if you got *off* your bike to assault someone, you'd be a
pedestrian unless you owned a car and then you'd be a motorscum. But if
you got off your bike and got assaulted, you'd be a cyclist.

All established by precedent in this group.

Just to clear this up, can we make a distinction between what I do for a
living and what I do in 'me' time?

At work I drive a couple of hundred miles a day.

Away from work I probably do more miles on a bike than on any other form
of transport, though I also use the bus, walk, occasionally get a lift
and as a last resort drive myself.

On 12/09/2013 16:12, brianrob1961 wrote:

Just to clear this up, can we make a distinction between what I do for a
living and what I do in 'me' time?

At work I drive a couple of hundred miles a day.

Away from work I probably do more miles on a bike than on any other form
of transport, though I also use the bus, walk, occasionally get a lift
and as a last resort drive myself.

So unless your annual air mileage exceeds a couple of hundred miles a
day on average (say 50,000 pa), you are first and foremost a driver.

On 12/09/2013 22:53, jnugent wrote:
On 12/09/2013 16:12, brianrob1961 wrote:

Just to clear this up, can we make a distinction between what I do for a
living and what I do in 'me' time?

At work I drive a couple of hundred miles a day.

Away from work I probably do more miles on a bike than on any other form
of transport, though I also use the bus, walk, occasionally get a lift
and as a last resort drive myself.

So unless your annual air mileage exceeds a couple of hundred miles a
day on average (say 50,000 pa), you are first and foremost a driver.


Amazing! I am being chased around by a **** arguing over whether someone
who rides a bike can call himself a cyclist.

"jnugent" wrote in message ...

On 12/09/2013 16:12, brianrob1961 wrote:

Just to clear this up, can we make a distinction between what I do for a
living and what I do in 'me' time?

At work I drive a couple of hundred miles a day.

Away from work I probably do more miles on a bike than on any other form
of transport, though I also use the bus, walk, occasionally get a lift
and as a last resort drive myself.

So unless your annual air mileage exceeds a couple of hundred miles a
day on average (say 50,000 pa), you are first and foremost a driver.

And thus by his own reasoning, a "motorscum" who deserves to die a painful
death, perhaps?