Cyclists are regarded as soft targets because they rarely have any means to defend themselves, especially in California:
https://www.adventure-journal.com/20...reas-eastside/
If more cyclists would take responsibility for having the means to defend themselves from threats not just to the possession of their property, but the threats to their lives that were present in at least five verified incidents reported in the link above and by many other news sources, they wouldn't be so easily presumed to be the soft targets that they are.