geez... talk about over-reaction - "Motorist draws gunfire after flipping the finger"

[salin]

local news story:

Motorist draws gunfire after flipping the finger

By Kevin O'Neal
Posted: February 25, 2009

The driver of a car on the Southside was grazed in the head after he made an obscene gesture to another driver last night, according to the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department.

According to an IMPD report, officers were called to the St. Francis Hospital emergency room just after 10 p.m. Tuesday to check a man with a wound to the left side of his head. The wounded man said he was driving east on Troy Avenue past Keystone when another car, weaving from side to side, pulled behind his car.

That man, who told police he was driving with his window open, said he put his hand out the window and gave the finger to the other car, then heard a shot and felt blood coming from the side of his head. A woman who was riding with the wounded man said she also heard a gunshot.



Road rage - or another example of "the old wild west" creeping into our increasingly incivil society?

[Junkdrawer]

1. A gun in every glovebox....What could go wrong?

:shrug:

[notadmblnd]

3. You post made me chuckle because I have to admit that I've said to myself many times

"its a good thing I don't carry a gun in my glove box." However, in my mind, I have killed many a person with my index finger and thumb.

[salin]

5. I once watched a mid-sized black car cut off a semi

I was in another mid-sized black car. I never changed lanes, but shortly after found myself in a construction zone (one lane) with this semi-truck tailgating me with a vengence. It took me a few miles to realize that it seemed that the truck (now driving extremely aggressively) that was right behind me was driving more and more erratically. There was a road entrance (state highway) to the right and this crazy driver tried to pass me (in a construction zone) on the right (the brief area that the road's shoulder was extended due to the intersection). I glanced in the rearview mirror to see the Semi jackknived. Probably snarled traffic for a good hour. Frightening experience - and mine wasn't the car that cut the truck off. Darn glad that the driver wasn't inclined to react as the driver with a gun reacted in this news story.

[tangent90]

2. I vote for incivil. Flipping the bird is pretty much incivil

whatever that means

[salin]

6. not civil or perhaps a type for uncivil

but that is quite a retaliation to "uncivil" or "incivil" behavior.

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

4. Shhhhhhhhhh!!!! Don't let any Hummer owners hear about this!

Krazy times we live in....

[Bobbieo]

7. The moral of this story is don't drive and flip a bird in Indianapolis.

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

8. O.K.

lol

[salin]

9. indeed,

I have lived/worked here for seven years. I have also lived or worked in Detriot in the early nineties, and East Palo Alto California in the mid nineties - both cities were "murder capitals, per capita" within a year of when I lived there (so maybe I am a curse? maybe this is just Indy catching up?) but this city has gone nuts in the past couple of years. While the murder rate in Indy is lower per capita than other cities - there is an increasing randomness/anonimity. I have started to be even more vigilant/aware living and working in Indy than I needed in my past lives in Detroit and East Palo Alto. Folks are so quick to "go off" in a deadly way. Maybe it is just Indy? Or does anyone else find this true in their communities?