This morning I was a few miles into my long run when a car passed me, throwing and hitting me with some object. I’m not sure what it was, possibly a soda bottle (full) or a cup (full) - I couldn’t tell because it was dark. I didn’t stop to investigate because once I get moving, I rarely stop for anything. Same for identifying the car - I looked but it was moving too fast and it was too dark to identify it much less get a number. Suffice it to say that I was hit squarely in the chest by some object traveling 45+ miles per hour. Even after a few hours I’m still sporting a three-inch circular welt on my chest.
I know there’s no chance of finding the car/person who did it, but the irrational part of me really wants to drag that little ****head out of his car and slap him into next week. Or get him charged with assault, littering, assault while littering, assault with a speeding weapon, or anything else in the book.
I’m a law abiding person and I have great respect for the eighth amendment, but sometimes I think places like Singapore with the caning punishment have got it right - if this person couldn’t even sit in a car seat for a week or so it might make a lasting impression (perhaps literally). Or he could be waterboarded - that’s legal, right?
Okay, so I’m still being irrational. Anyway, I know there are many posts about folks getting stuff thrown at them. I’m just adding mine to the heap - and venting.
Not when the other kids your age are acting like hooligans and yobs.
Keep up that sort of behavior and don’t be surprised when the old people vote for strict curfews on everyone under 18.
And in turn don’t be surprised if after curfews are imposed on the young they resent and cause even more disruption to those same old people restricting their freedoms.
I don’t think the original poster mentioned anything about the driver’s age.
I am against curfew laws and I think that we need to give more rights to youth. When I was 17 there was a curfew law enacted that did not allow anyone under 18 in the state of Virginia to drive past midnight. Luckily I was not banned from being outside in public past midnight.
We want to empower our youth, not ban them from the world. Teenagers are going to be out at night because they are finding their independence and becoming adults, criminalizing youth isn’t going to be productive at all.
The tricky thing about youth rights is that everyone stops caring about it once they turn 18 or 21.
I don’t understand why teens were even mentioned in this thread. Are we just not getting the joke? Most cars that buzz me are 20-40 year old guys in pickups or soccer moms who can’t handle their SUV. I’ve never had a problem with a teen driver while biking or running.
had this happen to me once… a guy threw a glass mug at me from out the car… hit me sqwa in the chest…hurt like hell…
the worst part of the story is that there was a cop right behind the guy… didnt do a damn thing…but thats because cops in spokane suck, but thats beside the point… i know how you feel man and it sucks
My girlfriend’s suggestion is that all males under the age of 25 should only be allowed to drive cars with pink fluffy bonnets (US = hoods). Her theory is that this would be so deeply unmacho that they’d only drive when they really had to, and would then not drive fast or aggressively for fear of being seen by their friends.
My opposing theory is that a subtle code of shades of pink would develop, with certain shades being agreed to be macho, and the really hard thugs would shave patterns into the fluff, or gel it up into spikes.
I actually have one for sale, it’s great for deflecting full beer cans, BB pellets and paintballs. There’s also a strap on the back that is perfect for attaching a TurboFlare!
The only time I’ve had anything thrown at me while riding was by teens in a car near a high school. That’s enough evidence and proof for me. Teens in a group cannot be trusted. That’s why they deserve no rights and deserve a curfew.
Teens are unwilling to police their own peers to reign in antisocial behavior so we must do it for them.
If threats of a curfew and other restrictions get teens to police their own behavior then they just might be able to avoid the restrictions.
Most of my bad experience with motorists have been working age adults, both male and female. I have had things thrown at me, but it was by mid twenty year olds. That doesn’t bother me as much as the 30-40 year old drivers who have been careless driving, or have tried to drive me off the road.
College kids and Teens usually just yell or beep.
Anyway…
You can’t lump all teens into one group and try to impose unconstitutional laws on them just because of a bad experience with a few teens.
Leave it to the parents of the teens to police their own children and impose their own curfews.
I would say that people (all people regardless of age) will do more stupid things in groups. Not just teens.
John, I can’t believe you are being serious here? Lets replace “teens” in your rant with Muslims, or black people, or mexican imigrants, or southerners. Seem a bit silly now? Your ageism is ridiculous.
How would you have teens police themselves? Do you remember what it’s like to a be a teen? The ones with bad behavior aren’t going to be intimated or controlled by the ones with good behavior. You can’t peer pressure someone into acting nicely - that’s not how it works.
You know who should be curbing this behavior? Parents. Parents 100%. Crazy fascist laws blanketing an entire group of people, punishing them for the actions of a few, is ridiculous. The parents of the bad apples need to act.
If you treat teens like criminals they will begin to act like criminals.
I was a well behaved teen, but I guarantee you if some out of touch old guy made some law punishing me for crimes I never committed, I would start committing those crimes. Heck, I’d do it now and I’m 28. If you are going to assume I’m a criminal and punish me for crimes I’ve never done, at the very least I’m going to go out and get the satisfaction of committing those crimes. The only thing your “solutions” would do is provoke emotional young people into revolting. Even the good kids would go bad. They would see this as an attack, and they would fight back.
The ironic part of all this is that your reasoning reeks of the same teen reactionism that would cause them to fight back. Your years should give you more wisdom than this.
I am exaggerating my point. But the basis of my point is valid. Children and teens don’t have unrestricted freedom. And there is a very good reason for that. Careful supervision and intrusion of privacy is necessary. Parents better so than government.
I just got off a bit to far on a tangent in my rant.
The time I had something thrown at me from a car was by teens behaving badly. That was what started my rant.
Many teens act like criminals regardless of how they’re treated. They lack experience and judgment to know better. Let’s use your own quote for reference. If someone created a law punishing you for crimes you never committed, you would start commiting those crimes. Hmmm…let’s fast forward to adulthood. If your boss declares a new policy tomorrow that there should be no losers on his team–and you have never been guilty of being a loser–do you become one just to spite him? What if he calls you one to your face…do you become one, or do you have the judgment and experience of your years to get you through that without over-reacting?
There were no curfews telling me I was a criminal when I was a teen. Yet I behaved like one, as did most of my friends. Was it because we were bad? I don’t think so, at least based on our adult track records. Is it because we were bored and stupid and immature, lacking judgment and experience? I think so.
So should teens be nailed into secure crates at 15 and kept that way until they’re 25? Yup. Do I support curfews for teens? Not for a second…
