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OPINION

Angry cafe owner Jason Wells, Jon Ronson and internet shaming

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Does road rage driver Jason Wells deserve the social media campaign against him?

Writer Jon Ronson thinks the social media campaign against Jason Wells is an example of the kind of dangerous shaming he spent two years researching for his book So You've Been Publicly Shamed. But he also thinks the failure of the judicial system to deal with road violence against cyclists is "a story that should be told".

In case you've been in an isolation tank for the last week, Jason Wells is the owner of the Brew chain of cafes in South London. He was recently fined £90 for a public order offence after an incident in which he passed a cyclist dangerously close. Wells then told the rider the presence of witnesses was the only reason he didn't launch a physical attack.

The rider, who has asked to be known just as Micheal, videoed the incident. Wells has a total meltdown, unleashing a tiurade of threats and abuse against a bike rider whose only offence was not to be narrow enough for Wells to avoid hitting him.

On Tuesday Ronson tweeted about the case:

A lengthy conversation followed between Ronson and various Twitter cyclists including me.

Some highlights:

There was a lot more, and you can read it all for yourself on Ronson's Twitter page

Unarguably, the response on social media to Wells' action has been, shall we say, enthusiastic. Cyclists have spread the word about Wells' actions and encouraged people not to frequent his cafes, one of which has a bike repair service.

A boycott and campaign of negative publicity seems perfectly reasonable to me. Wells has a business that courts cyclists, but has displayed utter contempts for us.

As you can see from his comments, Ronson is concerned at the negative effects such a campaign of public shaming can have. He cites PR flack Justine Sacco who lost her job after getting on a plane and tweeting: "Going to Africa. Hope I don't get AIDS. Just kidding. I'm white!"

In my opinion that was a joke about white privilege, but an easily misinterpreted one.

But there's a very big difference between Wells driving his big black car at a cyclist and an idiotic remark on Twitter.

I'm not generally a fan of the way mobs with virtual pitchforks and flaming torches assemble on social media about trivia. When pub landlord James Walker was the subject of Twitter ire over what was clearly a piss-take aimed at his friends I spoke to him and was convinced he was genuinely sorry.

Walker handled the situation well, responding to people who contacted him to have a go, apologising directly and explaining the background. He didn't fall silent and let things fester, while issuing a brief communication via a PR agency as Wells did.

Wells made it worse with his mealy-mouthed PR nonpology. He didn't apologise for hitting Michael, or for threatening to beat him up, he merely apologised for "any offence caused". It's the wording we've heard time and again from someone who is only sorry that they got caught.

Ronson is right on the money when he talks about "glee" in the response to Wells. After years of the police and judicial system failing to adequately punish those who endanger cyclists, here was someone we could hit back against directly.

As well as the #boycottbrew campaign on Twitter, TripAdvisor has been inundated with negative reviews of his cafes though according to the Evening Standard these have now been deleted. In the Q&A section, people are instead asking "I normally have toast for breakfast, but I understand the owner "eats cyclist for breakfast" can I ask, how do you cook your cyclists?" and "I cycle a lot to keep fit. Will you use foul language and threaten me?"

Brew Cafe's Facebook page is also stuffed with negative reiews and condemnation of Wells' behaviour.

None of this would be necessary if a number of things had happened differently. Firstly, of course, Wells could have simply waited until it was safe to overtake, rather than trying to squeeze his big black car into too small a gap.

Then, when Michael yelled at him, he could have simply apologised, instead of going off on a now-infamous threatening rant.

But more importantly, the police could have brought a more serious charge of at least careless driving. Dangerous driving would seem more reasonable. Actually hitting another road users seems to sensible people to meet that offence's standard, driving that's "far below the minimum acceptable standard expected of a competent and careful driver" and "obvious to a competent and careful driver that driving in that way would be dangerous".

Michael says he was "disappointed with the fine, because I'm pretty sure [Wells] can afford it". Had Wells been dealt with properly by the law, I wonder if Michael might have kept the video to himself.

Several of us made the point to Jon Ronson that CPS and police failure to properly deal with motoring offences against cyclists was a large part of why torches and pitchforks were out.

Ronson's been there himself. Before he knew that Wells had been fined, Ronson tweeted: "I think the cyclist should have taken the footage to the police, not posted it on social media. However one time a driver was a lunatic to me on my bike and I went to the police and they couldn't have cared less."

That driver, Ronson said, "was fucking terrifying".

When it was pointed out just how common this was, Ronson replied:

I hope that means we'll see a Jon Ronson article about the issue of the system's disregard for road attacks on cyclists. I doubt anyone would read a whole book about it, but a well-researched story by a respected journalist would help push forward the campaign for justice on the roads.

Footnote: Cycle paths and the Highway Code

In the aftermath of this incident, I've seen claims that there's a speed limit for cyclists on cycle paths, and that the Highway Code recommends faster riders use the road and not cycle paths.

Both of those beliefs are wrong.

This misconception comes from a bit of proposed advice to cyclists mentioned on Bikehub's Cycling and the law page.

That page says "According to this advice issued by the Department of Transport, cyclists likely to be riding 18mph or faster should use roads not cycle-paths."

The provided link takes you to a notice that the page has been archived, and then refers you to the archived page.

It turns out that 'ride on the road if you're riding over 18mph' was never offical Department for Transport advice.

It was suggested, but not officially issued as advice, in a consultation exercise about a code of conduct for cyclists on cycle paths.

The archived DfT page says (my emphasis):

The following key messages are suggested as the basis for a code of conduct notice for cyclists. The code could be posted at points of entry and at intervals along the route. This will be especially useful when the facility is new.

Ride at a sensible speed for the situation and ensure you can stop in time. As a general rule, if you want to cycle quickly, say in excess of 18 mph/30 kph, then you should be riding on the road.

I have not been able to find any evidence that this was ever official government advice. It is definitely not in the Highway Code's Rules for Cyclists.

John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.

He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.

Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.

John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.

He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.

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62 comments

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Paul_C | 8 years ago
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he 'apologised' for his expletive laden rant... he did NOT apologize for the stupidly dangerous overtake manoeuvre which actually hit the cyclist with his wing mirror...

sorry but I' a bit pissed off having suffered thre dangerously close overtakes in just 30 seconds while trying to prevent them in primary with traffic coming the other way...

I'm fscking pi55ed off with the unbelievable impatience shown by other drivers these days...

I drive, I will hold back until it is safe to overtake someone riding a bicycle... but it seems I'm in the minority of drivers...

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Quince | 8 years ago
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This neatly sums up my own thoughts on the issue.

While I generally regard attacking someone from the anonymity of a computer screen to be borne of the same cowardice as attacking them from the confines of a motor vehicle, this particular issue highlights a recurring flaw in the justice system, which needs attention drawn to it. Given its notoriety, the manner in which it's handled sends out a pretty strong message about how acceptable this sort of behaviour is.

It's one thing to 'make an examples' of someone - to hand them unjustly severe punishments simply to make a point to others - but trying to pick up the slack from an unjustly lenient legal verdict is another. Not that I regard this as some sort of holy crusade - it's mainly just a lot of people who are pissed off about having being on the receiving end of similar incidents, and are only too happy to turn the tables on the balance of power.

I'm sure plenty of people have stepped over the line though - they always do, and those people could probably do with reading a few of the things Ronson has written.

I think Ronson's generally in the right - if that's not a too twee way of looking at it.

Social media shaming is at best a sloppy form of "justice", but it this case it seems - depressingly - to be the only sort available.

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armb | 8 years ago
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On the one hand I thought publicising his reflective scales picture was a bit unfair - almost no-one looks good from that angle, and I very much doubt he realized how much could be seen when he posted it.
On the other hand, I saw this and immediately thought of Wells -
http://smbc-comics.com/index.php?id=1918

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DanTe | 8 years ago
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Everyone's talking about individuals here, the problem is much much bigger..
It's almost irrelevant what the people involved were doing at the time.
This kind of thing happens all over the place in this miserable, angry little country. Quiet coaches on trains, middle lanes of motorways, supermarket car parks, at work, at home.
Every bugger seems intent on putting one over whoever they can in an attempt to get what they perceive they want, or defending their own little mental castles from some imaginary attack on their moral fortitude.
We've become a greedy, narrow minded little nation. Become? Is it worse than it was? Will it get better or worse?? Who knows???

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DanTe | 8 years ago
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It sucks!

Looks like we exported it to the colonies too..

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/33059885

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ianrobo replied to DanTe | 8 years ago
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DanTe wrote:

.
We've become a greedy, narrow minded little nation. Become? Is it worse than it was? Will it get better or worse?? Who knows???

Welcome to the children of Thatcher's world

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Colin Peyresourde replied to ianrobo | 8 years ago
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ianrobo wrote:
DanTe wrote:

.
We've become a greedy, narrow minded little nation. Become? Is it worse than it was? Will it get better or worse?? Who knows???

Welcome to the children of Thatcher's world

what a beautiful, pointless and nonsensical reduction down to your own private belief that is! You might as well say that things have been going this way since slavery was abolished, women were given the vote and hippies put flowers in their hair.

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gazza_d | 8 years ago
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I have no problem with any of the shaming etc of Jason Wells.

He is a nasty little man in a large car who collided with a cyclist and then verbally assaulted him & made threats to kill. Yea, the cyclist was a bit angry back but that's understandable. It's always better to to and stay as calm as possible but hard when you've been ran off the road.

Said nasty little man seemed to have a nice little earnaer from trendy cafes, which had a specific focus on cyclists. Personally I hope his business now goes bankrupt as a result. He showed that he had absolute contempt for a significant proportion of his customer base.

If you are going to live by the sword of social media, by posing with big choppers, accidentally showing your tiny nob when boasting about weigh ins, and ponce about showing off your huge house, then be fecking well prepared to die by the very same sword when you grab it by the very sharp blade

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Goldfever4 | 8 years ago
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I just think the dumb jokes about the reflection of his dick are childish and unnecessary. That's just bullying and it pisses me off that people are stooping that low. In this kind of debate we (Cyclists) are trying to present ourselves as reasonable well-adjusted and intelligent people who have been wronged (as a group). Point-and-laugh jokes about someones penis don't really support that and it's a shame people have resorted to it.

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muppetteer | 8 years ago
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The issue is that the legal process in this country is flawed. If you watch the video and see how many times the cyclist is threatened with his life, and even Jason Wells only states that he won't go through with his threats because there are witnesses.

Yet, in the Evening Standard, two Jewish men get two verbal threats and the suspect ends up in custody on suspicion of threats to kill with the area closed by the Police.

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/jewish-men-subjected-to-shocking-an...

I'm not belittling what could be considered a horrible racist incident involved the two Jewish men, but the cyclist was hit by a car, a weapon. On purpose, with intent to injure or intimidate and then the cyclist was continually threatened on film for 4 minutes. Had Jason Wells made an error when trying to hit the cyclist with his vehicle, he could have seriously injured him or killed him. And the threats were all on film. A £90 fine for a public disorder offence? Something is very wrong.

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hsiaolc replied to muppetteer | 8 years ago
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muppetteer wrote:

The issue is that the legal process in this country is flawed. If you watch the video and see how many times the cyclist is threatened with his life, and even Jason Wells only states that he won't go through with his threats because there are witnesses.

Yet, in the Evening Standard, two Jewish men get two verbal threats and the suspect ends up in custody on suspicion of threats to kill with the area closed by the Police.

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/jewish-men-subjected-to-shocking-an...

I'm not belittling what could be considered a horrible racist incident involved the two Jewish men, but the cyclist was hit by a car, a weapon. On purpose, with intent to injure or intimidate and then the cyclist was continually threatened on film for 4 minutes. Had Jason Wells made an error when trying to hit the cyclist with his vehicle, he could have seriously injured him or killed him. And the threats were all on film. A £90 fine for a public disorder offence? Something is very wrong.

We have everything on video can't the cyclist sue him for trying to kill him or injure him with intent?

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kevinmorice | 8 years ago
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You are NOT the law. Justice is delivered by the law, not by a bunch of vigilantes hiding behind their computers.

The law may have decided £90 was appropriate, and that was a judge and a jury and a set of lawyers, following an agreed system of laws to come to a decision.

Just because you don't like the outcome of that process doesn't permit you to brandish your own punishments.

What next? Pitchforks and flaming torches as you burn his business down?

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severs1966 replied to kevinmorice | 8 years ago
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kevinmorice wrote:

...Justice is delivered by the law, not by a bunch of vigilantes hiding behind their computers...

The problem is that Justice is often *not* delivered by the law. In the case of vulnerable road users being terrorised by maniacs in motor vehicles, Justice is almost never delivered by the law.

And as for "vigilantes", maybe you should look that word up? All that has been threatened is withdrawing custom from the angry arsehole's establishments.

I think you will find that "we" are completely entitled, under the law you seem to love, do withdraw custom from whomever we please.

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Bikebikebike replied to kevinmorice | 8 years ago
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kevinmorice wrote:

You are NOT the law. Justice is delivered by the law, not by a bunch of vigilantes hiding behind their computers.

The law may have decided £90 was appropriate, and that was a judge and a jury and a set of lawyers, following an agreed system of laws to come to a decision.

Just because you don't like the outcome of that process doesn't permit you to brandish your own punishments.

What next? Pitchforks and flaming torches as you burn his business down?

I am the law.

J. Dredd

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leemc | 8 years ago
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Whilst I don't necessarily agree that the harrassment this guy's been subjected to is right, proportionate or beneficial, I think sadly it's taken the focus away from his idiotic and dangerous behaviour.

According to RoSPA statistics, in the roughly 3 months since Wells went on this rant and nearly ran this poor guy over, around 25 cyclists will have been killed, and 4400 injured on UK roads.

http://www.rospa.com/road-safety/advice/pedal-cyclists/facts-figures/

Pretty damning really, and far more important than whether sharing pictures of his tackle on the internet is going to upset him in my opinion.

It's not surprising many people - me included - feel that we need to get involved in these cases in any way we can, because clearly our legal system isn't fit to deal with them.

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FluffyKittenofT... | 8 years ago
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I think it all depends how far an internet "campaign" goes.

I have no problem with cyclists deciding they don't want to patronise his cafes. That's a rational choice given the information about his attitudes and behaviour, and given the authorities failure to do much about such bad driving. Its making a statement of exasperation with the general tolerance of such driving.

The thing is though, I don't think it will amount to much, if anything. To sustain a meaningful boycott requires a lot of effort. I would bet at the the very most it just might cost him a tiny bit of lost profit that will add very slightly to the pathetic fine.

But personally I didn't like the attention to the infamous enhanced photograph. I can entirely understand the temptation, but to me that was all getting way too 4chan-esque.

That he made an embarrassing error with posting that picture, really didn't have anything to do with his lousy driving.

Basically, a bit of public disapproval for the act is OK as long as people don't sink to the level of the Daily Mail (following Milliband's wife around while trying to find some dirt), or the Murdoch phone hackers, say.

Its when internet mobs descend to the level of professional journalists that it gets really bad.

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danthomascyclist | 8 years ago
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This won't affect his business to a great extent. 99% of the population have no idea who this guy is, or the name of his cafe. Even most cyclists on a jolly day out around London won't know. This is a niche story, that although has been picked up by the Daily Mail etc, most people have forgotten about this by now.

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Leodis | 8 years ago
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For some reason I looked at the DM comments on this and even by their sad standards this attitude towards cyclists is far more common than I thought. Do I feel bad for social media justice but if the CPS cannot protect cyclists I see this happening again, just like Emma Way...

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vonhelmet replied to Leodis | 8 years ago
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Leodis wrote:

For some reason I looked at the DM comments on this and even by their sad standards this attitude towards cyclists is far more common than I thought.

I cycled 26 miles last night and over the course of that I had someone shout out of their window at me and another person revving loudly behind me the second the amber light came on at some traffic lights. Some people do indeed seem to have zero tolerance for cyclists. And this was 26 miles on fairly rural roads - I'm sure the problem is far worse in more built up areas.

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Bez | 8 years ago
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I really want to remove the penultimate paragraph from that "offence" comment, because it's a really bad way of saying what I meant to say, but the site will drop the comment to the bottom and make the thread rather confusing. Hmm.

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Paul M | 8 years ago
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I hope the people who want to see Wells bankrupted will give some thought to the people who work for him in his cafes - and especially the guys who work in his bike repair operation - who could be left out of work as a result.

Hopefully he has got the message. We should leave it at that.

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KiwiMike replied to Paul M | 8 years ago
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Paul M wrote:

I hope the people who want to see Wells bankrupted will give some thought to the people who work for him in his cafes - and especially the guys who work in his bike repair operation - who could be left out of work as a result.

Hopefully he has got the message. We should leave it at that.

From the sounds of it his staff would love to see him go broke and the cafes taken over by a nicer boss. Good staff, incumbent and known by locals, will always be in demand.

The sooner people realise their actions on the public highway can have far-reaching and crippling financial consequences the better. With 17,000 police cut so far and more to come, it's our *only* hope.

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Joeinpoole replied to Paul M | 8 years ago
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Paul M wrote:

I hope the people who want to see Wells bankrupted will give some thought to the people who work for him in his cafes - and especially the guys who work in his bike repair operation - who could be left out of work as a result.

If demand decreases at Wells' cafes then it will simply increase elsewhere. The same amount of money will still be spent on food and drinks in each locality and the same number of people will still be employed to cook and serve it.

When there was a public backlash against Starbucks a couple of years ago the Starbucks shop on my high street was virtually empty ... but the nearby Cafe Nero was suddenly rammed.

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Carson replied to Paul M | 8 years ago
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If he did go out of business (which is pretty unlikely seeing as he lives in a £3Million house he must be doing pretty well) the responsibility lies with him.

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FluffyKittenofT... replied to Paul M | 8 years ago
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Paul M wrote:

I hope the people who want to see Wells bankrupted will give some thought to the people who work for him in his cafes - and especially the guys who work in his bike repair operation - who could be left out of work as a result.

Hopefully he has got the message. We should leave it at that.

This is overly-pious. I'd be astonished if he even suffered a loss he'd notice.

And, besides, you could make the same argument against any wealthy businessman ever suffering any penalty for anything. "Hey, can't send that guy to jail for beating someone with a baseball bat, his employees might lose their jobs".
Are you saying only poor people should ever face penalties?

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BikeBud | 8 years ago
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A lot of good points here.

For me, one of the key things is that Jason Wells gets to see that what he things is acceptable is perceived by many people as very far from acceptable. He may not give a sh*t about that. However, the fact that it may endanger his business is something that he will at least consider. I have absolutely no sympathy for the man whatsoever.

I very much dislike the social vitriol, but I love the wry humour. I don't like the fact that this raises the temperature of the Us and Them hatred.

Essentially though, this is a barometer of how people feel - about the way they are treated on the roads, and about the way the justice system works (or doesn't).

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Joeinpoole | 8 years ago
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No, Jason Wells is simply getting what he deserves. It's not just a 'social media' campaign either, the story was considered news-worthy enough to make both the local and national newspapers.

Social media has given a voice to more people to publicly express how they feel about the issue. That has to be a good thing.

Btw, the 'disclosing private sexual photographs' originated from Well's own Twitter feed. He took the photo of his bits and *he* chose to publish it on the WWW.

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peted76 | 8 years ago
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I say let the internet have it's day day. I particualry liked the 'reflective scales' image that was put of there of him (unsure if real or not but very funny) no crimes are being committed or physical violence towards him, it's just words and defamation of character and Jason Wells who has clearly profited 'a lot' from cyclists deserves everything he gets.

Remember today's news is tomorrows chip paper!

Worst or best scenario.. maybe all of this will mean poor old Jason Wells might have to downgrade to a £40k car instead of an £60k car next time.. and maybe just maybe the next time a car driver approaches a cyclist, they might just think the cyclist is 'cam'ed up' and consider passing them safer.

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teaboy replied to peted76 | 8 years ago
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peted76 wrote:

Remember today's news is tomorrows chip paper!

Except that's no longer true. In internet-land EVERYTHING written or posted is out there FOREVER for someone to find, at any time in the future.

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Tim1.9 | 8 years ago
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Aside from the issue of the social media campaign or internet vigilantism, depending on your personal view, I think that there is something longer term that we as cyclists can do.

I cycle, drive, walk and run. I have had to speak to antisocial cyclists, drivers, walkers and runners about the dangerous way that they are conducting themselves. I have occasionally also made mistakes and silly decisions myself which has resulted in other road/cycle/footpath users having to accommodate me. I would like to think that my mistakes are minor and very rare, but I do not claim to be perfect.

The point is that as humans we are fallible, whether it be distraction, tiredness or as seen in this incident, anger. Why don't we ask cyclists do more to publicly support driverless vehicle development, with the aim of making roads safer for our community. By their very nature driverless vehicles will be much safer than 2 tonnes of metal controlled by a lump of ignorant meat.

I'm my ideal world drivers will be banned from the roads in 20 years time and these kind of incidents, and worse, will be recounted with amazement.

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