Something horrible happened last night. But we can’t blame the 4 lane high speed car gutters or sidewalks and painted bike lanes next to 60km highways. No, the sprawling city boundaries requiring cars to get anywhere can’t be blamed for children driving SUV’s and pickup trucks to the corner store mall. No, not until we know the whole story can we express an opinion.

Objectification, othering, identity, all play a part here. When you’re surrounded with tons of screaming metal and wearing a body armour, it is so easy to drive over the bodies of 4 or 5 strangers whose clothes you don’t like.

Working from early images and suppositions it was obvious the road conditions were a factor, an opportunity, in this horrendous thing. VisionZero doesn’t mean not seeing, so it’s okay. I was thinking the previous day that traffic gutters really need protective boundary walls. Sardonically, protected bike lanes might have helped.

So yes, these issues are important to me personally. So the cartoons will address my issues. As more details came out about a vicious crime the focus of ‘the story’ changed. I don’t have a way through to making the murder lighthearted. The emotions don’t go there.

They were 
Pedestrians
Muslims
Then they were dead

They were 
Citizens
Family
Neighbours
People
Human beings

We all have a target on our backs
Unless we have a pickup truck. And body armour.