As a lifelong pedestrian I have known for decades that driving causes violent insanity. People who would not otherwise threaten me scream obscenities and engage in stare downs from the safety of their automobile.

Once on Moravia, while walking along on the sidewalk, a bald black man, ten years my senior, wearing gold chains and shades and driving a beige Audi convertible, passed me doing the speed limit. When I looked up at the nice car he saw me look in his rearview mirror, stopped, and began screaming threats and challenging me to a fight over his shoulder. I just kept walking loosened the jacket wrapped around my waist that concealed my utility knife.

I have been in cars with meek, wimpy people who become badass action heroes when someone so much as speeds by or honks a horn.

Of all of the types of mayhem out there, one of the most serious, and one that is just as likely to occur in suburbia as in the city, is senseless aggression involving a vehicle. I suppose, since people spend so much time in and around cars, they forget how dangerous they are.

Also, while living in an urban slum, driving is much safer than walking because it gives you distance from trouble. But, as soon as you begin using your car to look for trouble, or start to think that it is a fortress that shall protect you rather than the kill box it is, then you have given up the protection of your vehicle and turned it into a threat. Cops, who are more aware than most folks, instinctively seem to know that sitting in a sedan is not the same as breaking the sound barrier in a fighter jet. Recall the fate of police sedans in the Baltimore Riots of April 2015. I watched live video of one cop being stopped by hoodrats on foot, and barely escaping before they converged on his car.

Below are two examples of senseless Boned Zone experiences involving family automobiles.

#01-08: day, under a minute, eye-witness

“I was driving Joey home in my beater. He’s like a black belt in four different kinds of karate. These two dudes cut us off and flipped us the bird. We followed a little and they pull over, the passenger gets out. So does Joey. I didn’t exactly see what he did to the guy. But the guy was down, and Joey’s dragging the body back to my car. I’m like, ‘What the fuck?’

“He lays the guy’s head on the floor board next to the seat and slams the door shut on his face! The head falls out of the car. So he puts it back up there and slams the door shut two more times. We got the fuck out of there! There was blood splashed up on the door and dashboard. I’m thinkin,’ ‘Who does that?’”

#23-29: day, seconds, first-person defender

“You know it was another disagreement. I was standing out back here next to the fence. She pulled up in the van, pinned my leg between the fence and the bumper, and gave ’er a little gas. Tore all the ligaments. She took me to the hospital. It was an accident of course.”