Baltimore Bishop to be charged with Manslaughter in Cyclist death

[mstone]

@consularrider 126876 wrote:

Bump to get the spam off the front page

please don’t do this–the spam will be gone long before most people read the offtopic post in the comment thread.

[consularrider]

@mstone 126881 wrote:

please don’t do this–the spam will be gone long before most people read the offtopic post in the comment thread.

It was there for over two hours, all I did was bring the next topic to the top which shouldn’t have inconvenienced anybody. Sorry you don’t like it. :rolleyes:

[Steve O]

@ginacico 126879 wrote:

Where I draw the line is, when she’s eventually out of jail, she should never ever be allowed to drive again. If this isn’t a case for permanently revoking someone’s driver’s license, then we’ve simply gone off the deep end. Given her past record and obvious disregard for human lives, she should have to use public transit or self-powered transportation and be forced to live a car-free existence for the rest of her life, forever, end of story.

I agree with this. And I believe a lot more people should not be allowed to drive for all sorts of reasons. We are, and long have been, off the deep end.
But I can’t wait until we actually live in a culture where being car-free is not considered by most people to be punishment.

“. . . have to use public transit” “. . . forced to live a car-free existence”
That’s the US windshield perspective, car-first culture summed right up.

[ginacico]

This is really hard to read. The Baltimore Brew has done an excellent job reporting on this story from the beginning.

Notable point:
“In addition to the seven-year prison sentence that Doory ultimately imposed, he specified also that Cook is to serve five years probation, that she must only drive with an interlock device and that she must participate in any alcohol treatment program specified by her court monitor.
(Only the Department of Motor Vehicles is empowered to take away driving privileges, he noted.)”

[Sunyata]

@ginacico 126935 wrote:

(Only the Department of Motor Vehicles is empowered to take away driving privileges, he noted.)”

Wait… What? Maybe in Maryland this is true. But in Virginia (and most other states), a judge can (and often will) take away driving privileges. If this is not the case in MD, I strongly feel they need to change that regulation.

[PotomacCyclist]

@mstone 126881 wrote:

please don’t do this–the spam will be gone long before most people read the offtopic post in the comment thread.

I think it’s useful to get the spam off the top of the forum index/front page. Sometimes the spam posts remain on the top of the index for many hours. On the weekends, sometimes they stay up there for almost an entire day.

[mstone]

@PotomacCyclist 127082 wrote:

I think it’s useful to get the spam off the top of the forum index/front page. Sometimes the spam posts remain on the top of the index for many hours. On the weekends, sometimes they stay up there for almost an entire day.

And the offtopic posts stay forever. If people are using the forum, stuff will migrate naturally. If they aren’t, who cares?

[dkel]

@mstone 127091 wrote:

If people are using the forum, stuff will migrate naturally. If they aren’t, who cares?

Maybe I’m missing something, but I am in mstone’s camp on this one. Anyway, aren’t we all supposed to mark the offending posts as inappropriate or dislike the posts, and then they’ll truly go away?

[jrenaut]

@dkel 127093 wrote:

Maybe I’m missing something, but I am in mstone’s camp on this one. Anyway, aren’t we all supposed to mark the offending posts as inappropriate or dislike the posts, and then they’ll truly go away?

Report them as spam using the little triangle with a ! at the bottom left of the post. That way an administrator can delete them.

[rcannon100]

@dkel 126867 wrote:

My jury is out on this one. Blaming the church for this accident is a little like blaming all cyclists

Hm. Okay. Lets unpack this.

(1) I never said blame.

(2) Even had I said blame, your response is that it is inappropriate to extrapolate the behavior of one to a whole. Not what I was doing.

(3) The Church was an actor here. It’s not blame the institution because of one institutional member. It’s “blame” the institution because (a) the person in question was a leader of that institution (b) the institution was the employer of that individual and responsible for that employee (c) the institution knew of problematic behavior of the individual and did not act (d) the individual had just left an institutional function where the individual’s behavior was known.

Standard law. Employers have responsibilities for employees.

(4) But in fact I return to spirituality and to (1). This has absolutely nothing to do with blame and everything to do with compassion. At the hands of one of the church’s bishops, a father died. Now… lets assume for the moment that the church is 100% blameless and did nothing wrong.

It is without question that teachings of this church speak to this situation. It is the story of the good samaritan and of compassion. Has the church shown any compassion to this family? Has it? I know the cyclist community has. I will concede ground and admit that they may have. But there has been zero not any none reporting of it.

This isnt about blame. This is about compassion. There is not indication that the church has shown that.

Sorry, but this just seems superficial and judgmental to me. It takes a lot more than meeting someone to evaluate the content of their character.

I am sorry, I dont even know what your are talking about and I dont know what “it takes more than meeting someone to evaluate the content of their character” means.

We know this. Cyclists – 1000s of cyclists – turned out to mourn Tom. Cyclists – 1000s of cyclists – gave to the educational fund of the family and raised lots of money. We have not seen that compassion from the church.

But you were responding not to a comment about an individual but to a comment I made to people in general. I stand by it. The most generous and compassionate people I have met are not in the church. Yes, having a Masters of Divinity and decades in the church I have something to say about this. I will not belabor it except to say – I have lived in both communities. Jesus was right. The people in the gutter are far more wonderful than the people in the temple.

[Tim Kelley]

@PotomacCyclist 127082 wrote:

On the weekends, sometimes they stay up there for almost an entire day.

Who the heck is running this thing? Lazy. You get what you pay for–amirite? HAHahAA!

[Tania]

I frequently find the spam posts much more entertaining (and useful) than the posts made by many regulars.

[creadinger]

Seriously….

I’m interested in getting more traction for removal of a driver’s license for LONG periods of time for serious DUI/distracted driving offenses. Like, why will this EX-bishop be allowed to drive after she gets out of prison? She’s proven that she has no sense of responsibility. Maybe that should be part of probation too. NO DRIVING! I think we can easily show that prison is ineffective at changing behavior, but maybe living out in the real world without your precious car would be better.

What’s the best way to start?? Probably the best place would be in a liberal small state like Massachussetts or Vermont, or a city with good mass transit, and then other cities or states would fall in line…. It can’t be hard to find a politician who isn’t afraid to stand up to the drunk driving lobby. I mean come on.

This drunk wench who killed the 2 cyclists down near Chesapeake Beach, should never be allowed to drive again. How do I make that happen??

[Terpfan]

Perhaps I’m a pessimist, but I don’t think bans will do much for someone who shows no respect for the law. I mean, she was already banned from driving drunk, and that didn’t seem to stop her. I suppose one could argue that she has an addiction, which I think is a very real thing, and that treating that addiction would help to rectify the situation. But I wonder, what if it doesn’t work? What’s stopping her from renting a car and driving drunk? I mean, she was clearly told before never to drive drunk again, and she did, during the daytime, and in a crowded area.

That rant aside, I’ve always thought the whole DUI thing was more about money than safety. The DOT is mandating backup cameras in every vehicle starting in the 2017 models. Those cameras cost more than ignition interlock. So what’s preventing us from simply mandating them in every car? Sure, some idiots will find a way around it, but wouldn’t it have a much broader safety implication? I mean, you can tell someone don’t do so something otherwise you will be prosecuted versus actually removing their ability to do it.

[creadinger]

@Terpfan 127199 wrote:

Perhaps I’m a pessimist, but I don’t think bans will do much for someone who shows no respect for the law. I mean, she was already banned from driving drunk, and that didn’t seem to stop her. I suppose one could argue that she has an addiction, which I think is a very real thing, and that treating that addiction would help to rectify the situation. But I wonder, what if it doesn’t work? What’s stopping her from renting a car and driving drunk? I mean, she was clearly told before never to drive drunk again, and she did, during the daytime, and in a crowded area.

Yes, you can assume that most of these people would try to drive with suspended or revoked licenses anyway. But in these most recent cases, the women are not anti-society, holed up in a drug den, Whitey Bulger like gang bangers. They’re generally law abiding people, except for the whole drinking, driving, and then killing somebody thing.

Assuming you’re trying to fit into normal society and your license has been suspended or revoked, if you’re going to break the law and drive you’re more likely to drive really well because if you get pulled over for anything you’re going to be arrested, not just cited. And the penalties would be big fines and possibly more jail time. So out of fear of being arrested everywhere they go, I’d like to think they would eventually end up ditching the car. Sure it would be a massive hassle for them, but I don’t see it making the roads less safe.

[Author]

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