Fixpert

What a bastard. This makes me so mad.

Apparently, this driver was littering, threw a cup of coffee out his window onto this bike messenger. She threw the coffee back into his car, and the assault that ensued was caught on film by a passerby.

Something similar, but not nearly as dramatic, happened to me when I was messengering in Richmond. A guy almost hit me with his car, I didn’t yell, no rude hand gestures or anything, I just calmly rode away (which, admittedly was unusual for me) and he chased me down in his car, pulled alongside me, started cussing at me out his window. I finally got mad, pulled my u-lock out of my hip holster and hit his car with the u-lock and started yelling back at him.

Then, he whipped his car around in front of me — so that I had to stop — he jumped out and grabbed me by my shirt and starting shaking me. I’m sure that if I was a guy he would have punched me, but instead he was cussing and flailing around grabbing at me and not really knowing what to do with me. I was still holding my u-lock in one hand, so I drew it back as though I was about to clock him with it. That was enough to make him flench and let go of me, so I quickly got on my bike, got on the sidewalk and between buildings where a car couldn’t go. I rode around for a while winding around through alleys trying to make sure he wasn’t following me because the whole thing happened a couple blocks from my house and I didn’t want him to know where I lived.

A bum had witnessed the whole thing, I passed that bum a few minutes later on the sidewalk and he stepped to the side politely letting me have the right-of-way with a physical gesture that said “after you young lady.”

A year later, I was at a friend’s house and saw my friend Charlie that I hadn’t seen in years. He said that he had seen the whole thing and he was about to stop and get out of his car to beat the dude up. I was glad I had a witness because the story sounded too crazy and unbelievable. I’m glad this messenger (above) has proof!!