Comments on Ride Your Bike to Work...

That tumor would have grown back given where he was working at. The bullet just sped up the process and saved the family suffering through a long illness.

Heh.

No one deserves to get shot in the face. But I'd be less sympathetic if, say, he clipped a pedestrian, cycled 10 miles an hour in the middle of the road, or pounded some guy in the back of the head with a U-lock first.

At least he didn't steal millions from American Taxpayers like Sen Ted Stevens did.

Wait ... he was shot in the face because he was riding a bike? Or this was just some poor guy who was shot in the face, and he happened to have been riding a bike that day? Either way, it sucks, but I'm not sure that there is enough here to claim he is some sort of "bike martyr."

I wonder what this heated argument was about?

Holy Toledo!

A news update from 7/24 says they have a 19 year old gang member in custody. The article implies this may have been a robbery attempt but gives no other details. It sure doesn't imply there was any kind of evil car driver/wonderful bike rider confrontation. Given the recent events here and Erica's "coverage", her posting this story allows one's mind to easily move to this being something which it clearly is not. What exactly was the point of the post erica? Do you intend to post about every murder or only the murders that can be twisted into you trying to make a point?

This story's from two weeks ago and it's getting reported now?

I wonder if anything happened over the weekend to make Erica C Barnett post something with such an absurd title TWO WEEKS after it happened.

Are there interns digging through news archives to support anti-motorist rhetoric in the Stranger offices?

Perhaps Erica was making a point that somebody on a bike is much more vulnerable to a physical attack.

Of course, if he had been run over by a car, he would have been posthumously cited for blocking the normal flow of gun fire.

It's a darn good thing this guy wasn't riding a fixed-gear bike. Those things are killers. He should stick to commuting by dump truck huh Erica?

@9 -- I emailed the wire story to the slog tipster address when it ran two weeks ago. Where's the love, ECB?

maybe the shooter had RESERVATIONS!

Wow. Critical Mass references. How original!

@1, LOL

Guns don't kill cyclists.

American Pine Tree hating gunmen kill cyclists.

Well, that and pit bulls.

Erica, are you implying that the victim is some sort of cyclist martyr? Because the news reports portray this is as a potential robbery/murder of a man in the wrong place at the wrong time by a gang member:

Shortly after 5:30 a.m. that morning, when David was only a few blocks from work, witnesses on the residential, tree-lined street say they heard a commotion. The sound of loud voices woke numerous people in the area, and some witnesses reported hearing a heated argument. It was the last time anyone would ever hear David Babcock's voice. One eyewitness saw a dark figure run from the scene, leaving David there to die. At the height of the shouting match, witnesses tell police they heard a gunshot. One eyewitness saw a dark figure run from the scene, leaving David there to die.

While riding down Western Avenue, police say Babcock was stopped by Jones. "I don't know if he tried to get the bike, or if he tried to get something else," says Captain Carroll, "Mr. Babcock put up a fight, and he was shot... Police say Jones took nothing, even leaving the bike at the scene. Then went into hiding... They say he admitted to being a gang member in that area. Also, he may have not wanted anyone unfamiliar on his turf.

Writing "Ride your bike to work... Get shot in the face" implies that he was killed through some sort of act of rage directed at a cyclist, as though "ride your bike" = cause, "get shot in the face" = effect. What if the guy was listening to Crosby, Stills and Nash on his iPod during the incident? Would you draw the parallel of "Listen to Crosby, Stills and Nash... Get shot in the face"? What if he was wearing a yellow sweatshirt? "Wear a yellow sweatshirt... Get shot in the face"?

The fact is, you don't really know why this guy was killed, yet you drew a tenuous conclusion and imply that a cyclist was killed for being a cyclist. That conclusion is not supported by other news reports. Regardless, I would hope that you wouldn't take the opportunity to use a poor man's murder to make some kind of point for your cause. It's misleading, and frankly insensitive to the victim's family.

PS, if the killer admits in trial "I hate cyclists and killed him because he was commuting by bicycle" I will eat my words. Publicly, at Slog Happy, if you so wish. Somehow I think the risk of that is nil.

I'm not sure whether to blame "road rage" or "Toledo, Ohio"

i heard a man shot for drumming too loud. it's when i became a poet. there is a large amount of hostility in a small sum of drivers. and riders. i am hostile. i'm humble, i'm thoughtful, i'm cautious, and i'm hostile. a drooling narcoleptic might crush me today in the public space we all share. we need critical mass now, and we're closer to it now. i didn't capitalize the words. Embrace a bicycle if you are able. It is revolutionary when it is in all people's hearts and hands. Until then, it's just a bicycle.

to the skeptics: the hostility is real, the menace is real, and the physics are real. i don't know how this man died. i know how it feels to be menaced by cars and trucks at high speeds, with no cage. so far as i know, i have every right to the road. they claim different. but they don't stop there.

one killed, one tractioned at u bridge
vs. I GOT RESERVATIONS

u run a guy over w/ ur car because ur 'freaking out' and i forgive you, but i am not like you. what's the fucking hassle with waiting a minute or two? for me or any other traffic. i move fast, fast enough to die. and you have a big, fat truck n ass. how come you can wave your weapon at me, but i can't squeeze a warning shot back? because we live as unequals in concrete canyons only a while past wild, and people who look for respect on their bikes haven't ridden long enough.

I'm reading these news articles you pointed to and trying to find the link between "getting shot" and "riding a bicycle" and I'm not seeing it. Where is the connection here, other then, Maybe, it was an attempted robbery, Possibly of the guy's bike. It looks like it may also have been gang related.

There is no car-bicycle altercation here that I can see. Or are you trying to assert here that cyclists are being killed by pedestrians who don't want to share the pavement with them now too? Is that it?

I'm trying to find the link between burning cow dung and the modern automobile being the primary mode of transport in a country that thinks it's advanced, but it's just not coming to me.

Maybe if we just realized that some people at some daily papers are frustrated that people don't like their ideas of banning plastic bags, they might realize that getting all hot and bothered about cycling is as productive as honking in a traffic jam on the "freeway".

Wheee... @17(18), @21, I can tell you-all perceived no humor in the New Yorker cover, neither... chow ^..^

in case you didnt know, ANYBODY, can get shot in the face in TOLEDO. not as bad as cleveland, but certainly ANYBODY can get shot there. it doesnt say the poor guy was shot because he was riding his bike.

Must have been an automobile exec who did the shooting.

Every bike is $20,000 out of their pockets.