WOW - Man charged with trying to run down jogger (Read 1231 times)

Ill. man charged with trying to run down jogger

I wonder what Cassandra Jolly was practicing that was deceptive?

A good reason to do your speedwork.  These things always happen to joggers, never to runners.

Yes leaving open the option of wearing them down:

In training he was fearless, felt himself too easily capable of
violence. He often contemplated what he would do if someone
stopped and challenged him. He figured he would put them
through a little of what his life was all about first; taunt them into
giving chase. He would stay just a little out of their grasp, egg
them on and on. Perhaps they would make half a mile or so,
depending on how well he could lead them on, perhaps their own
sense of pride might surface, a byproduct of a terrible
misconception about what was actually happening. Shorter had
once run the legs off an entire gang of hooligans in the hills of
New Mexico, despite already being tired from a 15-mile run. You
would watch for the signs, Cassidy thought, the ones you knew so
very well; the pain, the bewilderment, the blankness that would
eventually come close to despair. He would make it a challenge, so
they would forget their original purpose and keep on going just to
show this bastard, this...this...(then it would dawn) runner.
Then he would simply turn and face them. He would take on
anyone like that, he thought. He would take on Muhammad Ali, so
long as he could direct the preliminaries.
Cassidy knew very well that he could take men, otherwise
strong and brave men, to places they had never been before. Places
where life and death overlapped in surreal valleys of muscle gloom
and heart despair, where one begins to realize once more that
nothing really matters at all and that stopping (death?) is all; where
all men can finally get the slick skin of civilization off and see that
soft pink glow inside that tells you-in both cunnilingus and bullet
wounds-that there are no secrets.
A visitor's taste, in short, of the distance runner's daily fare. He
would fight them then, if they still wanted to, after they knew. But they

wouldn't want to, he was sure of that. They would walk away
with nothing more than a hard-won understanding

I'm really surprised they even did anything.  I've reported a couple assaults while running (big wonder I no longer live there) and they had no serious interest in doing anything about it, even with a license plate (or, in the other case, the police officer as a firsthand witness).

 

He's obviously not too bright as there was no evidence other than her report, and he simply admitted to it.

I've read far too many stories about this sort of stuff aimed at cyclists.  In the majority of cases the motorist gets little more than a slap on the wrist, even when they've killed someone with their car.  It's unbelievable to me that if someone shoots another person with a gun that it's deemed murder, but if they run another person down with a motor vehicle that it's not seen as anything more than a misdemeanor in many cases.

Lawyer:

who often ignored the rules of the road,e.g., ride in single file. I can't count the times I was forced to move way over the center line while shuttling my kids to and from sporting and other events to avoid pairs or large groups of cyclists disobeying basic road courtesy. Can't say that has ever happens with runners.

Is single-file really the law where you are?  Here 2 abreast is legal.  In some areas/states I have even seen 3-abreast as the law, but I think that's rather rare.  I'd assume you know the law, given your profession...though it seems that many "educated" folks assume that it's single-file everywhere, then get their panties in a wad when they wrongly assume law-abiding cyclists are breaking the law.

And, yeah, the law also allows cyclists to take the lane if the right edge of the road has a rough or non-existent shoulder.  That's not cyclists being assholes, it's cyclists looking out for their own safety.

Do you get upset when farm vehicles or horses or Amish buggies take up part of a lane and force you to cross the center line to go around?  There seems to be a double standard with a lot of drivers arbitrarily picking and choosing who to be pissed at.