Digital Cowboy, I take all your points on board (though I disagree with most) but I cannot take seriously your opinion about the assailant's family and any suffering they may or may not feel from any legal procedings. That is surely a matter for the concience of the assailant himself, and nobody else. Sometimes people just have to accept some responsibilty for themselves. Un-PC I know but life is hard. (Lefties take note)
TBB,
I appreciate your honesty. I was just trying to point out that it is likely that there is the possibility of other innocent victims. And that in seeking justice that we should be careful not to inflict any kind of damage on them.
And I fully agree with you that people need to learn to accept responsibility for their actions, and I don't think that that is being "un-PC." And actually, I find being "PC" to be "un-PC." When people are afraid to speak their mind because it might "offend" someone how have we benefited from that?
As an example, I'm sure most of us are aware of the crash that accorded during the Tour and a French media vehicle over the weekend. A reporter with ESPN (a cable sports network here in the states) had tweeted that he thought that that crash was humorous. Which has sparked a furor of "PC" backlash. Calling for the reporters resignation or his firing. At least one saying that if the reporter had made a sexist remark about women that there would be all kinds of backlash over that. And that there'd be no question as to whether or not he should be fired.
The way that I think that this should be handled is that he should be suspended for several weeks, and/or fined, as well as having a written letter of reprimand placed in his personal file. If he screws up again with the next year or so use that incident along with this one as grounds for dismissing him. And when it comes time to renegotiate his contract use that letter as grounds to either not rehire him or to demote him.
Now if he was openly calling for violence against cyclists or any other group yes, that would be a different situation and dismissal would not be uncalled for. But calling for his dismissal simply for speaking his mind (even though some thoughts are better left unsaid/tweeted/shared, is going too far.