Let's move away from the "racism" angle. There is no direct evidence ... but for the conspiracy theorists, a lack of evidence the the best evidence .... so no point in debating.

Those iof us who have seen prejudice in action up close and personal and also at a slight remove, don't need to exaggerate or imagine ... but you cannot fix what's wrong by misdiagnosis.

By the standard that you just set up here, the institutional racism is against the white kid. Your brown 51 yo man beat a woman so bad, she almost died. The brown man got out of jail awaiting sentencing. The white 18 yo teenager engaged in vigilante justice, was promptly arrested and bail was set high enough that he did not get out of jail while awaiting trial.
Additionally there were other circumstances considered by the judge that you have chosen to ignore.

While we are stereotyping entire nations, let me ask what happened to our Irish friend. Did he pass out drunk?

Or maybe if he had painted the pipe white? This is so tricky .... :D

While I would not be unhappy if the guy had gotten a longer sentence, in terms of the vast anf much worse injustices happening every day, this one is not hard to swallow.

if the guy hadn't been riding a bicycle none of us would have heard about this. if the kid had run down the guy while he was walking, we would have had a vastly different initial impression.

As it stands, I am not real sorry that there is one less woman-beater on the streets. And since ht driver clearly Only committed the crime (a serious crime, to be sure) to remove a woman-beater who abused his mother, from the population ... i am fairly certain that he will not re-offend.

Since there is nothing I can do to change any of this, I will simply accept it. There are a Lot worse things happening all the time anyway ... swallowing this one will not be that hard.

As for the crime, I can only hope this person never drives again.

Since this thread is already way off topic....we should probably make it a helmet thread as well. Here is the perps car that I was able to find on a news site.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...4737b2ceb2.png

I'm Irish, and not offended by ^this. Try harder! :thumb:

I don't get offended by redneck jokes. Hell, sometimes they give me some good ideas.

Say what? Two-years for a murder? What was that judge thinking? That driver should be in jail for a LONG time and this judge needs to be removed from both the bench and the bar.

Did you read the whole thread?

Did you not read in my first post after being gone for so long that I do NOT have RELIABLE access to The Internet? Plus for reasons that I have already explained in the past, and that I do not feel like going over again. I read and reply to posts in order.

Because my Internet connection is more stable this morning, I've been able to read more of the thread. And I agree with those who have said that NO matter what the cyclist was accused of having done. It does NOT excuse the young mans actions. This is/was NOT a case of self-defense or even defense of another. This is/was a case of murder.

In the society that we live in we have rules/laws, and part of that is that we are NOT allowed to take the law into our own hands. And I stand by my initial response. This individual needs to spend a lot more time behind bars, and the judge who handed out such a light sentence needs be removed from the bench and the bar.

@Digital_Cowboy, you sound like a very angry person. Hard to tell over the internet.

In any case, glad to have another BF vet (and U.S. vet) back posting.

Actually, it does not. It may satisfy a curiosity, but in fact, its totally irrelevant to the crimes committed: 1) Murder, and 2) vigilantism. A weak DA if I ever saw one.

I agree with you fully. This person needs to spend a LONG time behind bars for what he did. Also the judge should not have ignored the sentencing guidelines either.

Actually, no I'm not. It's just that cases like this bother me.

This story is only relevant to cyclists that already have or intend to beat someone nearly to death with a pipe. I'm good.

This guy gives really the lead pipe industry a bad name. Not fair to them.

This, over and over. I hate to agree with @JoeyBike ( ;) ) but this is So horribly lacking. I cannot count how many times I have heard idiots blurt out "I know my rights" when they can barely spell "U.S.A." without consulting their "smart" phones, which they are all too dumb to actually use.

We don't have a perfect system, but if used properly, it could be a pretty darned good system ... but if the users are cheats and idiots, no system will work. Thing is, the idiots blame the system, and not the idiots and the cheats. Maybe if people had a clue how things Could work and were Designed to work, they'd spend their energy Making things work instead of whining because everyone else doesn't do everything to make those whiners happy all the time.

Or Maybe we need to develop a virus that attacks stupid and dishonest people .....

Oh, sorry this was supposed to be about bicycles.

I plan to ride my bike later this evening.

OK, my day has been MADE. I finally won the Internet for one day. :thumb:

And what happens when the person that is the subject of your "frontier justice" turns out to be totally innocent? You are aware that sadly the legal system far too often convicts innocent people of crimes that they did NOT commit, and even worse have been convicted of crimes that NEVER happened in the first place.

We have the Constitution for a reason, and that reason is to protect the RIGHTS of EVERYONE. The ACCUSED as well as the INNOCENT.

As much as it pains me to do so, but I have to agree with Joey Bike. Something that does not happen all that often.