richardmasoner

Regarding Michael Bryant's murder of cyclist Darcy Sheppard, this attorney said it's perfectly acceptable to kill the cyclist when he's holding on for dear life to your car.

Bah.

Azul the Cat

nice to see he has noticed us reading his article. It is an interesting situation. On one hand you have a motorist who is most likely scared for his safety/ life, as well as that of his wife the car. On the other hand you have a pissed of cyclist who just got hit by a car. Both parties seem to have gotten a little hot under the collar and acted hastily (which is understandable given the situation and adrenaline both were likely experiencing). Bottom line is the cyclist, Darcy Allan Sheppard, should have never grabbed hold of the car. Even if your bike was totaled and it cost you your life savings to buy it, it is never worth your life to grab hold of a car that is accelerating away from you. The motorist, Michael Bryant, once he saw Darcy clinging to his car he should have stopped let him let go, then speed away. I have to believe that Mr. Bryant, being of at least average intelligence, would have known what the end result of someone hanging on their car as they speed away.

the_don

I don't know.

After having your bike crushed by some prick in a convertable saab, who then looks nasty at you and tries to drive off, clinging onto the car might be one of those quick unthinking reactions that just happen.

From the accounts I have heard, the driver then started hitting things (and the person clinging to the car "MadMax style" sic. ).

That is just plain wrong!

Dr Fu Manchu

I agree that hanging on to a speeding car is a bad idea, unless you have some wicked ninja skils, or those things that batman had in Dark Knight.

But how stupid can you be to drive off while someone is hanging off your car. You have to be really stupid to think that you wont kill (or at least severely injure that person). I understand fearing for your life if the messenger had a gun (and we know that ALL messengers carry guns). But the guy got his bike run over, and is just pissed.

oldfixguy

When a mouse fights a gorilla the gorilla tends to be the one who walks away. I read a few articles about this and am not convinced the man's past is relevant to the situation that cost him his life. That said, there are indeed lessons here. A number of them. His behavior was well short of intelligent and the individual driving the automobile was under no legal or moral obligation to simply stop and see what else he was going to do. Now, I'm in no way implying that "he got what he deserved" but his personal behavior was his undoing. Of course it is a terrible and sad event but I feel just as bad for the driver. Hell, you grab onto my car like a maniac and I have my family in the car (I know that the driver had "only" his wife in the car) I assure you that "you" are my very last safety concern. As a matter of fact, I see you as affecting the health and well being of my family. I do believe I would end up paying the same price as the driver in this horrible scenario.

You get no points for being a cyclist as I am. You get points for behaving yourself.

Keep that in mind the next time you think it's your right to be an ass to someone driving a 3,500 lb hunk of steel powered by 100+ horses while you are on a 15 lb toy powered by 2 human legs. The gorilla is under no obligation to "take into consideration" that you are just a mouse when you are the one picking the fight. To the contrary, it is up to the mouse to see this is one he clearly cannot win.

Is that crappy? Does it suck? You bet it does. Get over it.

dsh

From what I've heard, it sounds like the cyclist shared a lot of the responsibility for this one.

If the guy is trying to drive off, write down his license plate. Chat up some witnesses.

All the cyclist had to do was realize a couple things:
1) His bike might be totaled, but that's pretty easily replaced by insurance or taking the guy to court.
2) Guy is fleeing the scene of an accident, which is pretty much admitting guilt in insurance cases.
3) Guy will most likely lose his license and worse for a hit and run.

So given the choice between taking the guy to court, getting a ton of cash, and probably sending the guy to jail... and trying to punch him in the face, the cyclsit went for door #2. Wrong choice.

oldfixguy

By the way, you can be assured the driver will be charged with manslaughter. Not murder. He'll do a maximum of 2 years in jail.

oldfixguy

I might have misread some of what I seen. Didn't the victim have 35+ warrants out for his arrest? He couldn't call the police. But, that's not really relevant.

bluegoatwoods

Well said.

I still think that the driver should pay a heavy price for what he did. But I'm not optimistic. The victim's behavior has added doubt that the defense should be able to make us of.

the_don

I saw a driver hit a school girl on her bike with lots of witnesses around. (on the main street next to Ostuka station.) The driver just sped away!

It happens a lot, I guess we just have to be talk to witnesses and hope someone can get the license plate down for you.

Of course jumping onto the car is a bad idea, but imagine you just got run over and are hyped on adrenaline. Not exactly a thinking clearly kinda situation. now imagine the guy tries to drive off. its a split second decision to jump onto it (thinking they will stop). But little do you realise, that decision makes the driver seem responsible for speeding up and trying to scrap you off????

The driver was the one in the wrong for just trying to drive off. If it had been another car, they would have to wait for the cops wouldn't they??

oldfixguy

the_don,

Give me a break with the "little girl" heart string tug crap. One has nothing to do with the other. Absolutely nothing. You're just digging at feelings. You know damn well the incredible leverage cyclists have in Tokyo and furthermore know beyond the shadow of any doubt that 50 people ran the 5 steps to the police box and reported the situation. No need to hope for anything and again, you damn well know it. Oh, and since you seen it happen why weren't you at the police box or talking to people or snapping your cell camera or any of a number of things that you could have done to be helpful.? Too busy "hoping" no doubt. Also, nothing on the news so far this evening and for a 3rd time you know damn well that a child on a bicycle struck outside a downtown train station like Otsuka by a hit and run driver would be news - even in big, bad Tokyo.

bluegoatwoods

Ummm.....did he say the car hitting the little girl happened today?

Fugazi Dave

**** Michael Bryant. Let him rot.

oldfixguy

bluegoatwoods,

To answer your question directly - no the_don did not. However, given the fact the overall thread is about a cyclist who was killed by a motorist (all other details aside) don't you find it to be in incredibly bad taste to bring it up otherwise? I guess I have to say that I'm being pretty hard on the_don but I take the use of children to make a point pretty hard. The reasons for making the story about a child are clear (it raises ire) and to make it sound believable that a car in front of Otsuka station somehow had the ability to speed away from anything (let alone after striking a child cyclist) at a time of day or night that a schoolgirl would still be on the streets requires one to assume an audience that has no idea exactly how impacted that area is. It's bull. I'm not saying that at some point in life an automobile driver did not hit a cyclist outside of Otsuka station but I am confidently and emphatically stating that if it was a schoolgirl that the trains were running and by definition that area of town was totally impacted. Not even a cockroach could get anywhere fast and if the cockroach didn't stop at the crosswalk sign his sorry ass would be reported to the police standing/sitting in a police box right outside the station by a veritable mob.

elTwitcho

Al was a friend of mine, a couple things;

1) No Al did not have "35+ warrants out for his arrest". No he did not have any warrants out for his arrest. Of note is that the politician who hit him has retained the services of a public relations consultant who is now working hard to smear the reputation of Al to make his client's actions look justifiable. Al's family does not have the resources or even the experience in the public arena to know how to defend him.

2) Al or his family don't even have the money to afford to bury him at this point. If someone hit his bike and ****ed it up, he wouldn't have the money to replace it, and wouldn't be able to go back to work the next day. I certainly wouldn't hold onto a car myself, but you can understand his desire to want the police to show up after an accident rather than allowing the scumbag who hit him to get away.

In Toronto if you call the cops on a car that hit you after the fact, they don't really care. Generally speaking, they'll side against you regardless of circumstances. I had an aquaintance almost get killed by a cab who ran a light, and while he was being loaded into an ambulance and they were saving his life, the cops took only the cab's side of the story, concluded that the cyclist had run the light as the cab had said and gave him a red light ticket in his hospital bed the next day. This city is **** for cyclists and for cycling

oldfixguy

elTwitcho,

So, Canadian police deliver misdemeanor moving violations to hospital beds. Wow. Service with a smile.

oldfixguy

ElTwitcho,

Unfortunately, and I have no intentions of beating this, the cyclist killed was wanted by Edmonton police for the last 7 years according to a number of news reports.

Fugazi Dave

So ****ing what? Read back a few posts. Not true, and even if it were, so ****ing what?

elTwitcho

Like I said, Bryant has started a concerted smear campaign against the guy so I'm not surprised little things like this are coming out. Tomorrow we'll probably hear that in 1997 he was removed from a movie theater for shouting at his girlfriend or some such nonsense...

I wasn't aware about Edmonton at any rate, but nonetheless he had no outstanding issues with Toronto police, and had apparently dealt with them only an hour before his death. I only bring that up because it's relevant to whoever had said "he had warrants and therefore would not want to deal with the police".

I don't really want to debate the guy's character, he was an incredibly welcoming and friendly individual who was one of the most genuinely positive people about biking and racing that I'd ever met. I just wanted to correct those two things I'd pointed out as I believed the information in there was wrong, beyond that I'm not saying anything other than he was a really awesome person and while I didn't know him super well he was one of those guys that you had to really like a lot and who treated everyone like they were a good friend.

jyossarian

Bryant and his wife had just left a restaurant where they had an anniversary dinner. Did anyone check Bryant's BAC? Why did Bryant leave the scene of an accident resulting in Sheppard grabbing onto the car?

Seems like this lawyer already jumped to his conclusion while cautioning other people not to do the same.

Flimflam

Yeah, this has no bearing on this incident, nor does it have any relevance to his contact with Toronto Police. In fact, it's reported that he was already in contact with police prior to this incident, and they clearly didn't arrest him. Irrelevant BS.

I knew Al, too - he was a good guy, pretty excitable but friendly and fun as hell, what happened to him, regardless of what events led upto it, was wrong and IMO, seems intentional (seriously, this guy is a former Attorney General, he's got the smarts to understand the implications of what he did).

This was a brutal act and it sucks that Al's past is being brought in to try and paint him into a caricature to help justify Bryant and his "fear". Bull-****ing-****.

RIP, Al.

Flimflam

Bryant is a smart cookie, he pulled into the Hyatt hotel, went to the bar and had a drink to "calm his nerves" while waiting for the police to show (he allegedly called the incident in, as well).

This frees him from any test, because he'd already stopped at the bar after, no police were on scene immediately to stop him, etc.

oldfixguy

Actually, I agree with Fugazi Dave. It really has nothing to do with the situation that cost the man his life and because the driver is a politician (1/2 a step above a child molester in my book) I do not doubt the assertion of smear campaign. I guess what I'm doing here - and it's not really my place - with my hard hitting posts is to keep a reasonable lid on this. This sort of thing could easily cause "us" to get our collective panties in a bunch and take that attitude to the streets with less than desirable results. We all know that on a very good day we are barely tolerated on the streets by most motorists and the ones that tolerate us do so because they don't actually see us. We start "taking this to the streets" and we will lose. The way we will lose is with our health and possibly with our lives.

This needs to be talked about for sure but it needs to be talked about with the hyperbole removed.

Mongoose441

I read that he Had already had dealings with the police that same night, If he were really wanted they would of Taken him then?

Bottom Line, The guy in the car was not some scared little idiot, He was at one time the attorney general. He knew exactly what he was doing.

He should of stopped and taking his ass whooping, but what he did in effect is pull a gun and shoot the guy. same thing.

Natural life in Jail is what he needs

NavigatorPR

It wasn't Bryant's Fault, he was scared.

That's what they have decided to go forward with.

It is a hard sell, we will see if they are up to it.

They have to convince the public that Micheal Bryant, a wealthy, successful past Attorney General, was scared, and fled, not knowing what he was doing, accidentally killing a guy he was scared of and fleeing to save his life.

Some things to consider, Michael Bryant is bigger than his "assailant". That isn't a big deal.

But what about the fact that Micheal Bryant is a trained boxer, skilled, who trains to this day and is extremely fit with a a grip described as "like Iron". He is also extremely aggressive, hence his success at such aggressive positions such as Attorney General, a job that takes more intellect and intestinal fortitude than an average man can muster. Changing that image of Mr. Bryant instead into the image of a frightened boy menaced by an aggressive assailant intent on harming him will not be easy. Especially as he "escaped" entirely unharmed himself.

What about witness accounts that confirm a loud confrontation between the two before the deadly incident. There was no fear in Mr Bryant then, or in the previous confrontation when the vehicle Mr. Bryant drove struck the bicycle ridden by his assailant.

Instead of simply punching out his "assailant" [read as "mutually combative aggressor"] as he is trained to do and very capably.

Instead of utilizing his advanced knowledge of law or his position as a member of the court to simply restrain and literallly arrest his "assailant".

Instead of shouting to the hundreds of bystanders for witness and assistance.

Instead of opening a dialogue with the smaller, less effective man he claims endangered him. (If a big powerful, wealthy and confident boxer stepped out of the car to discuss a disagreement, most anyone would choose that route if in the shoes of Mr Bryant's "assailant")

He choose instead of any of those to angrily use his powerful vehicle to batter the life out of a man by bashing his body against solid fixed objects on the sidewalk, at a rate of speed so great that construction workers just a few feet away could not get a model or make of the vehicle. And continue away at that speed when the body of his "assailant" was broken from the vehicle by a large mailbox mounted in concrete on the sidewalk.

He did that without regard for the safety of other road users and pedestrians on the sidewalk or construction workers on the road. I mean FAST on the sidewalk.

Even though he was deathly afraid of the bike courier, under the influence of the flight response, he had the wherewithal to call his lawyers and police seconds after leaving the scene.

Now the powerful boxer with a grip of iron wants to claim his assailant grabbed the wheel and bashed the life out of his own body before he could follow through with his intent of harming the feeble Bryant.

But when did the smaller, untrained, unsuccessful but otherwise terror inspiring man have the time or opportunity to plunge down the gas pedal for Mr. Bryant? Did the man with a grip of iron curl into a fetal position, accidentally hitting the gas while relinquishing the steering wheel?

That's after he went from loud and aggressive to frightened fleeing kitten.

The PR firm, located here https://www.navltd.com/homepage.html has a serious, serious amount of work to do.

Help them by ignoring the facts, ignoring the witness accounts, and otherwise acknowledging for them that the evil assailant has only himself to blame and that the embattled Bryant had no choice in his choices that day despite a lifetime of making successful choices, including fighting for legislation to curb dangerous driving.








https://www.navltd.com/homepage.html