Yo mk!

When do two wrongs ever make a right?

Normally I don’t engage in Facebook wars or flaming but the other day I shared a biking story that was upsetting. A woman who was biking in the city failed to stop at a streetcar stop when it was loading passengers. It’s illegal to do so in Toronto, and I’m certainly not excusing the behaviour, but cyclists have been known to blow past streetcars, weaving in between passengers, present company included. It’s not a behaviour I engage in anymore, but it’s like jaywalking. It’s more convenient for you to do sometimes.

In what Denise Eng describes as a “split second against my better judgment,” Eng proceeded on her bike through the commuters. What happened next is appalling. A passenger turned around and body checked her. Luckily, she didn’t go flying and wasn’t hurt. 

She was catching the streetcar as well, and managed to park her bike and get on and asked the streetcar operator to report an assault. She asked that the perpetrator step off the streetcar with her and wait while she called the police. There was a collective groan and after she was forced to admit she wasn’t hurt, people started heckling her. She got off the streetcar and only one other passenger got off in protest.

When I posted this story, one person’s comments made my blood boil. They were along the lines of “serves her right” and “lesson learned.” What was so upsetting was this idea of karma and that she deserved to have this assault. It holds as much weight as the “she was dressing like a slut, so she was asking for it” argument.

This commenter said he sided with the passengers and she should not have gotten on the streetcar to demand justice, noting that her “reaction, given her flagrant violation of law and safety,” was ridiculous.

The fact is an act of violence was committed. When is that ever justified? Though her initial act was clearly in the wrong, I seriously doubt that her actions warranted an assault. Yes, she rode through a stopped streetcar area when she wasn’t supposed to, but I hardly think being bodychecked is the appropriate response. What’s incredibly upsetting is that most of the TTC passengers did not so much as bat an eye when this happened. This woman, who was bodychecked but not hurt, was asking for some support and got the cold shoulder instead.

I imagine after having something like this happen, all that adrenalin coursing through her body caused her to react. I can understand that. After I got doored, my body reacted quicker than my mind could wrap around it. I had minor injuries, but what I needed was a hug, an external validation that someone cares about my well-being.

If a pedestrian walked through a stopped area, no one would assault them for doing so. There is something about cycling that brings out the vitriol in people. The relationship between cyclists and drivers is a strained one and now there’s tension brewing between pedestrians and cyclists. It’s unsettling.

I will admit, speed can be intoxicating. It is like a drug. There is a freeing element to zipping around on a bicycle. Like power, it can give people a convoluted sense of invincibility convincing them to break laws, crowning them dictators of granite. I understand the thrill, but it’s often the bad behaviour that sticks in people’s minds. Those fixie aficionados who plow through traffic and Evel Knievel cyclists are creating an image of risk-takers and irresponsible riders, which is truly unfortunate.

It sounds like Eng is a responsible rider most of the time, and she did admit it was her fault. We all make bad decisions from time-to-time. But to be assaulted and ridiculed for it? To be faced with such coldness and insults after suffering an assault is unforgivable.

Usually everyone is thinking about themselves. Eng wanted some acknowledgment that this man’s action was unacceptable, the commuters wanted to continue to work, the streetcar operator wanted to continue en route. What’s interesting is that no one was willing to bend to see the other person’s point-of-view except for one passenger. If Eng was hurt, it would be a very different story, but because she wasn’t it was dismissed as a minor inconvenience. It’s speaks volumes about the way we treat each other when an incident like this happens and no one cares. Victim-blaming at its finest.