December 4, 2008

2 Madison fights: the mattress-on-car prank and the "Get a light" bike rage.

1. "Police said the victim was punched multiple times in the head after he asked a group of young people about the damage to his parked car after the car's antenna was broken, thanks to the mattress being tossed on the car's roof."

2. "Two bicyclists came up behind [Colin O'Brien, 51], with one saying they were going to pass him on the left. As they passed, O'Brien said, "Get a light." ... [Dustin Dunlavy, 28] apparently then tried to run O'Brien off the road.... The pair followed O'Brien to his home... Dunlavy still was upset and clamped his hands around O'Brien's head, according to a police report. The report added that he twisted O'Brien to the ground and kicked him in the ribs, but Dunlavy denied doing so when he was arrested.... When asked why he didn't just ride away after the 'get a light' comment, Dunlavy apparently told police he felt extremely insulted by the statement."

22 comments:

Trooper York said...

And you wonder why Plaxico had a gat.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Imagine something like that happening to the big tree CEO’S on the way to the hill.

A mattress falling on their electric cars.

Did they wear pampers like that jilted astronaut?

Trooper York said...

Now you don't have this problem in Philly where the girls have the mattress on their backs.

kjbe said...

Some people's kid's...

I gotta say though, folks biking outside of the summer season have got to get better at making themselves seen. We almost hit a guy on a bike on our way to work a couple weeks ago - dark clothes and no lights. I can't tell you how often we see that. And too, for parent's who's kids ride to school - get lights on your kids bikes. How hard is this?

kjbe said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Original Mike said...

Putting aside common sense for a moment, isn't a light required by law?

Sofa King said...

I was under the impression that laws don't apply to bicycles in Madison.

former law student said...

Why do cyclists feel outside the law, including the law of self-preservation (there is a special place in hell for cyclists who take the reflectors off their bikes)?

One theory is that self-propulsion produces smugness, which negates guilt.

Meade said...

The bicyclist thought the motorist said, "Get a life."

Unless you are the governor of Pennsylvania, them are fighting' words.

AllenS said...

From my little newspaper where I live, I see this:

"Madison police believe Brittany Zimmermann called 911 before she was stabbed and beaten to death inside her Doty Street apartment.

The 21-year-old UW-Madison student's body, with multiple stab wounds to the chest and blunt force trauma to the head, was discovered at 1:08 p.m. on April 2 by Zimmermann's fiancé.

Zimmermann's murder is the fifth unsolved Madison homicide in the past 10 months. Two have occurred downtown, inside homes, during the day, apparently by strangers."

Not good.

tim maguire said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
tim maguire said...

I can understand the anger. "Get a light"?!?

Yeah, that's just what he needs--a smoking habit. Here he is pedalling his little heart out to save gas, save the environment, and stay healthy and some big-butted car user(!) tells him to get lung cancer and die.

That would piss me off too!

Expat(ish) said...

Anyone notice that two (apparently) law abiding citizens were unarmed and easily assaulted by yooths? (My Cousin Vinny!)

Had any of these miscreants been armed it would have been all over.

Your state needs more CCW.

-XC

Palladian said...

"Why do cyclists feel outside the law, including the law of self-preservation (there is a special place in hell for cyclists who take the reflectors off their bikes)?

One theory is that self-propulsion produces smugness, which negates guilt."

Do you guys have the "Critical Mass" douchebags in your area? I think the Critical Assholes are secretly funded by the petroleum and automotive industries to get people to hate bikes and buy big, bike-crushing cars.

chuck b. said...

Do you guys have the 'Critical Mass' douchebags in your area?"

Ugh, they're huge troublemakers in San Francisco. And I think we actually exported them. (Sorry.) It got so bad, an oppositional bike group sprung up in response calling themselves "Critical Manners". They ride together as a group, stopping at all signs and lights, always signalling, and yielding to pedestrians.

Trooper York said...

Hey we get that here when Michael, Alpha Liberal, Freder, Verso and UWS guy all comment on the same thread.

Critical mass indeed.

Methadras said...

You have to love the commentary about the bike rage incident. So when told to get a light he 'felt' extremely insulted at that statement, so much so that he would follow a guy home and assault him. Then when asked why didn't he just ignore it and ride away, he said that no one had the right to tell him to get a light for his bike? Really? Seriously? I thought the knuckle-dragging mongoloids in Pittsburgh were some of the lower life forms in America, but this guy is either from Pittsburgh, has ancestry from there or is the beginnings of a new mutant strain of mongoloid beyond what you already have in Madison. I think CDC should be contacted on this one.

save_the_rustbelt said...

I am very careful with my mouth because there seem to be a lot of people breeding morons.

Michigan is a concealed carry state. Our rural areas tend to be very peaceful. Detroit has the strictest gun laws, need I say more?

Given that we may have more firearms per capita than any other state in the country (if we ever let the government count them) gun ownership may have some positive impacts.

Zach said...

I bike everywhere in a town (Boulder) where lots of people bike everywhere. I use bike lights because it's #%$#%#$ impossible to see a bike after dark if you don't have a light.

If you ride on city streets after dark, you either have front and back lights or you have a death wish.

Anonymous said...

Critical Mass? Never been to one, but I have had several critical confessions.

Anyhow, did any of the vehicles involved in either incident have a 'coexist' bumper sticker?

Mr. Forward said...

Dustin "Dim Bulb" Dunlavy.

MadisonMan said...

My reading on this?

(1) The biker with no light has been told all his life by his parents that he is special. Therefore, criticism negates everything he's ever been told and enrages him

(2) The girlfriend of the biker? I have five words for you: DTMFA. All you Savage Love readers will know what I mean. I hope she was watching carefully her idiot boyfriend's reaction. He'll be going off on her someday.