Bicycle commuter assault

Brian Rice is a co-worker at AA. He commutes by bicycle
sometimes and we've ridden home together now and then

This afternoon, he was riding north on Mingo Road just north
of 46th Street. A blue pickup passed him, and someone threw a
water bottle at him. The truck had a white box in the back
and was carrying a motocross bike. He saw it inside the MX
track parking lot, but didn't enter because the people at the
gate wanted $5.

Brian called Owasso PD, who referred him to Tulsa County. He
spoke with a dispatcher who told him it's unlikely they could
do much more than charge the offender with littering. That's
right. Littering.

(To their credit, the Owasso PD tracked down a motorist who'd
been harassing me on Mingo Road. The sergeant said he'd have
"come to Jesus" meeting with the driver. I'm sorry to say
that I've forgotten his name. But I did provide an
approximate description of the driver as well as a tag number
and a description of his vehicle. I never had a problem with
that guy again. Moral of the story - ALWAYS get the
information!)

Brian called me about it tonight. I said that without a tag
number there probably wouldn't be much the cops could do, but
at least he should make out a report. He said that TCSO would
send an officer to his home to take it.

I seem to recall that the infamous Paul Tay was charged with a
felony for throwing an object at a motor vehicle. Are
cyclists LESS likely to crash if they're hit by a thrown
object? Should we expect LESS protection under the law than
someone driving a motor vehicle? If a water bottle were
hurled at a police officer on his bicycle, would the offenders
expect to face no more than a littering charge?

Last year, a motorist almost hit a police officer at one of
the roadblocks they set up. When he was arrested, he was
charged with assault with a deadly weapon, the car being the
weapon. No officer was hit or hurt. Yet when some yahoo
strafes a cyclist by driving inches from his handlebar "just
to scare him" the law looks the other way.

It ain't right.