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Safety for comfort...

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 11/07/2009 - 8:17am.

Sorry, I put SOME of the blame on the victim.<br><br>

As she headed north on the paved trail that parallels the Hiawatha Avenue light-rail line, Thoele, 28, spied three shadowy figures lurking up ahead.<br><br>

She briefly considered turning around, but - weary from a long day at work at the VA hospital and wanting to get back to her home in Northeast - she opted to employ a tactic used by many other cyclists facing would-be attackers. She rose high off her saddle, cranked up her speed and kept barreling down the trail.<br><br>

IF you KNOW a situation is going to be bad, WHY go into it.  She had the situational awareness to see it was not favorable, yet she IGNORED her own best advice.<br><br>

I don't live in the cities, and that is MY choice.  Criminal activity cannot be tolerated.  LEO's KNOW that there are places like this, but they would rather focus on traffic enforcement or DWI zones.  Why can't the put a GEM car on patrol on these trails.  Makes sense, and give the residents their public space back.<br><br>

But it still does NOT take away a persons basic responsibility to maintain situtational awareness and follow your own gut instinct.  It's a natural instinct that too many ignore.<br><br>

In this case, if she had, she would have never been mugged.

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