WHY WE FIGHT
From the San Francisco Chronicle, Nov. 8:
Man who sought safe streets killed in S.F. crash
A wheelchair-using San Francisco man who fought for safe streets for the disabled is being mourned this week by friends and family after he was fatally struck by a car in one of the city's most dangerous intersections.Kenneth "Bryan" Goodwin, 31, who faced struggles as a 3-foot-tall man but rarely let it show, was headed home from a friend's house early Monday morning when he was hit by a driver at Market Street and Octavia Boulevard
Police are investigating the collision, which happened just after midnight, but have not detailed what happened.
As a memorial of flowers marked the crash site, many who knew Goodwin - and some who didn't - recalled him as small man with a big and infectious enthusiasm.
"He was a noticeable guy because he didn't look like anyone else," said friend and attorney Nance Becker. "The fact is he could have had a very narrow life, but through his intelligence and personality, he had a fuller life."
She added: "After all he had been through, to get hit by a car, it's crazy."
Goodwin, who had a congenital bone disorder known as osteogenesis imperfecta, worked as a legal clerk for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, where everyone in the 900-person San Francisco office knew him, colleagues said.
"It was hard not to know Bryan," said the EPA's regional administrator, Jared Blumenfeld. "He was a very large character. He was some of the glue that held us together."
[...]
The intersection of Market and Octavia was the scene of 30 collisions between 2009 and 2011, city records show. That's more than any other place in San Francisco.
The chief problem is motorists driving east on Market, making illegal right turns onto the Highway 101 onramp, and hitting bicyclists or pedestrians. Three days before the crash that killed Goodwin, the city began camera enforcement at the intersection to catch drivers making the turns.
It's unclear whether the surveillance camera filmed Monday's incident, and police have not said whether Goodwin was struck by a car making an illegal turn, though investigators did speak with the driver after the collision.
Shades of the late Harry Weider in New York... When will it be understood that these are political martyrs, not "accident victims"? They are casualties in a war for public space.
See more reasons WHY WE FIGHT
Please support our fund drive.
WHY WE FIGHT
From The Blaze, ironically a right-wing source:
Poor grammar in original.
WHY WE FIGHT
The too-rich-to-know-better defense. I can't wait to the see the too-poor-to-know-better defense. I think I'll be waiting a long time for that one. From WFAA in Dalas, Dec. 10:
Up to her to forgive the punk, but I will never forgive the judge. As usual, the most incriminating passage is buried deep in the story. Here it is...
Unbelievable.
WHY WE FIGHT
From Reuters, April 11:
No anti-car backlash after Isla Vista kill-spree
Note that Elliot Rodger employed his BMW as a weapon in his notorious kill-spree, using it to leave as many as 10 wounded, according to Wikipedia. Yet since the horrific attacks, we have seen the requisite calls for gun control and inevitable demonization of the "mentally ill" (sic). Yet no calls for background checks for driver's licenses, or (better yet) banning cars.
Did you ever ask yourself—Why is that?
Therapeutic police state measures in wake of Isla Vista
Here we go. The inevitable federal legislation expanding involuntary "treatment" (sic) of the "mentally ill" (sic) in the wake of Isla Vista. Explicitly presented as instead of gun control measures, which are politically infeasible. Spare us all your bogus talk about "freedom," gun-fetishists. Ugly details at Yahoo News, NPR.
WHY WE FIGHT
One person is dead after a tractor-trailer barreled into Simeon's restaurant in an historic building in downtown Ithaca, NY. Seven were hospitalized and the facade of the building had to be demolished. (Ithaca Voice, June 20)
WHY WE FIGHT
From NBC Philadelphia, Aug. 28:
WHY WE FIGHT
This is the great cause of the new Sagebrush Rebellion... The right to hold an all-terrain vehicle rally through a canyon with ancient Pueblo Indian sites. Five are being charged by federal authorities for doing exactly that at Utah's Recapture Canyon. The Bureau of Land Management closed the canyon to motorized use in 2007 to keep wheels off its many archaeological sites. But some 50 riders motored into the canyon in a May 10 rally, waving "Don't Tread on Me" flags and denouncing federal "overreach." The Salt Lake Tribune reports that one of the defendants is Jay Redd, son of the late James Redd, who took his life five years ago after his arrest in an BLM investigation into artifacts trafficking.
File under "Ugly Americanism."
KPFA radio producer killed in hit-and-run
From NBC Bay Area, April 20:
WHY WE FIGHT
An argument over a restaurant parking spot may have ignited the horrific shootout between rival motorcycle gangs that killed nine, wounded 18 and led to the arrests of 170 bikers, according to police in Waco, Tex. (Dallas Morning News, May 18)
Murder charges in Oklahoma car-nage
This CNN account uses the bogus word "crash," but how amazing that the motorist was actually charged...
WHY WE FIGHT
From the San Francisco Chrionicle, Feb. 11:
"Exempt license plate"? How many times do we have to say it? License to kill.
WHY WE FIGHT
From Live Trucking, Feb. 13: