The dogs must be crazy
August 22, 2016 § 39 Comments
There is a guy named Heath Evans. He is a football journalist. I know, that reads like a joke.
Then there is a guy name Peter King. He is a serious sports journalist who writes for Sports Illustrated. Get it? “Serious sports journalist.” Not as funny as football journalist, actually a pretty bad joke.
Then there is a woman named Jenny Vrentas. She doesn’t know how to drive a car or care to learn how. She’s not funny at all.
So what do you get when you put a joke, a bad joke, and a reckless driver on Twitter? You get this:
Both of these tweets are self-explanatory. The football journalist thinks it’s okay to publicly muse about his desire to kill or injure bicyclists.
The serious sports journalist thinks it’s okay to encourage reckless driving, record it, and then “no comment” on it while the flunkette he’s abetted drives in a bike lane.
You could tweet to @nflnetwork, Heath Evan’s employer, which would be awesome. You could also tweet to @SInow, the employer for fun-loving Jenny and Peter. You could do this, not because the NFL or SI would care, but because it might make your anger at these people dissipate a little bit. Maybe.
Of course, verbalizing violence towards people for riding bicycles pairs up nicely with the reality that people in cars kill and maim bicycle riders with impunity. Lives lost, lives wrecked, families ripped apart, children without parents, just because some dick on his way to a football game is in such a hurry that he can’t wait with all the other people patiently sitting in traffic. Gotta get there first to hit the buffet and the booze in the skybox, dude.
A friend of mine was mowed down last Sunday morning by a fellow who fled the scene. The buddy is still in the ICU and faces a long road to recovery. The felon is probably watching the Big Game on TV. “Guy shouldn’t have been in the bike lane,” he’s probably thinking, if he thinks about it at all.
*shrug*
We saw this casual violence here in RPV last Tuesday when a resident lamented the damage that a cyclist’s body and head had done to someone’s windshield, and we see it in various forms, either on the road or in conversation. “Why do you guys ride in the road?” This is politespeak for “Get out of my way because I want to kill you.”
I even had a cyclist after a bike race today come up and say he thought cyclists should be treated as pedestrians. You know, so we can be legally barred from riding on any part of the roadway at all, forever. “Like skateboarders,” he added, for emphasis.
I looked at him for a minute as if he was insane. But he wasn’t. Just like Heath and Peter and Jenny aren’t insane. They simply think your life isn’t worth shit.
Because.
You.
Ride.
A.
Bike.
END
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Cycling in the South Bay 
There are ways that savvy cyclists can make other road users more careful and cooperative. See the CyclingSavvy’s “Seven Behaviors of Successful Cyclists” at https://youtu.be/JivkgMAnDaE
More at http://online.CyclingSavvy.org
Tweets sent, not that I have a clue what I’m doing on Twitter. Kinda like these assholes in their cages on roads with bike lanes.
You’re much less likely to catastrophically injure or kill someone on The Twitter.
I missed the original tweet from Heath Evans, as the coward had deleted it, but I did see several other posts trying to explain it away as either “concern” or “just a joke”. I did, in fact, tweet to NFLNetwork asking if they thought their representative’s “joke” was funny.
Of course, my one tweet means nothing, probably not even seen, but I’m hoping my tweet is only one of a tidal wave that was/will be sent. I have been encouraging other riders to become a thorn in @NFLNetwork ‘s side.
I had not heard of this Peter King/ Jenny Vrentas thing, though I will also add my voice to that as well.
It’s kind of amazing that in this day and age that a comment of “I want to run cyclists off the road” or any other variation on that, raises no eyebrows from people. It’s often followed by laughs or any manner of ignorant “me toos”.
Make a comment in a huge public forum threatening to kill a football player, go ahead I dare you.* Let’s see if that’s taken as a funny joke.
Wolf.
*Don’t do this.
“I want to kill innocent people.” Ho, ho, ho. Just our employees having a bit of fun. Check out the burning cross we have out in front of HQ. Ha, ha, ha.
Whoa now. Killing cyclists is one thing, but let’s not get into burning crosses. That’s the type of stuff we adamanently pretend not to tolerate.
100% pretend.
Here’s a letter forwarded to me by a reader:
Dear Mr. Danetz,
Your journalist at Sports Illustrated has posted an extraordinary photo via Twitter virtually confessing to both directing and approving his driver Jenny’s leaving heavy traffic in order to drive in a cycling lane in order to speed him to a stadium, all apparently in the course and scope of his and her employment.
Luckily it appears (assuming from an absence of news report of death or injury) Mr. King didn’t kill or injure anyone, but what’s entertaining to him cannot be entertaining to anyone of good conscience.
Since the moral consequences of this behavior in the course and scope of his work for Sports Illustrated and TIME are lost on Mr. King and the employee he directs (which he proves by posting his extraordinarily callous and foolish photo and tweet), it’s my request that TIME advise him that he subjects himself and others to criminal and civil liability, and discipline him to ensure he never engages in this kind of behavior again. He appears to lack the inner compass of right and wrong, and has an inability to connect his misconduct with the pain he would impose on the people his conduct could likely injure or kill, and the families of those people.
If he were my employee, despite his apparent popularity and profitability, I’d fire him.
It’s my understanding you are a vice-principal at TIME. If there is someone else also with authority to oversee Mr. King, I respectfully request you send my email to them.
With thanks in advance for your attention to this safety issue, which might save cyclists’ and others’ lives in the future, I am
Very truly yours,
—
[…] Bicycling in the South Bay Exposes Some Twitter Bike Haters […]
I see SDPD have chimed in, with this is not ok, and leave earlier next time.
Out of public duty I sent two tweets, requesting employee termination to all involved.
That’s excellent. These clowns should be held responsible for advocating violence.
Peter King did issue his version of an apology in his 10,000+ word MMQB column that was published today.
Found it hiding near the bottom in a between musings on craft beer and Starbucks.
r. My apologies to those offended (and you should have been) by my tweeting the photo the other night of our car in the bicycle lane for a few hundred feet near Qualcomm Stadium, hustling to get there in time for an interview. Dumb by me for sure, and I’m sorry for the post.
Ah yes. Let me translate: I’m sorry I sent that out publicly, and was “caught.”
Dumb of me.
But, Football is Family, right?:
http://deadspin.com/football-is-not-family-1739171624
This guy nails it. Football, depression, domestic violence, rage, alcoholism, obesity … better than cycling, for sure.
It’s like cycling on steroids!
Bigger athletes, bigger pay checks, more drugs ( maybe?) … More lives permanently damaged.
Which is what we all aspire to.
Your cyclist friend may be interested to know that pedestrians also have rights to the road and are not barred from them.. Roads are for people. Not just people in cars.
Good ‘ol Heath is now pushing for cyclists to be on the sidewalk – especially in places where cars go over 50 mph. By “places where cars go over 50 mph,” he means nearly every road in Southern California.
[…] (LAT) Nine Expo Line Hacks (L.A. Magazine) How To Drive Or Take the Train To Rams Games (KPCC) Bicycling in the South Bay Exposes Some Twitter Bike Haters Fresno Policeman Wrestles Student To the Ground For Jaywalking […]
Tweeted!
Thanks!
In a bit of good news for cyclists, a cager loudly wished I were dead when he saw me jaywalking.
Spread the love. Er, I mean the hate.
Tweeted on all three….
Feel free to retweet…
Awesome.
Thanks!
I tried to edit the Wikipedia pages of these three celebrities and their heavily moderated. As far as I’m concerned these are significant media events and worthwhile moments of their lives everybody should know about. If you have time, please make a fairly written edit on Wikipedia.
they’re*
my bad
That’s awesome!
Twitting
http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/2016/aug/22/why-san-diego-is-mad-at-peter-king/
No commentary, just “people are mad.” What hats of ass.
Nick Canepa of the SD Union Tribune defends these idiots, and then there’s this….
http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2016/aug/24/cover-stop-irrational-bike-bias/
San Diego usually isn’t this bad, I promise!
Hahaha! Let cars “pay for themselves.” Sure! From now on, only car owners pay to build roads. No more evil big government to pave highways … have at it!
[…] worth a few minutes out of your day to read what Cycling in the South Bay’s Seth Davidson has to say on the subject. And even New York’s famed Bike Snob couldn’t resist adding his two cents to the West Coast […]
Tweeted and have been tagging car companies who advertise on the preseason game on now. Included image of Evans’s Tweet.