Ride in Peace, Leslie Pray

Let me get this out of the way first and foremost, because it gets ugly afterward: 

My condolences to family and friends of Leslie Pray

Any other day. Any other time. It could have been me. It could have been the mrs. It could have been the neighbor who rides her bike to the high school. It could have been other neighbors who take their young son, born blind, for a ride for the simple pleasure it gives him. It could have been any number of kids riding to the local elementary school, or the park, right at that intersection for soccer practice. It could have been the elderly neighbor, now in her 80s, who rides to stay young. It could have been so many people I have seen riding their bikes right there. 

It was Leslie Pray.

It could have been. How many times have I ridden by, or through, that intersection in the years I have been a resident of Claremont? How many times has my wife? How many times did the son, making his way to one school or another? How many times have people from one group or another, people I call friends? I can't imagine the corner of Mills and Radcliffe ever looking the same. It was nearly five years ago that Mr. Ali Mirage lost his life not far from the spot, and to this day I remember every time I ride past where his ghost bike stood. And now we have lost another. 

Niceties be damned - what the bloody *uck would enrage a driver so much what they would aim their vehicle right for another human being and run them down, as if they were no more than a piece of trash blown across the street by the wind? (All reports have suggested that the violence commited against Ms. Pray was intentional.) Has the anger been festering like a lesion on the brain of [I know her name has been released, but I will not use it here], the driver arrested at the scene, for long? Or was the attack spur of the moment. Not that it really matters. One person, someone's daughter, without question, mother, maybe, sister, perhaps, neighbor, relative, co-worker, friend, has lost her life simply for riding a bike on the same street as someone else who deemed it acceptable to turn their vehicle into a weapon and use it with deadly intent.

Niceties be damned - F*ck you Ms. Wicksted. You deserve to rot in hell.