Heather du Plessis-Allan: Can people angry about the lockdown please settle down?

COMMENT:

Can people getting angry at others during this lockdown please settle down?

While I was out running today, a woman tried to hit me. Yes, you read that right. A woman tried to hit a complete stranger running past.

I'm guessing that was because she thought I'd got too close.

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That is complete overreaction and actually really unfair, because I couldn't help it. She was walking towards me on one side of the footpath. I started crossing over to the other side of the footpath to give her space, but right then suddenly a runner appeared on that side, coming towards me.

So I had two options: I could either stop dead in my tracks or run through the middle of them. Either way, it wouldn't have made a difference, because I would've ended up between them in both cases.

I'm guessing that the woman who tried to hit me didn't see the runner on her other side, because that person was slightly behind her. So, she just assumed I was being selfish and thus felt entitled to swipe at me as I ran past.

This woman should've known better. She was well dressed, in a nice part of town and probably in her early sixties.

Earlier this week a cyclist spat at a colleague of mine for exactly the same reason: getting too close. A friend's fiancé got yelled at for failing to spot the red line in the supermarket queue. Angry online posts complain aggressively about people walking around outdoors.

I'm so disappointed by this that it's actually changed my mind about dobbing people in. At the outset, I thought it was fair enough to get on that police website and dob in others we might see breaking the lockdown.

Now, I'm more worried that our collective sense of needing to police each other is resulting in some nasty behaviour.

Actually this is not our job is it? It's not my job or your job to make sure everyone's abiding by the rules. It's the job of the police. If they're not policing this lockdown - and they clearly aren't to the full extent of their capabilities - then I'm not going to do it for them.

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