oldfixguy

Well, my guess is he felt that was exactly what was to come. So, he reacted. A reaction must be expected. Maybe he should go to jail for the rest of his life. Another man is still dead.

NavigatorPR

It wasn't Bryant's Fault, he was scared.

That's what they have decided to go forward with.

It is a hard sell, we will see if they are up to it.

They have to convince the public that Micheal Bryant, a wealthy, successful past Attorney General, was scared, and fled, not knowing what he was doing, accidentally killing a guy he was scared of and fleeing to save his life.

Some things to consider, Michael Bryant is bigger than his "assailant". That isn't a big deal.

But what about the fact that Micheal Bryant is a trained boxer, skilled, who trains to this day and is extremely fit with a a grip described as "like Iron". He is also extremely aggressive, hence his success at such aggressive positions such as Attorney General, a job that takes more intellect and intestinal fortitude than an average man can muster. Changing that image of Mr. Bryant instead into the image of a frightened boy menaced by an aggressive assailant intent on harming him will not be easy. Especially as he "escaped" entirely unharmed himself.

What about witness accounts that confirm a loud confrontation between the two before the deadly incident. There was no fear in Mr Bryant then, or in the previous confrontation when the vehicle Mr. Bryant drove struck the bicycle ridden by his assailant.

Instead of simply punching out his "assailant" [read as "mutually combative aggressor"] as he is trained to do and very capably.

Instead of utilizing his advanced knowledge of law or his position as a member of the court to simply restrain and literallly arrest his "assailant".

Instead of shouting to the hundreds of bystanders for witness and assistance.

Instead of opening a dialogue with the smaller, less effective man he claims endangered him. (If a big powerful, wealthy and confident boxer stepped out of the car to discuss a disagreement, most anyone would choose that route if in the shoes of Mr Bryant's "assailant")

He choose instead of any of those to angrily use his powerful vehicle to batter the life out of a man by bashing his body against solid fixed objects on the sidewalk, at a rate of speed so great that construction workers just a few feet away could not get a model or make of the vehicle. And continue away at that speed when the body of his "assailant" was broken from the vehicle by a large mailbox mounted in concrete on the sidewalk.

He did that without regard for the safety of other road users and pedestrians on the sidewalk or construction workers on the road. I mean FAST on the sidewalk.

Even though he was deathly afraid of the bike courier, under the influence of the flight response, he had the wherewithal to call his lawyers and police seconds after leaving the scene.

Now the powerful boxer with a grip of iron wants to claim his assailant grabbed the wheel and bashed the life out of his own body before he could follow through with his intent of harming the feeble Bryant.

But when did the smaller, untrained, unsuccessful but otherwise terror inspiring man have the time or opportunity to plunge down the gas pedal for Mr. Bryant? Did the man with a grip of iron curl into a fetal position, accidentally hitting the gas while relinquishing the steering wheel?

That's after he went from loud and aggressive to frightened fleeing kitten.

The PR firm, located here https://www.navltd.com/homepage.html has a serious, serious amount of work to do.

Help them by ignoring the facts, ignoring the witness accounts, and otherwise acknowledging for them that the evil assailant has only himself to blame and that the embattled Bryant had no choice in his choices that day despite a lifetime of making successful choices, including fighting for legislation to curb dangerous driving.








https://www.navltd.com/homepage.html

oldfixguy

NavigatorPR,

The man reacted. You cannot demand someone react to your behavior only in ways that are acceptable to you. I'm not saying he was right. I'm just saying that we have to look at how we behave. This was not handled intelligently by the cyclist and he paid a terrible price. He is not a martyr and he is not a symbol of how motorists beat down cyclist. He was a man who made a decision and that decision cost him everything.

Fugazi Dave

Welcome, NavigatorPR. Now leave.

beeftech

That is so much crap.
I saw someone on a Judge Judy-Knock-Off get the hammer for trying to pull that trick.
get drunk, get in accident, flee the scene, get a drink afterwords, claim to have only had drinks after the fact
BS BS BS BS

NavigatorPR

You're right, there is no system of judgment that determines acceptable behaviour in these types of situations, or one that metes out justice for making the wrong decision, even if it takes a life.

What we have to do is look at what the man did and determine it reasonable while saying at the same time that it isn't right, just to be expected and excused given his circumstances.

Thank you.

Flimflam

If this is BS, then I guess the Toronto Police Service didn't test him for reasons unknown - it's a mandatory test for any road traffic accident, I believe. Bottom line is: he wasn't tested and so can't be brought in on that angle.

LoRoK

I hate people.

TRaffic Jammer

The Prince of Toronto has this well in hand. Smear the victim, the incident happened near 10pm, the newspaper generally sends it's page to the print centre starting about 11 for the morning delivery(no more multiple editions), so even if there's a hold-the-presses moment, it's not too too much time to completely destroy a person's credibility. PR firm to rescue! Odd, though talk about town has Bryant being a scrappy little dude, who Boxes, and has his own love of substances referenced in the criminal code. Funny how in 28 years on the force the officer on call had NEVER seen an accused be able to get a fresh suit delivered and get all shaved..today's papers all about the Prince's VIP treatment whilst in "lockdown'. He didn't even need to post bail, no hearing .. nothing, released on his own recognizance.

Not tested because he was not roadside, parked at the hotel, not in the car, all blood levels are inadmissible, therefore why bother. Remember, you're talking about one of the most powerful men in the city. Both he and his wife are powerful lawyers. There's even been talk of him being mayor.... ok was.

nimbuscrenel

I don't really have any insight into any of this except for that this will probably end up ruining multiple lives. The man who was killed and his family of course, but also that of the driver of the car and his family- whether he was at fault or not. Where I live, Boise, Idaho, is no where near as big and bustling as Toronto, but we've had a number of cycling deaths recently(3 in one month, google it, it's crazy) and there has been a lot of outrage on both sides of the "bike lane".

znomit

Hey Nav, what sort of singlespeed do you ride?
Do you even ride a bike?

robotkiller

Screw it. I'm siding with cyclist every time in these situations. Every ******** time.

islandboy

On the up side the only witness who knows the truth is his wife, a lawyer. He had better be a very good boy from now on.

elTwitcho

With any luck he'll be being a very good boy from either jail or a grave in the near future. **** him

bhamlax

I'm not sure what the law is in Canada, but in the U.S. you can't claim self defense when you respond to a non-lethal threat (if you can even consider a guy hanging on your car a threat) with lethal force.

mondaycurse

He sounds guilty for overreacting, but he should just go to jail for the rest of his life getting a PR group to start a smear campaign on a guy who died about 100 hours ago.

LoRoK

Riding a bicycle should be no more a justification of behavior than driving a car. Saying you side with a cyclist every time is just about ****ing idiotic. What if a cyclist shot your mom? You going to side with cyclist?

I'm not saying anything about how this guy acted in this situation. I have no first hand account, and therefor have no means to judge anyone. All I know is that someone lost a life, and everyone seems like it's more important to place blame than to acknowledge the loss.

oldfixguy

OK. Fair enough. So, what are you doing to side with the cyclist? I mean besides typing the above statement. Nothing right? Thanks for your support.

oh snap

thats ********. this is the type of attitude that makes drivers hate cyclists. there needs to be tolerance and logic on both sides.

granted i havent read every article printed on the subject, but in this case it sounds like a minor accident got carried away by a self-righteous biker. had it happened on another day maybe he would have shrugged it off, but he had a bad night and this time he couldnt let it go (no pun intended). the driver reacted badly to a bad situation, no doubt, but calling it murder is overboard.

Metzinger

Calmness.
Pretty sure robotkiller was being at least partly facetious.
The laws in some countries do almost much as he suggested.

robotkiller

Am I being partially facetious? Partially.

The mealy mouth equivocation by some of the posters here is not surprising. Let's try to sympathize with the poor man in the Saab. Etc.

You know what? After many episodes of harrassment for simply riding a bike and two very bad situations, I am openly biased about these issues.

Predictably, I'm sure others will attack and say my own experiences were somehow my fault, blah blah blah.

LoRok - Yes, I'm siding with the cyclist who killed my mom. Great argument! I have another good one - if Hitler was riding a bike would you support him? I just love strawman arguments.

Oh Snap - weak.

And oldfixguy - I support local advocacy, both financially and otherwise in every way that I can. Thanks for your support.

Have fun guys; I've said my piece on this.

/unsubscribe

oldfixguy

NavigatorPR,

Pretty close to right actually. I would be very surprised if the man spends 1 second in jail. He'll have a record and I can only imagine the amount of community time he will receive but the simple fact of the matter seems to be that the cyclist was reported as being intoxicated at some point before the event, has a checkered past, clearly behaved in a manner anyone with a mind would determine to be inappropriate to the point of insane and paid an excessive price for his own decision and behavior. You don't throw people in jail over events like this. You just don't.

Again, I suggest remembering that the next time 9 or 10 beers makes you feel bullet proof and you are riding home in traffic. Never forget - you are the mouse. A drunk mouse.

gelpicorp

honestly, people who don't have cars, who don't drive on a daily basis. think for a second, if you were being confronted by a person trying to get into your vehicle, alone much less within feet of a family member. regardless of the fact that you were involved in a wreck and shouting match.

after having to pick my dad up in the middle of the city streets after having his car jacked by a few thugs on foot, by gun point no less, i know a little about fear of someone standing outside your car looking to do bad things to you and yours.

yes, mr. saab should have stopped for the wreck. both parties should have acted like normal people. yell at each other, fine, whatever no harm done. however, mr. bicycle took it to the next level by going after someone in a car. whether it be to fight him, shank him, hit him with a bike lock, keep arguing with him. whatever.

mr. bicycle in this case wanted to take it to another level by chasing after a car to do something else. self preservation/self defense of my wife and myself from a (drunk?) man chasing my car on foot is the first thing i'd do as well.

would this had happened if he attempted to approach the vehicle and furthermore grab it and/or the occupant. no.

turn this around, what if the cyclist had gotten hold of the driver and killed him before he drove off? self defense? hell no. man run up to a car with wild intentions and drag someone out and kill them? murder.

instead we see, man run up to car with wild intentions and drivers flees to get rid of man attempting to further a fight.

just because a cyclist is involved doesn't mean it is still not self defense. at the point where the guy leaves his bike and confronts a man in a car, he is no different that the thugs who car jacked my dad.

flame away. but sorry, i can't see the murder here.

iansmash

you have to think about WHY the cyclist acted the way he did


he was struck

the driver attempted to leave

if the driver had been successful, he would be out of his job and god only knows what his injuries were from the initial accident. hospitals are very expensive

he did what any other person would do because HE was scared. he went after the car to insure that this ******* did not get away.

what kind of sane person will speed off after a person has grabbed onto the car and is hanging on the side?

think about it....even if you're kind of scared of a battered and bruised cyclist who is unarmed (how could he hang onto the car w/ a weapon?...lets us forget he was just HIT by a CAR...you're not exactly in the best shape after that situation) who decides to possibly kill the person opposed to stopping and using other methods to get him off of your car?

the hypothetical situation posed, of course, only to those who would choose to flee the scene after hitting a cyclist

TRaffic Jammer

If someone runs onto the back of my bike trying to push me out of the way? You bet I'm going to freak out at him.

So what if Mr. Biker was trying to stop Mr. Saab from fleeing the scene after running over the back of his bike, and somehow got stuck on the car when Mr Saab backup and took off. Have you seen the video?..there's hardly a window side confrontation.... Bike in front, saab moves forward, bike is down, Mr Bike moves towards car, car backs up a couple feet and take off fast leaving no Mr Bike in the frame. Mr Bike didn't look to have gotten to the window area before the car was already heading out. Witnesses say he slammed his bag on the hood, so it seems quite likely he may have gotten something caught on the mirror of the already moving car. I'm sorry but the 'I was terrified' for my life excuse doesn't wash here. Bryant, being a boxer, could have turned this guy into hamburger in an instant.

Hypothetically of course , what if you are a public figure a rep for being a bit for being a cokehead, runs over the back of a bike on the way home from a nice dinner and beach walk.... why so uptight..should be relaxed... no moonlight lines at the beach I hope. If you are this person you DONOT want to be roadside in an accident. No matter what. Hypothetically. So desperate to escape. Then after you manage to split his head open like a mellon on a mailbox you get out of your car, and instead of collapsing in anguish at the live you've snuffed out, you yell at him then get back in and drive away around the corner to call the police and your lawyer now that your no longer roadside.