How Not to Cosplay

[Greenday]

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-n...lderly-3923587

At Comic-Con in San Diego, they had a massive zombie walk. A man with his kids is trying to drive downtown but is blocked by the zombies. A 64 year old woman jumped on the hood of the car. Other cosplayers jumped on the car, beat on the car. Naturally, the guy freaks out and guns it, seriously injuring the old woman's arm. Much outrage ensued.

No charges have been filed. And I believe the cops got this right. If a large group of people surround my car and start beating on it, I'm hitting the gas and the only thing I'm going to worry about after that is damage to my front bumper and the underside of my car. They can claim they were playing all they want, but you can't assault someone in their vehicle and expect nothing bad to happen.

[Gravekeeper]

People didn't just jump on his car or start beating on it.

He was an impatient asshole that started driving into a crowd who reacted pretty much the way you would expect when you try to drive through a crowd that includes children. Then he just *gunned* it and plowed through. >.>

He created the situation he's a "victim" of.

[Greenday]

Clearly someone did get on top of the hood. People did bang on it, I could hear it. Just because you can't see what's happening on the other side of the car doesn't mean it wasn't happening.

[mikoyan29]

It looks like he honked and when he didn't get his way, he started to push through the crowd.

[siead_lietrathua]

Clearly someone did get on top of the hood. People did bang on it, I could hear it. Just because you can't see what's happening on the other side of the car doesn't mean it wasn't happening.

i dunno. watching the vid GK posted, it doesn't look like anyone got up on the hood. a guy in a blue shirt put his ass on the hood, but a smug hood-sitting is not the same as violent banging. seriously, before he sped up i heard maybe two bangs that weren't the music... and one was blue-shirt assplanting (after he sped through the crowd, any bangs were either justified, or the people he hit bouncing off the car)
it was mostly people yellin at him for driving into a crowd, and crowding around to stop him moving further. funnily enough, he doesn't speed through the crowd until blue-shirt sits his ass on the car. methinks he may have felt a bit insulted? (20second mark on GK's vid)

the windshield was broken, but only after he started plowing through the crowd. it wasn't broken first, then he panic-drove. you can plainly see blue-shirt start falling off the car, then turn and punch the windshield, AFTER the car begins speeding through. (24s) (blue-shirt then falls off the hood onto the ground)
the video in the link you posted actually starts when blue-shirt punches the windshield. you can hear the glass break as it starts, and see him falling a few frames later.

regardless of how the crowd acted, the guy rolled up his windows first, then drove into a crowd of pedestrians while honking. when, when they didn't move for him (and ass-planted his car) he speeds through them, injuring several.

sorry, but this guy's a douche.

[Mikkel]

To me it looks like the driver gets impatient, start blowing the horn and inch forward into the pedestrians, THEN the pedestrians begin knocking on the car and he speed up, perhaps in panic.
I think the blame is entirely on the fool behind the wheel. In the three years I've been on the road as a fulltime taxidriver, I have been in several situations much like that one, and have always been able to either go around (apologizing to the passengers) or going out of the car, ask nicely, and get them to let me through. No need for vehicular manslaughter. Even communists will let the mercedes through the demonstration when asked nicely .

[Aethian]

The driver and rest in the car were all deaf.

[Jetfire]

Deaf, not blind. IIRC from the video, there wasn't anyone behind him; he could have turned around and/or backed up (carefully). He should also have seen the road was effectively blockaded and gone in a different direction before the crosswalk.

In any case, hearing or not, he had many options other than "Accelerate into a mob of people."

[siead_lietrathua]

The driver and rest in the car were all deaf.

that has zero bearing on him being an asshole. i know a couple deaf and near-deaf drivers, they are very aware of their surroundings at all times. they would never drive INTO a crowd of people. only assholes do that.

[patiokitty]

I'm really surprised that deaf folks would be given licenses to drive, tbh. Don't you need to be able to hear what is going on around you as well as see it? I mean, if somebody were to lay on the horn to avoid an accident or to get the attention of somebody in front of them, a deaf person behind the wheel would never hear it.

[Aethian]

that has zero bearing on him being an asshole. i know a couple deaf and near-deaf drivers, they are very aware of their surroundings at all times. they would never drive INTO a crowd of people. only assholes do that.

I was just adding another piece of info NOT defending the driver.

[KabeRinnaul]

I'm really surprised that deaf folks would be given licenses to drive, tbh. Don't you need to be able to hear what is going on around you as well as see it? I mean, if somebody were to lay on the horn to avoid an accident or to get the attention of somebody in front of them, a deaf person behind the wheel would never hear it.

It's a pretty conditional thing, generally only coming up with signals like railroad crossings, sirens, or horns; and all of those things but the horn you can register visually without needing to hear them by just being more aware of your surroundings, and situational awareness will usually cover whatever people are blowing horns about, as well.

I'm more impaired driving without my glasses than I would be driving without the ability to hear, because then I can't make out small objects within a safe stopping distance or read any road signs without squinting.

[s_stabeler]

there was an article about this in my local paper last night:
1. this is an event that happens every year
2. the guy originally started rolling through the crowd- he didn't gun the engine until AFTER the crowd were beating on the car. From what I read, the crowd surrounded him, he didn't drive into the crowd. ( he was rolling through the crowd trying to get away)

a couple of questions I have: 1) why was the ZombieWalk not done on temporarily closed roads- like would be done for a bicycle race? If it was, my sympathy for the driver disappears completely.
2) were there signs warning of the event?


also, while I can accept he panicked, it still doesn't exactly excuse it- though under the conditions, I think the police were right not to charge him. He probably SHOULD be required to pay any hospital bills caused though.

[siead_lietrathua]

I was just adding another piece of info NOT defending the driver.

my apologies. consider it tone/text misunderstanding

[siead_lietrathua]

2. the guy originally started rolling through the crowd- he didn't gun the engine until AFTER the crowd were beating on the car. From what I read, the crowd surrounded him, he didn't drive into the crowd. ( he was rolling through the crowd trying to get away)
.

sorry, but he blared his horn and (slowly) drove into them. even if they are deaf, they learn in driver's ed what the horn does and is for. noone approached his car at all until he did that. honestly, if he had hit the horn without trying to drive into the crowd, they might have moved out of the way for him. but no, he started edging into the crowd, and people got pissed.