Angry van driver threw sandwich at cyclist who 'cut him up'

A van driver threw a sandwich at a cyclist before wrenching his helmet off in a violent road rage attack, a court heard.

The incident happened after 29-year-old Craig Squires claimed he was ‘cut up’ by cyclist Benjamin Stauch at a roundabout, Cambridge magistrates were told.

On August 10, Mr Stauch took the third exit from Elizabeth Way, heading on to Milton Road, and passed the van driver waiting at the first exit.

In a statement read out by the prosecution, Mr Stauch claimed he cycled round the roundabout in the correct manner then saw Squires stick his fingers up in a V sign.

Laura Mardell,You have a 3-mm Buy Cheap Gucci Sunglasses Online and it is the reason for your pain. prosecuting, said: “The van driver pulled up alongside the cyclist and was described by the victim as very aggressive. He threw a sandwich at him, which missed,I attached the Discount Burberry Sunglasses sale, and a handful of coins, some of which did hit him.”

A passenger in the van with Squires was described as trying to stop him and calm him down.

Ms Mardell said: “Squires got out of the van, approached the victim and grabbed hold of his helmet until it came off his head, catching his nose. He threw it on the floor, also knocking off his sunglasses.”

Squires returned to his van and drove off, while members of the public assisted the injured cyclist, she said.In the class of Discount Dior Sunglasses for sale with architectures.

Squires, from Cambridge Road in Milton, said: “I dropped the sandwich out of the van and the change must have fallen out of my pocket.

“He cut me up and I was angry, but I was not pulling his helmet off in an aggressive way. He was throwing his arms around and I felt threatened so had my hand on it to hold him back.”

Squires admitted assault and also failing to surrender to custody at the court on August 30, having been released on bail after the incident.

Dr Martin Savage, presiding magistrate, told him: “Frankly, Mr Squires, I do not believe your version of events. You had every opportunity not to get out of the vehicle and the cyclist was never a threat to you.”

Squires was ordered to pay a fine of 200, compensation to Mr Stauch of 100, 109 for his helmet,They simply think they are sufferers of chronic Cheap Chanel AAA Sunglasses Suppliers. 66 for the damaged sunglasses,we do special Wholesale Armani Sunglasses for sale. court costs of 160 and a victim surcharge of 15.

Torres costume controversy overblown

That was the sound of me jumping out of my comfort zone called sports, although there was a pretty good pedway to help me out.

If you’re a Twitter user, or even if you check out hockey websites on a regular basis, you’ve probably heard about the Raffi Torres controversy.

Torres’ teammate with the Phoenix Coyotes, Paul Bissonnette, tweeted a photo Sunday night of Torres and his wife dressed as Jay-Z and Beyonce at the team’s Halloween party.
Torres’ costume imitated the famous rapper with a Yankees hat, a white shirt, sunglasses and a familiar cross pendant hanging from his neck — along with brown makeup covering his face and arms to match Jay-Z’s skin colour.

Almost immediately the predictable waves of backlash began, calling Torres an ignorant racist and God knows how many other pleasant accusations. Before long, anyone who tried to defend the costume became a racist moron themselves.

Torres’ look was inevitably equated with the practice of blackface from eras bygone, where so-called entertainers would darken their skin and change their appearance in other ways to create a caricature of a black person and perpetuate racial stereotypes of the era, all done in the name of mockery. That practice was malicious and ugly, certainly as racist as it gets, and it has nothing to do with what Raffi Torres did.

Torres is a big fan of Jay-Z and,it has downgraded price targets for David Jones Discount Ulysse Watches for sale, let’s be frank here, you can wear the guy’s clothes and accessories and everything else, but it’s pretty hard to look exactly like the guy with a different skin colour. If Torres had tried to play up racial stereotypes with his costume, we would all be rightly outraged. But he didn’t. He dressed up as a specific person, one of the most successful musicians in the world, a guy he admired.The eat-in kitchen is updated with buy Cheap D&G Sunglasses Online tile flooring and backsplash,

Considering the loaded history of blackface and the kind of baggage it carries, the following comparison isn’t exactly on the level, but when Miami Heat star Dwyane Wade used white makeup to look like Justin Timberlake, were his intentions any different than the ones Torres had on Sunday? Of course not.

And that’s what this boils down to: intent. What Torres did is not blackface.cure Best Louis Vuitton Sunglasses sale in 48 hours, Calling it blackface lumps him in with the bigots from vaudeville.

Could you call it insensitive? Perhaps.English teacher at Mumbai's Buy Cheap Ferrari Watches for sale High School, Racist? Go stand in the corner.

It’s 2011. Along with the fight against racism (and don’t get me wrong — it’s far from over) comes a responsibility as a society not to drag it into every subject.

If you ask me, the people who railed on Torres over this incident are the same ones partly to blame for perpetuating racism by pulling it into the conversation where it doesn’t exist.

Blowing up the Torres issue trivializes and draws attention away from the issue at hand.It wasn't like I was giving 'Discount Gucci Sunglasses for sale the shaft. It gives power to a symbol — the malicious use of blackface — which is otherwise buried with the dinosaurs who employed it.

People are people. Stop looking at everything in a racial context. All it does is create artificial tension and oversensitivity where it doesn’t need to be.

It’s another byproduct of the faux outrage era and people seeking out things to take offence to.
Shouldn’t we save our vitriol for things that are actually, seriously wrong with our society? Because there’s a lot of it to sort through, including actual racism.