June 4, 2009 | 6:18 pm

Road rage taken out on Special Olympics kids

Posted by Brad A. Greenberg

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When a seemingly Jewish name gets in the news for the wrong reason, Jews cringe and ask, “Is he Jewish?”

I’m not sure about David Robert Schwartz, who was arrested today for allegedly throwing a metal bolt at children in the Special Olympics Torch Run. With that name, it seems likely the 41-year-old Valencia man is Jewish. But most people would say the same thing about a guy named Greenberg who writes for The Jewish Journal. I’m just glad he isn’t a different David Schwartz.

More from a local radio station:

Deputies from the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s station were running with the Special Olympics children in the annual Torch Run at approximately 3:30 p.m. As they neared the intersection of McBean Parkway and Arroyo Park in Valencia, motorist David Robert Schwartz yelled for the runners to get out of the road, using a derogatory term referencing sexual orientation.

Schwartz then threw a metal bolt at the runners, narrowly missing two of the children. Deputies witnessing the assault used their radios to notify deputies in radio cars of what happened and they soon captured the suspect.

Schwartz, 41, was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon and a hate crime because of the language used. He is being held at Santa Clarita station in lieu of $50,000 bail and is due in court on Friday.

Reminds me of this ugly scene from a bridge outside Seattle in 2001, when a 26-year-old Tacoma woman was standing on a bridge contemplating suicide. Her deliberating snarled traffic for hours, and some commuters decided give her a metaphorical push. They yelled, “Jump, bitch, jump!”