recently vancouver had a trans march and due to some planning fuckup(??) for 5 minutes before a police car arrived a busy intersection was held closed not by a police car but by volunteers holding signs like "road closed parade ahead pls wait 5 minutes and/or turn right and make a slight detour"
bc these were volunteers without visible guns no less than 5 drivers used the threat of vehicular manslaughter to push past into a block occupied with pedestrians, which wouldn't even get them where they wanted to go faster but got them temporarily 50m closer to where they wanted to go at risk to pedestrian lives.
this is the driver's psyche, the madness of the wheel and the gas pedal!
When sharks says they are not gonna hit you with their vehicle, they're recognizing that their class position as "motorist" has enculturated them into a system of values where "tap the gas to give the jaywalker a bit of pep in their step" is a verb accessible to them--one sharks would never reach for, but one that is within reach.
coming from the oppressor class, "sometimes I think about killing you, but I won't because it'd be wrong" is horrifying but fundamentally honest, and any lasting peace and reconciliation between pedestrian and drivers must start with honesty.
it belies the limits of the driverly class imagination and underscores why they will never be the ones to usher in meaningful change. note that they do not say "if u place urself in front of my car, I will get out of my car and frolic, free, on the shared street with you together as equals and kin"--even in shark's vision of coexistence and solidarity, of performatively giving up their "right" to vehicularly manslaughter us, the driver is loathe to give up his seat at the wheel and at least the potentiality of his violence.
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