# No, you can't just drive through people who are inconveniencing you **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 27, 2017, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-you-cant-just-drive-through-people-who-are-inconveniencing-you/799945 "2017-10-27T03:49:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2017, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-you-cant-just-drive-through-people-who-are-inconveniencing-you/799945/81 "2017-11-01T14:28:01Z")
> [@treis](#): > > No, it doesn’t. It’s a ridiculous twisting of my words in some bizarre attempt to “prove” my hypocracy. Then you tell me what the difference is between self absorbed football fans blocking my way for half an hour on my commute home every other friday through fall, and a single protest blocking an intersection for a bit(I have no idea how long it went on, if it were hours, then maybe he had a point[or he could have found another route]). Why is the first acceptable to you, and the second not? You specifically said that it was because they wanted you to notice them, are you backing off that statement, now? Not a twisting of your words, it is reciting them back to you verbatim. If you do not feel that it was fair, explain exactly what you feel the difference is between a crowd of self absorbed football fans blocking the intersection, and a protest blocking the intersection, and why it is acceptable to drive into one of them, and not into the other. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2017, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-you-cant-just-drive-through-people-who-are-inconveniencing-you/799945/82 "2017-11-01T14:30:11Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > On my way home, I pass a high school. On some friday nights, there is a football game, and trying to get past the school is a pain, as there are people crossing the street to get tot he school, even after the light has changed. I have sat for several light changes waiting for these people to all go by. > > It would be very unlikely for me to harm or kill anyone if I just started shoving them out of my way with my car, does that mean I should do it? > > Or is it only okay if they are protesting something you don’t like or don’t care about, but if they are simply selfish people trying to get to a football game, you shouldn’t? > [@treis](#): > > Your example is different because those people aren’t intentionally blocking an intersection to force you to pay attention to them. > [@k9bfriender](#): > > Now, if a self centered football fan is fine to block the intersection, but a protester is not, then what does that mean? That means that the protest is what is unacceptable, not the blocking of the intersection. > [@treis](#): > > No, it doesn’t. It’s a ridiculous twisting of my words in some bizarre attempt to “prove” my hypocracy. It’s ‘hypocrisy.’ And yes, when you said **k9bfriender** ’s “example is different,” the only difference was the **motivation** of those blocking the intersection. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2017, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-you-cant-just-drive-through-people-who-are-inconveniencing-you/799945/83 "2017-11-01T14:58:48Z")
> [@treis](#): > > No, it doesn’t. It’s a ridiculous twisting of my words in some bizarre attempt to “prove” my hypocracy. Your hypocrisy needs no proof. It’s self-evident. Prima facie obvious. “I disagree with why you’re in the crosswalk, so all bets are off, fucker. You deserve to live only as long as you do what I want you to do.” That is the indisputable distilled essence of your argument. ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2017, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-you-cant-just-drive-through-people-who-are-inconveniencing-you/799945/84 "2017-11-01T15:33:13Z")
> [@Chessic\_Sense](#): > > The idea that he could’ve killed somebody is absurd. The assertion that he did something dangerous is silly. He went less than 1 mph for about 30 ft. People dodged him by _shuffling_ backward, not even walking backward. > [@k9bfriender](#): > > On my way home, I pass a high school. On some friday nights, there is a football game, and trying to get past the school is a pain, as there are people crossing the street to get tot he school, even after the light has changed. I have sat for several light changes waiting for these people to all go by. > > It would be very unlikely for me to harm or kill anyone if I just started shoving them out of my way with my car, does that mean I should do it? > [@treis](#): > > Your example is different because those people aren’t intentionally blocking an intersection to force you to pay attention to them. **Interlocutor #1:** There was absolutely no real danger. **Interlocutor #2:** [rhetorical]So, if there is absolutely no danger, then is it generally fine to just kind of assert right of way through pedestrians whenever? What about at a public sporting event where pedestrians are crossing after the light changed?[/rhetorical] **Interlocutor #3:** But those people have different motivation. Sorry, interlocutor #3, but your argument is faulty. Either you’re saying that the motivation of pedestrians has a bearing on whether or not it is safe to move your car through them (which is, as I’m sure you’d agree, ridiculous), or you are saying that regardless of safety, the motivation of pedestrians informs the decision on whether or not to move your car through them, regardless of safety. You should clarify which of those was the point you’re trying to make. If neither is, you should try again, because you failed to communicate. ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2017, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-you-cant-just-drive-through-people-who-are-inconveniencing-you/799945/85 "2017-11-02T00:04:46Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Well, if it is a scheduled visit, no. If it is a medical emergency? Hell yes. Oh dear me. We ARE pendulating our genitalia violently, aren’t we? There, there. Allow me to quench just a smidgen of that Testosterone-fueled wildfire with a piece of law. As a retired New York State Emergency Medical Technician who drove thousands of hours behind the wheel of an ambulance, I can inform you that without qualification \*\*there is never a situation that permits the operation of an emergency vehicle into a crowd, through pedestrian traffic or - and this is important- through a red light without coming to a full stop first. \*\* So, you can holler " Hell yes " all you want. You will be guilty of a felony and if you are VERY lucky, nobody will be struck and/or killed. End of deal. Full stop. There has never been and never will be a medical emergency that permits what you stated as “fact”. Wishing it so doesn’t make it so. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-you-cant-just-drive-through-people-who-are-inconveniencing-you/799945.md?page=4)