It was self defense!

Posted on February 28, 2011 by .
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So claims the attorney for Ricard Neiss, the guy who brutally ran down a crowd of Critical Mass cyclists last Friday with his VW Golf.

Neiss claims cyclists were beginning to attack him and his teen son in the car and felt his only recourse was to flee. The cyclists say Neiss was already nudging them with his car and they began banging on his car to get him to back off.

If it works for Canadian prosecutors, maybe it’ll work for Brazilian bankers as well.



See also:

  1. ChipSeal’s Defense
  2. National Defense Public Transportation Act
  3. I thought Genevieve Jenson already got a lifetime ban?
  4. Bicycle and self defense


  • http://twitter.com/Wuss912 Wuss912

    i’m sure thats why he dumped his car too…

  • http://hanlonsrzr.blogspot.com Mr.S.

    We can play that game too. Maybe every cyclist who feels endangered should be able to burn the car to the ground. No need to harm the people in it. Not too many cars going to be left, which ought to deter psychopaths who care more about property than humans.

  • Anonymous

    What this defence says about some lawyers is not good.

  • Anonymous

    Isn’t removing the number plates and dumping his car an indication of guilt?

  • Gordon Belyea

    There was considerably more involved in the incident with the Ontario Attorney General than you imply with your off-hand reference. That it was not a case for scoring easy “us vs. them” points became plain if one followed the story beyond the initial headline. It cheapens the point you’re trying to make here.

  • Siouxgeonz

    They’ve got video which I understand doesn’t maek the driver look good (but the warning on Grist has held me back from watching it… I’m afraid I can imagine perfectly well.)

  • http://www.cyclelicio.us/ Cyclelicious

    The video is damning — it shows various CM participants, including children and a little old lady on an adult tricycle — and then the car driver speeds straight through the middle of an otherwise peaceful gathering with cyclists flying up and over the hood and roof of the car, bikes clattering on pavement and people screaming. It’s pretty bad.

    The driver claims that before the video started, he was the one under attack, and so he ran over all of those other people (you know, the ones well ahead of him who were not around his car) in self defense

  • http://www.cyclelicio.us/ Cyclelicious

    The video is damning — it shows various CM participants, including children and a little old lady on an adult tricycle — and then the car driver speeds straight through the middle of an otherwise peaceful gathering with cyclists flying up and over the hood and roof of the car, bikes clattering on pavement and people screaming. It’s pretty bad.

    The driver claims that before the video started, he was the one under attack, and so he ran over all of those other people (you know, the ones well ahead of him who were not around his car) in self defense

  • http://twitter.com/Wuss912 Wuss912

    yeah sadly the cyclist involved in the Ontario incident was looking for a fight…. a lot of witnesses came forward about him acting like a jerk that night.

  • http://twitter.com/Wuss912 Wuss912

    you would think so… and it’s pretty damming… but theres really no other possible defense for what the driver did so i can’t say i’m surprised that his lawyer is trying this tact

  • http://www.theurbancountry.com James Schwartz

    True, acting like a jerk definitely justifies a death sentence…

  • http://www.theurbancountry.com James Schwartz

    His only defense will be insanity. He checked himself into a psychiatric hospital on Tuesday, so I suspect his lawyer is advising him to play the insanity card.