Witness appeal for road rage cyclist who punched female passenger through moving car window

If the car was moving as the report says, and the cyclist could land a punch on the passenger, was it passing too close? Not that it excuses the assault, but it sounds pretty odd.

There is no excuse for punching anyone. Man, woman, it doesn't matter. This, if it happened, because remember we don't know what happened yet, is assault, pure and simple. It doesn't matter what came before.

It doesn't matter that the passenger was a woman.

Now, if the woman assaulted the cyclist first, by throwing something at him, or punching him as the car went past -- things that I know have happened to other cyclists -- then she should also be dealt with for assault. Perhaps a court may decide that would be a mitigating factor.

However, right now we have insufficient information to come to any conclusions. There's no video to look at here.

Sam

Wow, there's some short term memory in this thread. This is the kind of shite being written in the Standard about the Bexley assault - comments basically stating "oh, well, the cyclist must have done something to cause the driver to punch him" etc.

farrell - It absolutely does not matter what happened before - assault is wrong, no question. And not only that, we're talking about a man punching a woman - call me old fashioned, but in my book that makes him an even bigger piece of s**t...

Props to LondonCalling for the posts above!

Again.. Assault, and you can disregard what has happened prior. There is no excuse for stopping your vehicle either 2 or 4 wheels, and punching someone. Given the victim was a woman then it brings in a whole new set of ethics.

Does it matter if anthyng happened previous to the assault?????? I can't believe I'm reading these comments!!! Do you think that those thugs in Bexley got out of their car to punch a cyclists because they didn't like his clothes or his face???? Something DID happen before the incident ("I remonstrated w/the driver" but we don't know exactly what words were said, do we?), that's bleeding obvious, but nobody questioned that in the forum, b/c the victim was a cyclist. So when the perpetrator is one of our own, we look for justifications???? C'mon!!! We are better than that!

I don't give a shit why this happened. I had wanted to punch a lot of drivers, scratch their cars, throw a D-lock through their windscreens, but I stopped myself b/c I'm not a freaking thug! And this guy is, end of story. You don't punch people, full stop.

And don't get me started on the fact that it was a woman who was punched.....

There are inherently aggressive people who ride bikes, and inherently aggressive people who drive cars. But, in my experience, only cars can cause normally mild-mannered people to act aggressively. Something to do with the sensation of power, feeling of invulnerability at least in urban environments, and extension of the private realm into public spaces. None of which excuses this individual, but it is worth remember if this gets picked up by media organisations that have previously reported on the Bexley incident and would seeking to use this incident to provide "balance."

Quote:

A male cyclist wearing a white helmet, white cycling top with black stripe down the back, black shorts

Good job Cavendish and Mark "Head-butt" Renshaw have a pretty good alibi.

Agreed that this sounds like the tail end of the incident rather than the whole thing. Inexcusable though whatever happened before.

I'm not condoning whats happened but this bit: "said to have then thrown his bike to the ground before approaching the car. He then remounted and rode off in the direction of the High Street" leads me to believe there was probably a bit of previous.

Again, I'm not trying to justify what he has done or anything I just think that perhaps the "innocent party" may not be completely innocent, but then I'm just going off what I have read.