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Blame
it on the bike messenger
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Mess Media, November 3, 2007
Update - Police make an arrest - not a
courier
On Friday, November 2, a cyclist was involved in a road rage
altercation with a motorist in downtown Toronto. After exchanging words
it is alleged that the cyclist stabbed the motorist in the neck and
face two or three times with some kind of tool. The cyclist then fled
the scene on foot, leaving his bike behind.
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The mountain
bike with kick stand left behind by the cyclist who allegedly stabbed a
motorist.
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Witnesses described the cyclists as a male in his 20’s or 30’s with
perhaps a goatee. He was also described as wearing a satchel or bag.
The picture of his bike, showed a blue geared mountain bike with a kick
stand. It had a chain lock wrapped around the seat tube and tucked
under the seat. It looked like it would take quite some time to
get that lock out to lock up the bike.
Now here is where the media and some cycling advocacy blogs turn the
perpetrator from a cyclist into a bike courier. No witnesses described
the cyclist as a courier. At least one "witness Brigid
Nelson, 23, said police told her he might have been a homeless man from
a nearby shelter.” CityTV was first to report that the cyclist
was a courier
simply “because he was
wearing a satchel and riding a bike.” It wasn't the police who believed
this. It was only CityTV reporter, Omar Sachedina.
From there other media outlets reported on the CityTV report that the
cyclist
was a courier, some erroneously attributing the belief to the police.
Even some local cycling advocacy blogs jumped on the courier bashing
bandwagon by repeating the unfounded accusations, giving credence to
the irresponsible media reports.
Talk radio stations whose listeners consist mainly of car drivers went
the
furthest. AM640 didn’t mention a cyclist at all. It
embellished details, reporting that "police
say there was
some kind of altercation between the courrier[sic] and driver."
Courier Stabs
Driver
The search continues for a bike courier after the driver of an S.U.V.
was stabbed in the neck and face in downtown Toronto Friday morning.
Police say there was some kind of altercation between the courrier[sic]
and driver while they were in the westbound lanes of College, east of
McCaul.
The driver was stabbed a few times in the neck and face with what
police say was a screwdriver. The driver is in hospital with non-life
threatening injuries. The courier took off, leaving his bike behind. |
Thankfully some newspapers didn't take the CityTV report as fact. They
actually did some checking
of their own and reported only the facts and not the gossip.
Converting the assailant from a mere cyclist to a courier appeals to
the media because it creates fear and plays to the image of “marauding
reckless couriers” and that
cyclists are not legitimate road users. It appeals to civilian cycling
blogs because they can try to distance themselves from this cyclist.
They label him a courier because everyone knows that couriers are
“crazy” and not respectable cyclists. In the end both groups’ actions
push couriers further to the fringe of society contributing to endless
false
perceptions of bike messengers.
In reality only one fact (a messenger style bag) points to the
possibility
that the cyclist may
also be a courier but even this fact is remote because so many cyclists
and non-cyclists downtown imitate the functional fashion of bike
messengers.
More details point away from the cyclist as a courier. Why would a
courier abandon his bike? Not only is the bike a
courier's source of income, it's also his most identifiable feature.
Couriers see downtown
from their bike. They
know the fastest escape routes on bike not foot. If it was a courier
his bike could be identified quickly as messengers often refer to
other messengers by their bike. A courier who rode a bike with a kick
stand would be well known in the community for this. In fact his
nickname would likely be "Kickstand." It would also be quite simple to
find
out which courier company had a messenger book off or disappear at the
time of the altercation.
Was the cyclist wearing a radio or cell phone? Were any waybills or
manifests
visible? Were there packages in his bag? The media conveniently left
these details out as the likely “no” answers to these
questions would also point away from the cyclist as courier story.
Regardless of the occupation of this cyclist, the damage is already
done
to messengers and perceptions of messengers. Even if the police catch
this person and it’s reported
that he does not work as a courier the entire city will still remember
the
time “the courier stabbed the motorist”, just like they remember the
time the courier ran over and killed the elderly lady on Bloor Street.
In that case the police went so far as to issue a press release stating
that the cyclist “was not a courier” but no one reported it and no one
remembers it.
All messengers can hope for is that in future the media will
investigate and report the facts without fixing them around their own
agendas - a faint hope indeed.
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