Watching the events of the “biker” incident unfold was
pretty shocking. It seemed much more like something out of a movie than
reality. I was appalled by the actions of both parties involved. However, the
actions of the “biker gang”/ “gang of bikers”, whatever you feel comfortable labeling
them, sparked the driver’s overreaction. Therefore, if your goal is to pin “blame”
or to determine which one of the parties acted in the wrong, you have to elect
the bikers. Of course I don’t think the driver’s decision to run over a biker
was ideal, but the bikers should accept that acting in manner they were, in the
middle of a busy highway can have some potentially unsavory consequences. Riding your motor bikes recklessly and
illegally in the middle of New York City with fifty of your buddies can be hazardous
to one’s health. It is safe to say the bikers recognized (or should have)
this fact before they set out on their tear. You cannot be so naïve to think
that behaving in such a manner will not inevitably enrage some drivers. You
also cannot be so naïve to think that, of these drivers you will inevitably
enrage, all of them will be so courteous as to politely ask you to get out of
their way. Of course some people will completely overreact and behave recklessly.
It’s called road rage and it happens all the time. That is the risk you take
when you behave like this “gang of bikers” did.
To the point of the SUV driver’s behavior, my first reaction
was that he completely overreacted to the situation. I tried applying Smith’s “empathy/sympathy
test”, putting myself in his “shoes” and then determining how I would have acted.
My first answer was that of course I would immediately call the authorities and
try to plea with the “gang of bikers” to not stomp me. Then I wasn’t so sure,
after all I have never been in any situation close to that of this man. I
suppose this is the problem with empathizing in this manner. I cannot truly
determine how I would act in this man’s “shoes”, therefore I cannot completely empathize,
only speculate. As I stated before, this event seemed more like a scene from a
movie, not reality, how could I realistically and confidently state how I would
behave in the situation? I would like to think I would respond in a civil
manner and I could never imagine myself driving over someone with my vehicle.
On the other hand, I don’t know how afraid the man was for himself or his
family, I also don’t know if I would have been equally afraid or less afraid.
For these reasons, I don’t think I can say with total and unwavering confidence
how I would have acted. I suppose some will feign a greater sense of self-assurance
than this, but I cannot be so certain.
Hey Tanner! You bring up a really interesting point about how one can't truly empathize with another person when they've never been close to the other individual's situation. I think Lien's fear of the "biker gang" image he had in his head made him overreact. I can't picture him doing the same thing if he were surrounded by cyclists or runners. Do you think Lien had a good reason to be afraid of the bikers (before he ran over one of them)?
ReplyDeleteHey Tanner I jumped to the conclusion that it was the bikers in the wrong here. I thought they were in the street illegally and then beat up a man who was just running not to get hurt. Then I thought that the man should have called the authorities or talked to the bikers. But in reality the man was scared for his own and his families life when 50 bikers were chasing him. Crazy to wrap my mind around
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on nearly all of your points here. It is very hard to put myself in the driver's shoes as I do not have a family of my own yet, I cannot imagine what was going through his mind. It is a very sad and unfortunate situation that the man who was helping the initially hit man got run over, as he was not even one of the men who was supposedly surrounding the SUV that intimidated the driver, and was just trying to do a good deed and help.
ReplyDeleteI guess since the bikers "started it" by driving illegally, it is technically their fault. However, I cannot understand why the driver would have hit the biker to begin with.
One of the things I like about this issue is that it seems not to be one of those Rorschach tests in which people see whatever they want to see. we have so few previous experiences to compare that we don't know how to react. The framing of the group as a "biker gang," a label that is probably inaccurate, tends to bias people against them. It seems to me that this is an instance in which both parties are partially at fault, which makes it a tough call. It's hard to connect this to other issues, too, so there's not a clear way to make a decision on it.
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