Cyclist on Cyclist Crime

gingaman
gingaman Posts: 576
edited December 2013 in Commuting chat

Comments

  • I guess your thread title is a joke, but it shows up the silliness of this 'cyclist' tag. Said bloke was probably riding a full-suss BSO with no lights. What the feck does a handbag-snatching scummer have in common with any of the rest of us except that he happened to be using the same mode of conveyance?

    If a bloke leaned out of his car window and nicked the handbag of a woman getting out of her car, would we regard it as motorist-on-motorist crime?
  • gingaman
    gingaman Posts: 576
    Yes the title was an attempt at humour. I also assumed he was riding a BSO, a fine example of journos lumping us all together, eh?

    He probably doesn't even know his FCN...
  • He probably doesn't even know his FCN...

    Probably a good job if he struggles to outpace a middle-aged woman on foot.
  • MichaelW
    MichaelW Posts: 2,164
    In the same way that security van robberies are motorist-on-motorist crime.
  • airbag
    airbag Posts: 201
    I guess your thread title is a joke, but it shows up the silliness of this 'cyclist' tag. Said bloke was probably riding a full-suss BSO with no lights. What the feck does a handbag-snatching scummer have in common with any of the rest of us except that he happened to be using the same mode of conveyance?

    If a bloke leaned out of his car window and nicked the handbag of a woman getting out of her car, would we regard it as motorist-on-motorist crime?

    Yes I would. What on earth does the term "cyclist" imply other than "someone who habitually cycles, or is currently cycling"?

    I hope you don't get upset about noncyclists calling us all lycra-wearing scofflaws. Either you're allowed to use the term to describe an artificially created stereotype - in which case so is anybody else - or you use it to describe something unambiguous, and therefore useful. Personally I'd use the latter.
  • Airbag,

    I think you misunderstand me - I object to the use of term when it invokes this 'artificially created stereotype' or implies that cyclists are a homogenous group. I don't think anything I posted above invoked or implied either of those things - maybe you thought 'the rest of us' suggested I was grouping 'the rest of us' together, but I actually said 'any of the rest of us', meaning as individuals.

    Of course, my rant had little if anything to do with what was written in the article! It was more of a random, intemperate response to gingaman's light-hearted thread title. Ah well, I'm a bit of a volatile blowhard from time to time. :oops: