Cyclist assaulted in Sheffield

Ambrose Nankivell wrote:
Squashme wrote:
Ambrose Nankivell wrote:
Squashme wrote:

One or two? Just to help with the apologies:-

Yeah, I was wrong. I don't apologise for my scepticism, but I do
apologise if I upset the victim.

If a similar post came tomorrow, I'd still question it just the same.

If the similar post had a black or Asian cyclist attacked by a white
racist gang, would you have doubted it in the same way?

Quite possibly.

What's your beef?

Curry beef from Smoky Joe's used to be great, but Charlie Phillips shut
up shop and retired, and a light went out of my life.

I don't like it when decent and intelligent people put on blinkers.

David Martin wrote:
Squashme wrote:
Mark Thompson wrote:
How about for being a victim of cognitive dissonance?

Eh? How?

Examine your motives for not wishing to accept that the attack happened
in December. Why did you feel that it was "dodgy"? Uk.rec.cycling is
not uk.politics.misc, is it?

Quote "Cognitive dissonance is a psychological phenomenon which refers
to the discomfort felt at a discrepancy between what you already know
or believe, and new information or interpretation. It therefore occurs
when there is a need to accommodate new ideas, and it may be necessary
for it to develop so that we become "open" to them."

What caused the discomfort here?

You misapply the use of the term.

Probably, but tell me how.


In the OP an account was related
which was not entirely clear or consistent. This led to doubt being
levelled as to it's veracity.
Despite the subsequent verification of the general thrust of the
account, it remains right and proper to treat similarly inconsistent
and unclear accounts with scepticism.
One false negative does not invalidate an approach.

I guess that you were mostly wrong for all the right reasons and I was
mostly right for all the wrong ones.

"The world is out of joint
Oh cursed spite that ever I was born
To set it right."

Sheffield Today report also.

Injured cyclist slams court
CYCLIST Andrew Williams said he was deliberately mown down, chased and
viciously beaten with a wheel brace after asking a motorist to be
careful on the icy road.
The 49-year-old Sheffield Council worker had head injuries, a ripped
thigh muscle and damaged groin and his cycle was mangled in the attack
in Sharrow.
He was forced to take two months off work and had counselling for post
traumatic stress. Months after the attack he wakes up sweating and has
nightmares over his ordeal.
The regeneration worker, from Hope, slammed British justice as "soft"
after his attacker Hamza Hussain received a non-custodial sentence at
Sheffield Crown Court.
He hit out at the Crown Prosecution Service who reduced the charge of
attempting to cause GBH with intent to affray.
"This attack was vicious and sustained and it has had a massive effect
on me," said Mr Williams, who is back at work but still feels the
physical and emotional affects. "The sentence in court was disgraceful.
What kind of deterrent is that? British justice is a joke sometimes."
Mr Williams was riding his bike in Sharrow Street on a sunny but
freezing day last December when Hussain nearly knocked him off.
"I got alongside him, tapped on his window and said politely 'just be
careful' because of the road conditions. It was icy," said Mr Williams.
"The next thing, I heard his engine revving hard and wheels screeching.
Somehow he managed to drive down the middle of two rows of gridlocked
cars and then drove intentionally at me, sending me flying.
"Then he chased me down the road with an iron bar and hit me over the
head. The next thing a gang of about five Asian lads came at me. I was
desperate for help and was shouting. There were dozens of other drivers
and workers everywhere but everyone was too shocked or scared to help.
"I ran off into a nearby school yard but the mob started kicking and
punching me shouting 'kill the white *******'. If I had gone down I
think that would have been it."
Hamza Hussain, 18, of Club Garden Road, Sharrow, pleaded guilty to
affray, possession of an offensive weapon and dangerous driving and
received 250 hours community service and was told to pay £2,500
compensation to Mr Williams at £10 a week. He was barred from driving
for two years.
The gang has not been traced.
A CPS spokeswoman said: "Each case we handle is under continuous
review."
02 May 2006

Squashme wrote:
Ambrose Nankivell wrote:
Squashme wrote:
If the similar post had a black or Asian cyclist attacked by a white
racist gang, would you have doubted it in the same way?

Quite possibly.

I don't like it when decent and intelligent people put on blinkers.

I don't think I'm being blinkered.

I'm perfectly aware of the existence of anti-white racism. I am very
occasionally the recipient of it. I think that there's orders of magnitude
more that goes in the other direction, though, so I would give a higher
prior* to the likelihood of a story about unprovoked white attacks against
non-whites, or unprovoked Muslim-Sikh attacks or unprovoked black-asian
attacks, though.

And I've unreservedly accepted the story as being factual now, in case you
hadn't noticed. As I did 6 months ago when more supporting evidence was
given.

Beef from the farm shop on Barr Beacon is nice. Comes from cows they fatten
themselves, so the food miles are low, although of course the cows aren't
reared there, and presumably aren't slaughtered there.

I like to cook it myself.
--
Ambrose

*assuming my internal troll filter is Bayesian, of course. Expecting
principled statistical analysis out of ones own instincts is ambitious to
say the very least, of course.

Squashme wrote:
By the way, as you appear to know something about statistics, is it not
correct that, in theory, there could actually be a lower, or equal
proportion, of racists in the white population than in the minority
groups, and yet each member of the minority groups would still be
likely to suffer more individual attacks than a member of the white
group, because the large majority of the population is white?

Yes. Bayes' rule is the one you want.

...d