5-Dec-11: Attempted murder by rock

Site of the attacks

From the British Sky News this afternoon:

Motorist's Terror As Rock Smashes Into Car 

A motorist has told of her lucky escape after a large rock was thrown from a bridge, shattering her car windscreen. Lisa Horne, 26, said she was left "very shaken" and "scared to drive" following the incident last Thursday evening on the A12 in Essex. She and her 48-year-old mother escaped unharmed when their Vauxhall Astra was targeted as they travelled under the Fryerning Lane Bridge near Ingatestone. Around 40 minutes later, a 57-year-old woman and her husband were injured after a "bucket-sized" piece of concrete was dropped on to her car from a different bridge on the same stretch of road between Chelmsford and London. Police are treating both incidents as attempted murder.

And so they should.

People who hurl rocks at moving vehicles and at the people inside them either want to kill those people or are absolutely indifferent as to whether or not that is the result.  Either way, it's murder or attempted murder. The deaths on an Israeli road two months ago of Asher Palmer and his baby son Yonatan ("25-Sep-11: "Only" rock throwers - but now a father and his infant son are dead") are proof enough. Palestinian Arab youths and men routinely engage in rock-throwing attacks on Israelis in their cars. We understand what their goals are. Some Brits might now, too.

UPDATE Monday 8:15pm: The story is getting wider coverage. Today's Daily Mail has these quotes:
"It is not fair, you could have taken peoples' lives away and left my children without a mum.'
'I just don't know how they went home that night and slept,' she said.
'They could have killed four people within half an hour."
'I just don't understand how people could do that. I cannot sleep thinking about it.'
"Sick, twisted, ferral little thugs - I despair - bring back national service, the cane, the stocks, public hanging"
This appears to be evolving into the sort of story to which the ordinary members of the British public can relate. Wouldn't it be something if someone over there made the connection to what Israelis have had to endure for years, up to and including today?