At approximately 9:30 PM on Saturday, August 3, Alex Thomson, age 17 was
assaulted while riding a unicycle in Port Elgin. (2.5 hours north of Toronto
on Lake Huron - in Canada) He was riding down a slopped, abrasive concrete
sidewalk when the alleged criminal, a blond, white male, aged 15 pushed Mr.
Thomson from behind.
The unplanned dismount that ensued resulted in medium-sized, bloody
abrasions on each knee. Twelve hours after the incident occurred, each knee
was stiff and had swelled slightly. The matter is still under investigation
by local authorities. (It actually isn’t, but all crime reports end with
something like that)
…Anyway, so after he pushed me off, I got up and yelled at him for a
couple minutes. He seemed surprised that I had fallen off and hurt myself so
he didn’t run away. In any case, I resisted the urge to resort to physical
violence and, after a couple minutes of yelling him about assault and going
to jail and being fined etc.etc. etc. I walked away until I was out of sight
and then rode back to my cottage.
If this should ever happen again I’ll definitely ask for his or her name
as well as phone the police. Phoning the police would actually be fairly
effective since - despite the minor nature of my injuries - the Port Elgin
economy is largely driven by tourism and crime on the large public beach
definitely doesn’t help to draw visitors.
So has this happened to anyone else? What did (or would) you do?
Well today someone tried to kill me while I was unicycling. I was on the final leg of my new unicycling route and was working the hill. The road had a bike lane but no sidewalk so I was pedaling along in it. I heard a car coming up behind me and I turned my head to look as I do by habit. Lucky my odd fear of people trying to run me over paid off. The car swerved into the bike lane and I was forced off the road. I managed to stay on the unicycle and ended up riding through someones lawn. The cars tires came abit onto the lawn and swerved back onto the road as the driver laid down on the horn. I hit a bump of sorts in the lawn and fell off the unicycle before I could get the liscense plate. It was a frightening experience. Luckily, I am unscathed.
I carry a large can of bear stray and a bad chip on both shoulders.
“phil” <phil.8yf6s@timelimit.unicyclist.com> wrote in message news:phil.8yf6s@timelimit.unicyclist.com…
>
> Nasty…
>
> Reminds me of whoever posted the thing about someone driving past and
> shouting “fall!”, and them shouting back “wreck!”, and they did…
>
> I’ve not been assaulted while on the uni, but I’ve had my fair share of
> verbal abuse. 'Tis a shame…
>
> Phil, just me
>
>
> –
> phil - I meant to fall off like that, ok?
>
> “Cattle Prods solve most of life’s little problems.”
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> phil’s Profile: http://www.unicyclist.com/profile/915
> View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/19689
>
I was ambushed by a bloke with a high powered water pistol which drenched me. I was pretty pissed off but he was in a garden full of blokes with beer cans, so I just rode off.
It’s a shame that many people assume that someone on a uni is trying to attrect attention and is worthy of assault, physical or verbal.
In my case I’m on a uni cos I love riding uni’s, and when something like this happens I console myself with the thought that most of the time riding is a lot of fun, and that the small minded idiots who shout abuse are clearly lacking that spark of joy in their lives. Feel sorry for them!
Once this kid who was probably about 5 years old picked up a rock and hauled it at me. When his mom grabbed him to punish him, he said, “It’s okay, Mom; I was throwing it at the guy on the unicycle.” As if this kid thought I wasn’t a person, or as if I rode it for his own destructive entertainment.
-gauss
> he didn’t run away. In any case, I resisted the urge to
> resort to physical violence and,
> If this should ever happen again I’ll definitely ask for
> his or her name as well as phone the police.
> So has this happened to anyone else? What did (or would)
> you do?
If you are assaulted, the first thing you should do is resist physical
violence. That would basically “even you up” in the eyes of the law. The
second thing is to file a police report. If the perpitrator is dumb enough
to give you his or her name, get that as well.
My advice is to avoid having the guy do this to you in the first place. Did
he sneak up and do it unprovoked? Or was there some form of conversation or
other interaction first?
“This unicycle is made all from lightweight materials. But it uses a lot of
them.” – Cliff Cordy, describing the very heavy new prototype unicycle he
brought on the Downieville Downhill
> he didn’t run away. In any case, I resisted the urge to
> resort to physical violence and,
> If this should ever happen again I’ll definitely ask for
> his or her name as well as phone the police.
> So has this happened to anyone else? What did (or would)
> you do?
If you are assaulted, the first thing you should do is resist physical
violence. That would basically “even you up” in the eyes of the law. The
second thing is to file a police report. If the perpitrator is dumb enough
to give you his or her name, get that as well.
My advice is to avoid having the guy do this to you in the first place. Did
he sneak up and do it unprovoked? Or was there some form of conversation or
other interaction first?
“This unicycle is made all from lightweight materials. But it uses a lot of
them.” – Cliff Cordy, describing the very heavy new prototype unicycle he
brought on the Downieville Downhill
some people have had lives that prevent them from respecting other people. its their problem, not ours.
i’ve been asaulted twice in the past year whilst out with my unicycle, in both cases by people who were angry bitter people full of hate for themselves and everyone else.
both times i have called the police.
but also i’m beginning to think that jail isn’t going to make these people any less angry and scared and unable to respet others.
anger and hate are quite good at perpetuating themselves
and being a tree hugging hippy can be realy frustrating at times.
It was completely unprovoked and he did sneak up. In fact I looked back
shortly before he got me and saw him jogging up the other side of the hill.
However, I figured he was just running to the public washrooms which were
about 7m behind me.
Alex
John Foss <john_foss@asinet.com> wrote in message news:mailman.1028649497.15514.rsu@unicycling.org…
> > he didn’t run away. In any case, I resisted the urge to
> > resort to physical violence and,
>
> > If this should ever happen again I’ll definitely ask for
> > his or her name as well as phone the police.
>
> > So has this happened to anyone else? What did (or would)
> > you do?
>
> If you are assaulted, the first thing you should do is resist physical
> violence. That would basically “even you up” in the eyes of the law. The
> second thing is to file a police report. If the perpitrator is dumb enough
> to give you his or her name, get that as well.
>
> My advice is to avoid having the guy do this to you in the first place.
Did
> he sneak up and do it unprovoked? Or was there some form of conversation
or
> other interaction first?
>
> Stay on top,
> John Foss, the Uni-Cyclone
> jfoss@unicycling.com
> www.unicycling.com <http://www.unicycling.com>
>
>
>
> “This unicycle is made all from lightweight materials. But it uses a lot
of
> them.” – Cliff Cordy, describing the very heavy new prototype unicycle he
> brought on the Downieville Downhill
>
Yes, having a can of pepper spray would have indeed been useful. The only
real problem is the legality of spraying it at someone - it’s readily
available but that doesn’t make it’s use against humans legal.
Alex
tvoth <tvoth@netidea.com> wrote in message news:aiokiq02vrr@enews1.newsguy.com…
> I carry a large can of bear stray and a bad chip on both shoulders.
> “phil” <phil.8yf6s@timelimit.unicyclist.com> wrote in message
> news:phil.8yf6s@timelimit.unicyclist.com…
> >
> > Nasty…
> >
> > Reminds me of whoever posted the thing about someone driving past and
> > shouting “fall!”, and them shouting back “wreck!”, and they did…
> >
> > I’ve not been assaulted while on the uni, but I’ve had my fair share of
> > verbal abuse. 'Tis a shame…
> >
> > Phil, just me
> >
> >
> > –
> > phil - I meant to fall off like that, ok?
> >
> > “Cattle Prods solve most of life’s little problems.”
> > ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > phil’s Profile: http://www.unicyclist.com/profile/915
> > View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/19689
> >
>
>
> sidewalk when the alleged criminal, a blond, white male, aged 15
> pushed Mr. Thomson from behind.
I’ve had a case where I unicycled past a group of kids of similar age who
were kicking a football around. About 20 yards past, the football hit the
person who was walking alongside me in the back.
I yelled at them about assault, then picked the football up and kept
going. One of them (presumably the owner) came after me and begged for it
back, so I said I was going to hand it in to the police, and tell them
how I came by it. He looked genuinely distraught at this thought, so I
gave it back. As I was leaving he ran back and started laying into one of
his friends (I guess the one who actually kicked the ball).
Aside from the occasional-to-frequent ‘smart’ comments from peanut-brains,
that’s the only negative response I’ve had.
I have been fortunate and I haven’t experienced anything negative while riding but there are a lot of stupid people out there so it’s probably only a matter of time. As Albert Einstein said:
“Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the former.”
I’ve been shot at once, had a person point a gun at me on another occasion,
have stuff thrown at me constantly (ice cream, hamburgers, rocks)… Usually
people in cars… Typically kids out looking to make trouble for fun. As a
result I dont ride that much on the streets any more. I like to stick to
places like college or university campuses. The beach is cool too. http://sublimespot.com/chris/unicycle/ … anywhere where cars ARENT. People
become asses when they get behind the wheel of a car.
-chris carey
“Alex” <atman8@hotmail.com> wrote in message news:5YF39.2063$Xf7.559743@news20.bellglobal.com…
> At approximately 9:30 PM on Saturday, August 3, Alex Thomson, age 17
was
> assaulted while riding a unicycle in Port Elgin. (2.5 hours north of
Toronto
> on Lake Huron - in Canada) He was riding down a slopped, abrasive concrete
> sidewalk when the alleged criminal, a blond, white male, aged 15 pushed
Mr.
> Thomson from behind.
>
> The unplanned dismount that ensued resulted in medium-sized, bloody
> abrasions on each knee. Twelve hours after the incident occurred, each
knee
> was stiff and had swelled slightly. The matter is still under
investigation
> by local authorities. (It actually isn’t, but all crime reports end with
> something like that)
>
>
> …Anyway, so after he pushed me off, I got up and yelled at him for a
> couple minutes. He seemed surprised that I had fallen off and hurt myself
so
> he didn’t run away. In any case, I resisted the urge to resort to physical
> violence and, after a couple minutes of yelling him about assault and
going
> to jail and being fined etc.etc. etc. I walked away until I was out of
sight
> and then rode back to my cottage.
>
> If this should ever happen again I’ll definitely ask for his or her
name
> as well as phone the police. Phoning the police would actually be fairly
> effective since - despite the minor nature of my injuries - the Port Elgin
> economy is largely driven by tourism and crime on the large public beach
> definitely doesn’t help to draw visitors.
>
> So has this happened to anyone else? What did (or would) you do?
>
> Alex
>
>
> Yes, having a can of pepper spray would have indeed been useful. The only
> real problem is the legality of spraying it at someone - it’s readily
> available but that doesn’t make it’s use against humans legal.
Hmm… Self-defence?
The worst incident I’ve had was a bunch of four or five drunken slobs
blocking my way and trying to grab or push the Coker. I swerved between
them in an unusual (for me) demonstration of balance and then charged the
last guy. He wisely stepped aside. I don’t think malice was intended, just
stupidity.
One or two people have thrown stones. Amazing how some minds work:
“Look! One-wheeled bike! Throw rock! Ugg!” Fortunately, the minds
in question were so tiny or so inebriated that they were incapable of
performing the complex series of differential calculations required to
determine the optimum trajectory for the stone - they missed by a mile.
> Yes, having a can of pepper spray would have indeed been useful. The only
> real problem is the legality of spraying it at someone - it’s readily
> available but that doesn’t make it’s use against humans legal.
Hmm… Self-defence?
The worst incident I’ve had was a bunch of four or five drunken slobs
blocking my way and trying to grab or push the Coker. I swerved between
them in an unusual (for me) demonstration of balance and then charged the
last guy. He wisely stepped aside. I don’t think malice was intended, just
stupidity.
One or two people have thrown stones. Amazing how some minds work:
“Look! One-wheeled bike! Throw rock! Ugg!” Fortunately, the minds
in question were so tiny or so inebriated that they were incapable of
performing the complex series of differential calculations required to
determine the optimum trajectory for the stone - they missed by a mile.
go and flip out, show him not to screw with you, i never had anyone come after me, or throw crap at me directly if they do its a friend when its hot out and people are throwing water balloons at people. but one thing you can do if someon throws somtihing at you froma a passing car, pick up a bunch of rocks ans huck it at them, it works good.
