This guy had a history of harassing cyclists and pretty clearly had been intending to at least intimidate cyclists on a seemingly regular basis. The tragedy is that the LAPD could have filed charges in an earlier case, but declined. VN has and article here, and a sidebar of articles going back to July.

I hope he has a very long and uncomfortable time in jail.

I hope the cyclists follow with a civil suit and take not only his keys, his car, his other car, his house and retirement bank and kick him to the curb shirtless. Let the f-ing asshat be a shining example to others that taking on cyclists with your car is not a cute game to play.

I think a stiff jail sentence for this driver could do a lot of good as a deterrent to other danerous drivers.

Deterrence is often cited as a basis for sentences of imprisonment, but for many types of crimes, the threat of a jail term probably doesn’t act as much of a deterrent. It’s not likely to deter someone who kills in the heat of passion, for example, or someone who commits crimes to finance a drug habit, or someone who considers the occassional jail term to be the cost of doing business as a career criminal.

But for crimes like this one, the deterrent effect of the threat of a prison sentence could be substantial. People like this defendant — otherwise law-abiding citizens with comfortable lives, status in the community, etc. — are exactly the sort of people who will be deterred from dangerous behavior by the threat of prison time. Do you think this guy would have done what he did if he thought he’d spend five years in prison for it? No way! He did what he did because he thought he’d be punished lightly, if at all.

A lifetime driver’s license suspension sounds good in theory, but it is a highly unlikely sentence, and would be very difficult to enforce. People drive without licenses all the time, and as long as they don’t get pulled over for traffic violations, they mostly get away with it.

A sentence of doing community service as an emergency room doctor is the type of softball “punishment” often handed to wealthy, highly educated criminals who “have a lot to offer” to the community. I find this kind of sentence offensive. If this defendant had been a garbage collector rather than a doctor, I doubt anyone would suggest he do community service to the city collecting garbage for free rather than go to jail. This criminal had the privilege of working as an emergency room doctor as an exciting, lucrative, and probably otherwise rewarding career. To permit him to do his chosen work, and receive all the rewards he got from it during his career, other than a salary (which he probably doesn’t need anyway) is no punishment.

cyclists feeling defensive, paranoid, and ready to lash out at any careless moron who threatens to put them in the hospital because his blackberry went off. It’s not rational, and the car folks will never get it, cuz they can’t stand in our shoes.

I’ve become numb to most stuff, some stuff gets the WTF arm raise, and the rarer really threatening stuff gets the finger and the ’don’t let me catch you at the next stop sign’ feeling. I always try to thank the drivers that show being cautious is more important than maintaining their same speed. I don’t lose me cool on the bike, but I have reflexes. Don’t take my signature as someone flipping off the world, I rarely blow my horn, likewise with the finger. But when my finger flies, I welcome the receiver to stop or turn around and question “why?”, I’d love to the opportunity to explain my motive.