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Bristol mayor George Ferguson (CC BY-SA 2.0 - Alastair Campbell:Flickr)Twitter storm over Bristol mayor comments on "just hit a cyclist" tweet
Bristol mayor George Ferguson has waded into the social media row over a tweet from a trainee stockbroker who claimed to have hit a cyclist, saying the tweet had "chilling echoes of 60's Deep South racism".
Posting under the Twitter name 'Ray Pew' (say it quickly), Rayhan Qadar, 21, from Bristol said: "Think I just hit a cyclist. But Im late for work so had to drive off lol."
Protests from Twitter users who feared Qadar was another Emma Way brought the account to the attention of a news agency which found out that Qadar worked for Hargreaves Lansdown.
After Hargreaves Lansdown became aware of Qadar's account, he was sacked. Road.cc understands that the content of Qadar's timeline and the name 'Ray Pew' were substantial factors in the decision to dismiss him.
Cycling campaigner and executive editor of Bikebiz Carlton Reid saw the account and said: "He posted a great deal of anti-Semitic stuff. Homophobic, too."
Linking to the Guardian's coverage of Qadar's sacking, George Ferguson tweeted: "'Stockbroker hit #cyclist' tweet has chilling echoes of 60's Deep South racism. We must develop greater tolerance"
Reactions to Ferguson's comments were polarised.
Natalie Jester said: "You're joking? Cyclists aren't lynched." and Death Valley Dave called Ferguson's comments "a ridiculous comparison that trivialises racism and the fight against it. Offensively ignorant."
Asked by Bristol Post reporter Katie Pavid to explain what he meant, Ferguson tweeted: "Casual 'jokes' of this nature about harming people conceal a deep hatred. Many cyclists feel they have become the target of hate".
Criticism of Ferguson's comparison continued, but there were messages of support too.
Bristol_Bond said: "Thank you for the hard look at disrespect/intolerance and perils of it becoming commonplace. Too many look the other way."
Biddyonabike said: "In context of other tweets when motorist really has hit cyclist, @GeorgeFerguson is spot on. Too many haters."
This morning Ferguson conceded that the comparison had upset some.
Community radio station BCfm asked: "Were @GeorgeFergusonx 's comments about the deep south offensive? #cyclists"
Ferguson replied: "I deplore all forms of discrimination - I don't equalise them, but a 'joke' about harming a cyclist is unacceptable."
From the account of its breakfast show the station said: "We agree George but so was your comparison, just apologise for offence and let’s move on"
Ferguson replied: "I apologise for causing any offense - was never my intention to equate both forms of intolerance."
Meanwhile an online petition is calling for Qadar to be given a "proper disciplinary", and in comments on that petition someone claiming Qadar is their brother says he was not driving but walking to work.
Petition creator Nazim Uddin from Uxbridge said: "In a country of free speech, we should be able to tweet jokes, whether in bad taste without worrying if we'll lose our jobs because of it."
Maisha Qadar commented: "What has happened to my big brother is totally unfair. His tweet was simply a joke that was unnecessarily exaggerated. At the time of the tweet he was just walking to work, no cyclist involved!!"
A spokesperson for Hargreaves Lansdown said the company had no comment to make on the petition.
John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.
He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.
Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.
John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.
He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.
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29 comments
"But Im late for work so had to drive off lol."
The idiot obviously enjoys telling lies, so he is an untrustworthy c##t anyway so his firm were right to sack him.
As for getting abuse.. I enjoy red lights, Nuff said.
Just another example of how inept the youth of today are (there are many 21 year olds I would hesitate to categorise as "adults") and how they don't really understand technology and the internet and how many of them still need to learn that some opinions you really do need to keep to yourself.
Dazwan, It's surely not helpful to respond to Ray Pew's crass stereotyping with, er. yet more crass stereotyping.
Young people can be totally inspirational, or truly awful - just like any other group in society that you might care to name.
Say his name... Pretend the last word is You....
His timeline was full of racist, sexist and homophobic posts. Sod the cyclist 'joke', if I employed someone and found them posting that sort of stuff I'd sack them too. It almost certainly breaches their social media policy.
Again, if you want to see for yourself, do a bit of googling...
ray pew site:twitter.com
You may have to look at the cached versions.
I've googled and cannot find any significant reference to 'Ray Pew'.
The article says "the content of Qadar's timeline and the name 'Ray Pew' were substantial factors in the decision to dismiss him"
Have I read that wrong or is there some significance to that name?
His story does not add up. Clearly this guy drives and he was late for work but he was walking.
Ray Pew sounds like "Rape You".
"Petition creator Nazim Uddin from Uxbridge said: "In a country of free speech, we should be able to tweet jokes, whether in bad taste without worrying if we'll lose our jobs because of it."
We do not 'enjoy' freedom of speech in the UK, just freedom of thought. Even people who do have freedom of speech, Her Majesty the Queen, Judges and MP's for example are not free to exercise this right without consequence.
Reading George Ferguson's comment about the Deep South I thought it was a bit OTT. I'm currently reading Major Taylor's biography and the stuff he had to contend with was way worse: winning races ahead of angry mobs, routinely being refused accommodation and food...
http://road.cc/content/news/140038-australian-pub-accused-being-anti-lyc...
but then this popped into my head and now I don't know what to think.
I just read the comments on that petition and they are failing to understand why he was sacked, how about it start with his user name "Ray pew" then anti-Semitic remarks yet not one of the comments mentions this. The cyclist tweet was just directed attention for his employer to them.
Lets hope Ray and his sister who is doing his work for him learn from this and that racism and daft tweets are wrong.
Social media = Anti-social media.
No, they're just run over by people driving cars. And the perpetrators don't get successfully prosecuted for it.
Fixed that for you.
Go on to twitter, facebook etc, and you will come across plenty of examples where people think it is acceptable to hate, to wish death upon cyclists.
Is it really acceptable to state that you wish any group dead just for existing?
If we say "paki bashing" is wrong, that fighting at old firm matches is wrong, why is it ok to punishment pass cyclists?
The guy was naive and stupid. In the context of humour his tweet was in the class of " I have a bomb in my bag - just joking haha". That said, I don't think that being naive and stupid merits losing one's job.
Maybe his employers read his alleged anti-semitic and homophobic remarks and saw the resulting PR firestorm and decided he wasn't the kind of employee they wanted to reflect their business. I'm a free speech freak, but employers have a right to terminate employment if an employee publishes media that may be detrimental to the image of the company. That's social media for you.
Its not the first time that this parallel has been drawn but Ferguson has a point. I don't think that he was for a moment saying that the prejudice cyclists receive is on a par with racism but the nature of the prejudice we are subject to mirrors the blanket non thinking hatred that racism is.
So far this year I've ridden about 130 miles and been told to get off the road three times - all screamed at me out of a car window. Add this to the 10+ close passes and the idiot who tried to force me into the barriers on the Clifton Suspension Bridge and I'd have to agree with our Mayor. It's about time all our "leaders" spoke out about the behaviour of a large minority of drivers.
I was trying to think of the right words to say what I wanted to say but you've done it for me. Thanks!
Personally I think George Ferguson's comparison is a very good one. I also think anybody who displays a blanket prejudice against one group of people (eg. cyclists) will almost certainly apply blanket prejudices against other groups. The only difference is that it's less socially acceptable to be openly prejudiced against some groups than others. To some extent the anti-cyclist brigade are the frustrated racists who are no longer allowed to so openly declare those prejudices. A certain Top Gear presenter springs to mind.
Ignorant fucking NAZIS. Limiting any speech in any way, is a tenet of authoritarian rule. Scumbag fascists and fascist sympathizers need to be jailed.
Natalie sweetheart, the knuckle draggers have learnt that if the now use the car to kill us instead of the rope, they have a far better chance of getting away with it.
So he was walking then... That makes a whole load of difference. My bad.
I wonder what his anti-semitic and homophobic remarks were? Sounds like a first class tool.
Well to Natalie Jester I say to you, are you joking? You want to try being a cyclist out there. We are subject to physical assaults and verbal abuse to such an extent that if we were a minority the Police would be very much more interested. "Fucking Cyclists, get off the road!!" Replace cyclists with Black/ni**er, etc etc and off the road with go home and the Police would be down on you like a ton of bricks. The Police, CPS/PF and the Courts don't give a flying fuck about cyclists, maybe one day that will change.
Everyone involved in this should learn that it is better to say nothing and have everyone think you're a twat than to open a Twitter account and confirm their suspicions.
Making a joke about harming any person from any social denomination is not appropriate or funny, He will recover and learn from the experience as will many others.
Free speech is about being able to say what you like, it doesn't cover being exempt from consequences.
Indeed and the fact that his employer found out something about this character that they didn't know and didn't want associated with their business or dealing with their customers. He also had the freedom to keep his private thoughts on cyclists and his offensive humour to himself but he decided instead to make them public.
Ok so if he was a deck chair attendant it may noy have mattered to his employer but he is a stockbroker. He takes orders from and promotes stock to their clients. They need him to be a credible stable person that their clients can trust and will be happy to entrust their money to.
He decided to make it public that he's none of the things his job description require him to be and that his employers believed he was.
'Maisha Qadar commented: "What has happened to my big brother is totally unfair. His tweet was simply a joke that was unnecessarily exaggerated. At the time of the tweet he was just walking to work, no cyclist involved!!"'
Not particularly funny. Why did he have to specify a cyclist? Why not 'I just hit a pedestrian' or 'I just hit a driver who was stopped at traffic lights'?
Indeed Beatnik. Because if he specified a driver.,, a car or a pedestrian instead of a cyclist, it would not have been "funny". it was "funny" because cyclists are seen by many as a legitimate target of hate.
The comparison to the deep south wasn't overstretching imo, the scale is wrong but there is a comparison to be made. And saying cyclists aren't lynched, well there are deliberate killings of cyclists each year and an antipathy of cyclists which leads to injuries and deaths all the time. Whilst cyclist aren't socially obstructed in the work environment as minorities have been in the past and in some places still today, when a cyclist is cycling, the mindset of the many people does seem to default to that ignorant perspective with the cyclist being the target of the hate just for riding a bike and not for anything in particular.
One bad cyclist runs a red, and suddenly we all break the law. We tend to turn on each other then blaming the cyclist who ran the red for the reputation being tarnished of the whole. Instead we should be looking at the ignorant and teaching them to respect us and not to stereotype us just as we look to racist to not stereotype black people.
I'm not saying on scale the issues of modern cyclist is on a par with that of race struggle, but there are thematic adn psychological parallels and whether we like it or not we are being killed through ignorance, antipathy and apathy. We also see it in the justice system, time and time again cyclist being killed with it "not being in the public interest" to prosecute careless drivers. The drivers here are not normally ignorant, but the prosecutors are the ones treating us as second class citizens, refusing to acknowledge our loss as it really is and refusing to give us justice. How many of these unprosecuted cycling death would have been prosecuted had the cyclist been driving, or had been a pedestrian? I'm willing to wager that it would be a significant number more.
Edit; Following me posting this here, Road.CC seem to have blocked my facebook. I can view articles there and can share them but "liking" and commenting there is now forbidden.