http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/topstories/Edinburgh-teenager-who-used-car.6517591.jp
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » General Edinburgh
"Edinburgh teenager who used car 'as weapon' to kill man jailed for 8 years"
(7 posts)-
Posted 13 years ago #
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Utter tragedy - 8 years is far too lenient a sentence for the convictions.
Posted 13 years ago # -
Wonder if he's have got any more or less if he's used a knife or a gun as a weapon?
Posted 13 years ago # -
Interesting semantic point, note he's referred to as a 'teenager who used a car', and not a 'motorist'. I'll bet in any case where a bike was the mode of transport of a criminal they'd be a 'cyclist' and not a 'teenager who used a bike' (in fact I'm sure I remember that happening sometime last year, couple of guys committed an armed robbery on a jewellery store and the headline was along the lines of 'Cyclists in Armed Heist'.
Posted 13 years ago # -
I was cycling out Kirkliston way last week and saw another terrible car crash. The roads out there are so wide and straight in sections that people drive far to fast for the conditions. It's a favourite spot for motorcycle deaths too.
Posted 13 years ago # -
anth, it follows naturally from from social theory - motorists are the in group (probably one the writer and other staff of the paper, as well as its readership, all identify with) so it would be less likely for someone who killed using their car to be referred to as a motorist.
On the other hand 'cyclist' is an unsympathetic term, we are an out-group. It's just as natural for the media to try and portray crimes as reflective of the group as it is for them to avoid reflecting onto "motorists", and probably not a concious thing either way.
You get this weird thing where some cyclists try to suggest that other people on bikes (who don't conform) are "not real cyclists, just people on bikes" which I find most amusing. It's the exact same phenomenon.
Posted 13 years ago # -
Very true Dave. I once wrote that I'm quite happily a POB when I was getting particularly hacked off with people not wanting to face up to how cyclists are seen in general...
Posted 13 years ago #
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