This Wednesday, La Libre relayed the incident involving a cyclist who was riding on a cycle street on Avenue Louise, in Brussels, and a motorist who, after knocking him down, attacked him. Since then, the affair has caused a stir on social networks and GRACQ, the Research and Action Group of Daily Cyclists, returned to the incident in a press release this Thursday with the aim of setting the record straight. hour.
In its strong reaction, the cyclists’ association begins by re-explaining what happened. “The testimony informs us about the circumstances of the event: the motorist violated the highway code a first time by overtaking the cyclist in a cycle street, a second time by overtaking him so closely that he caused the cyclist to fall. cyclist who, in a reflex movement, strikes the vehicle with his hand. The motorist then stopped his vehicle, got out, and stabbed his victim in the throat. Hit and run for the attacker, six stitches for the victim.”
Violent altercation between a cyclist and a motorist near Avenue Louise: “He came out and hit me in the throat”
GRACQ then denounces the reactions of Internet users following this incident. “One would be tempted to believe that this story is quite Manichean: a victim on one side, an aggressor on the other. And yet, faced with this scenario which should give rise to unilateral condemnation towards the driver, three types of completely out-of-ground reactions are observed.”
The association then details these reactions which it finds inappropriate. “Among the reactions observed, many people suggest that the victim is certainly responsible for what happened to him. In social psychology, this mechanism is known: we place an interpretative filter on an event in particular to reassure ourselves about our belief that we live in a just world. In a just world, people get what they deserve. Following this pattern of thinking, these people fantasize the idea that the cyclist must have caused this situation himself.”
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“It’s the fault of the road improvements”
Other people, according to GRACQ, recognize the faults of the motorist but try to justify them by incriminating the behavior of the entire cycling community. “With reasoning like ‘Cyclists don’t respect the code, we shouldn’t be surprised that it comes to this’”.
The association further denounces the fact that Internet users, “so as not to denounce the unacceptable”go so far as to look for external culprits in the situation. “If this act was committed, they say, it is because we ‘pitted users against each other’. Understand: it is the fault of the arrangements made to secure cyclists that they are attacked. By denouncing a Traffic Plan of which they probably only know the name, they are probably unaware that this type of behavior on the roads is far from new. Driving violence has been studied since the end of the 1960s and is closely linked to the power of the car. But the notion of power has always been the primary message from car salesmen.”
Angry, GRACQ calls for a “another model of mobility, which is no longer based on power but on respect for others, in particular the most vulnerable”. The association also asks “firm justice in the face of dangerous, violent and aggressive behavior on the road” and an “best social media moderation”, particularly from the media which relay this type of facts. Finally, she specifies that “we need citizens who are still capable of showing empathy and discernment in the face of a situation of violence”.
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