Just found this: Motorbike Thieves | Where I captured the thieves on CCTV Its frightening how brazen the lowlife scum are. I know bikes are an easy target but I really feel for this guy, watching your pride and joy being stolen on cctv must be heartbreaking. Make sure its well locked up guys and gals.
Now you print 500 laminated copies of their faces with description, put hoodie on (so your face is not visible) and plaster them all over that area.
Broad daylight... What more does it need to catch the people responsible?? Mine gets at the very least a hefty disc-lock where ever its parked? Not convenient, but a lot less faff than losing your bike.
Posted to my Facebook Let's help to clear up the streets of vermin!! Makes my blood boil scumbags
I can't imagine what it's like to have a bike stolen but did have a male talking on a phone must have been under the piece of overhang at my front door telling someone about the two bikes parked under my window. When I looked out I could see noone and assumed they had gone. Pissed on their fireworks lol moved them straight away so when they came back haha no bikes stick that in your pipe .....
Read Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point chapter on New York's "broken windows" policy. This cleaned up crime in New York and yet none of this experience has been applied to London which is just a hot-bed of petty crime, stabbings and other antisocial behaviour. I had bicycles stolen, pocket picked in a pub. Nothing life-threatening, just a constant hassle of insurance companies, useless visits to police stations and expense. Remember, the only "human rights" anyone is interested in are those of the perpetrators of crime. I once asked a criminal lawyer friend of mine, over a drink in a pub, what would happen if now I saw someone trying to steal my bicycle and went outside to give them a kicking. He told me that in order to avoid prosecution, I would have to shout something like "I say, unhand that bicycle" and if they failed to desist, I was only authorised to use "reasonable force" to prevent the theft, i.e., hold on to the bicycle to prevent the thief stealing it. Decking the guy would land me in court.
I had a GasGas 300 stolen in the early noughties. It was an off road bike so not registered. The police basically said "tough luck." The following weeks were a very dark time for me. I spent every spare minute driving round looking for that bike. Looking back, it was maybe a good thing I never found it because I always went "tooled up" and the way the law seems to works I`d have been the one going to prison. The thieving scum would probably blame their poor deprived upbringing, then some bleeding heart, sandal wearing, hand wringing liberal would say they need a hug and to be rewarded whilst I am obviously an anti social pariah and should be punished for not "sharing" my stuff, stuff that I`ve worked damn hard for, with these poor unfortunates.
In the late '90s, I lived in High Wycombe, and in a single 3 month period, had my flat broken into, my Ducati stolen (H954 CGU where are you now?) and my car broken into. At that time of my life, my only possessions which I owned were my car and my motorcycle, and the stuff in my flat. It hardened my attitude, and made me realise that in the eyes of the law, politicians, and a lot of the general public, I was seen as a spectacular 'have' and if my stuff got stolen, then it was my problem. I would presumably be guilty of lowering the self esteem of any theiving scum who I happened to catch and give a good well deserved kicking. Its this sort of thing which could well turn you into a Nazi, because it seems as though no one would be prepared to stand up for you, and your rights, and your ability to earn money, then have things which are coveted by others. All you do, in living your life is to opress those who are less clever and fortunate then you are, so you should in a liberal sense feel guilty about that. Well nuts to that! In days of yore, it used to be traditional that the Conservative party could be counted upon to look after the interests of those who own things, have jobs and generally get on with things, tax evasion was practically encouraged, and theiving oiks were given short shrift. These are strange times indeed.
I can't watch that without feeling utter rage Really feel for that guy too, must be absolutely devastated. I had a £1600 mountain bike nicked from my office a couple of years ago, loading up had a roller shutter door up.....must have been upstairs for all of 10 minutes with 4 or 5 of the guys I work with and some scrote came in through the door, must have had a wander round because it was tucked away out of sight, found it in the kitchen in the back of the office and made off with it. Absolutely brazen The police attitude was shocking too, reported it and all I got was a disinterested taking of details and that was that. Crap thing is we are all much more aware of this now and you can actually see the scrotes wandering around, it's a nice new small estate with 20 or so units on, dead end with no throughfare. Some guy will come riding in on a mountain bike, do a circuit and stop every now and again staring into a unit if he sees anything he likes. If you question him he'll say something like he was looking for such and such or he is just out and about and then ride off. Grrrrrr!
And ride a bike how anti social is that. I makes me sooo mad that hard workers go out and earn a crust and that some people think they can just take other people things with no consequences.
Well yes, Glidd, but that is nothing new. The principle of being entitled to use reasonable force, and risking prosecution if you use unreasonable and excessive force, has applied for centuries in English law. Surely you cannot be saying you are in favour of the use of unreasonable force? The presumption of innocence until proved guilty may help the alleged thief - but don't forget, if you are accused of assaulting the thief the presumption of innocence now works in your favour. So don't knock it!
Well Pete, to be honest and despite my general sightly left of centre politics (or maybe just centre), I am a bit of an advocate of "unreasonable force" when low-lifes interfere with me and my belongings. As far as I can see, if people leave you and your property alone, they will come to no harm. If they think they can either assault you or nick your stuff, then they clearly haven't learnt the lesson that this is unreasonable behaviour. To this end, they will continue to do indulge in this behaviour until the outcome is different. I also think that basically law-abiding people have far more to lose at the hands of the law than society's outcasts (they often choose to be outcast). If you have a job and get sent to prison for 3 weeks and a criminal record, it will make far more of an impact than if you're a professional thief upon whom it will make no impact. If someone burgles your house and you catch them at it, then I think that hospitalising them is reasonable behaviour. They shouldn't be in your house in the first place. I should also add that I have no confidence in the law to speak of. The few dealings I have had with it have never produced outcomes that looked anything like justice.
If you take actions which (as a matter of fact) you have to take to defend yourself and protect your property, then that is reasonable and you will be OK legally. But if you go beyond that and take it upon yourself to inflict punishment, retribution or deterrent on someone because you think they deserve it, then you have crossed an important line. Punishment is not for victims to mete out, but for the law. By crossing that line, you turn yourself into the offender. Ultimately if what you have done is GBH, that is a much more serious offence than the attempted theft we started with. The byword is proportionality. I presume Swiss law would be broadly similar to English.
I think if I surprised (or they surprised me) burglars in my house in the middle of the night, I don't know how I'd react. I assume I'd be frightened, angry and full of adrenaline. I very much doubt that "proportion" would be at the top of my thought processes. Naturally, that doesn't mean I'd ever keep a gun at home even if I was allowed to, and I can't imagine stabbing anyone, or tying them up and exacting cold retribution. But belting some scumbag while he was trying to steal my bicycle? Absolutely and with no compunction whether legal or not. If someone wanted to give me community service for that, so be it. Yes, I should think that Swiss law is largely similar to British. Last year there was a series of burglaries in our little village all the same night. Burglars creeping around in people's houses while they were asleep. Nasty. I think that is highly aggressive behaviour and probably deserves to be met with some violence if you catch them at it.
Thing is Pete, whilst I entirely understand both your and the law's point of view, the let down in letting the law mete out justice for you is (a) they have to catch the wrongdoers in the first place, which current stats suggests they won't and (b) the guilty have to get a punishment which changes their future behaviour and I would even suggest (c) compensates the victim. There seems to be nothing in the law about (c) and (b) seems to be increasingly lenient. In the not so distant past, you got life for murder. Now you seem to do about 10 years.
