If individuals from an ethnic minority, or the homeless, or women, or the disabled, or gays, or illegal immigrants, or legal immigrants, or children, or a religious sect, or the poor were targeted for random let alone systemic harassment there would be justified outrage in the media, officialdom, and the community as a whole.
Imagine the alternative. A well-dressed executive in his BMW loudly curses random women passers-by simply for their gender. A hard-working tradesman jeers gays because of some perceived affront to his sensibilities. An over-stressed soccer mom spits on an old man in a walker because he can't get across the intersection fast enough. A civilized society would neither tolerate those behaviors nor those who do.
Yet cyclists exercising their legal and constitutional right to the highway experience these harassments with alarming regularity... and there is silence, there is apathy and worse… there is tolerance.
