I was feeling extremely angry when I first read this news. Then I sought the full legal brief that led to the dropping of the charges, and I am a bit more at peace with it now. Not totally, but my anger has shifted a bit.

Sheppard's past was dug out in depth by Bryant's attorney, no doubt about that. I don't know that if the driver was a nobody he would have had the means to defend himself in such a way. Interestingly enough, the driving past of Bryant hasn't been displayed in such an in-depth manner, but he's been in the public eye for long so it would likely have been known if he had brush-ins with the law (especially as a lawyer, who by rule cannot have a criminal record).

But there is pretty clear evidence, from repeated incidents, a number of which were documented by police, that Sheppard had a big anger management problem. I can understand how one would become angry riding in Toronto traffic, but Shootingstar rode her bike a lot there, too, and I doubt that she ever tried to grab a driver's wheel to retaliate, something which Sheppard did more than just the night of the Sheppard-Bryant events. In theory a victim's past should have no bearing on the decision concerning the accused; however in this case it was used to demonstrate that Bryant's fear and reaction were legitimate under the circumstances, and that other people under the same circumstances facing the same man in similar circumstances had felt the same. (And there were a few of those.) Part of the brief is also dedicated to showing that the driving was not reckless under the circumstances, and that the car did not climb on the curb, etc. I don't care much about that part of the story, but it certainly does help Bryant make his case that he was trying to evade a threat in the safest way he could manage in that short amount of time. The total incident lasted less than 30 seconds from stopping at the light to Sheppard hitting his head.

My conclusion is that this is a case of road rage where one of the perpetrators happened to be riding a bike instead of a car. That made him extremely vulnerable in the struggle that ensued. As much as I would have wanted, at one point, this case to add water to the mill of advocacy, now I wish it never happened. It doesn't seem like more cycling infrastructure would have helped Darcy live longer. Maybe he would have died in a different way. I am more angry at the kind of society that leads to people being so angry than anything else.