Though I respond promptly to friends’ Facebook posts, I rarely post anything myself. I keep my page mainly to stay in touch with those people.
A recent incident illustrated a reason why I don’t spend more time on the platform: it gives a microphone to people who are clearly unhinged.
“It’s illegal for anyone over the age of 10 to ride a bike on a public footpath, so if your son comes home and tells you a crazy woman knocked him off his bike, it was me, he was riding full pelt at me outside Duke’s, refused to give way so I stood my ground and pushed him to the floor, teach him some manners, next time he won’t be so lucky.”
First of all, Helen Henry-Bond needs to learn about sentence structure. Furthermore, the account she wrote “to big herself up”—and her claim that 15-year-old had “come flying around the corner” and “slammed on” his brakes was contradicted by witnesses who were customers at the Merseyside, UK bar. One of them, Robert Hamlin, said the boy’s feet were on the ground and he was scooting along at a walking pace.
(Thankfully, the boy wasn’t seriously hurt.)
Those testimonies, and Henry-Bond’s history of mental illness, led the Sefton Magistrate’s Court to convict her of common assault. She was ordered to pay £814 , which includes a fine, court costs and a victim’s surcharge and £100 in compensation to the boy. I hope that the Magistrate, if he or she has the power, ensures that Helen Henry-Bond gets the mental health care she needs—and someone to work with her on her comma splices.
