2d ago

Bike thefts at stations 'decriminalised'

www.bbc.co.uk

My lad's bike was stolen from a train station a few months back. He'd left it there while he was at work. He works for longer than an hour a day, like many others.

This was the BTP's response, so it's kind of mad to see that it's actual policy now.

Really makes you glad to pay the old national insurance and council tax, y'know?

14 comments

Sorry, lads, the coppers are too busy persecuting people who make critical comments about the government.
- Don't forget the landed gentry's property rights which are sacrosanct. Us peasants owning actual stuff on the other hand can fuck right off.
Oh hell no. Decriminalize drugs, homelessness, or petty theft from major chain stores with insurance for that crap.
Now, bicycle theft? That strains my dedication to opposing state violence.
- If it helps, I think bicycle theft is (mostly) a symptom of state violence.
  What I mean is, most people who steal bikes aren't doing it because they want a bike. They steal bikes to resell them.
  Some people do it because they're homeless, can't get a job, and need money to live.
  Some people do it because they're drug addicts, can't function well enough to do a job, and need money for drugs.
  Some people just do it because they're broke and it's easy money.
  In other words, because of capitalism, because of capitalism, and because of capitalism.
  And all those people are willing to risk state violence (in the form of being arrested for theft) in order to get the money they need.
  Because, in general, those groups are already the subject of state violence in so many ways that they're not deterred by more state violence. I mean, why the fuck shouldn't a homeless person steal a bike? Because he might be arrested? He might be arrested for sitting on the fucking sidewalk minding his own business.
  When you risk arrest every single day just for existing in public, or for using the chemicals that big pharma prescribed to you, addicted you to, and then illegalized you for being addicted, the marginally greater danger of arrest from stealing someone's bicycle doesn't really make a big difference.
  Fix the fucking social safety net and bicycle theft will plummet.
  
  Okay, but we aren't going to fix the social safety net. Nothing ever gets fixed. So, since that's never going to happen, this basically just means cyclists don't have the same property rights as motorists.
  We already have fewer rights than anyone else on the road, now we have fewer rights off the road too.
  If they decriminalized car theft then at least it would be fair. This is just a way to ensure cyclists stay second class commuters. We aren't even people to them, just annoying obstacles for motorists.
  
  All of this is true, but I still have zero sympathy for bike thieves. Go steal memory cards from a supermarket or something, leave other regular folks property alone you fucks.
  
  my father gave me a lesson like this when i was young when my bike was stolen and now i only buy bikes that can be folded up and taken with me everywhere i go.
  it's also bizarre that train conductors/authorities still count it as a regular bike even though it doesn't take up the same amount of room and a traditional bike.
So smashing car windows is getting decriminalized too right? RIGHT?
Optional registration with a bright visible yellow sticker in Belgium https://mybike.belgium.be/
Does it work? Who knows but at least signals to anybody who might want to still your bike that you went the extra mile to prevent theft and you will consequently be annoying enough to signal it at stolen wherever you can. Sure it can be removed somehow (Dremel I guess) but it's extra work that will look very suspicious on a "normal" sale.
FWIW it's also free, you just request the sticker on their Website and receive it by mail few days after.
What the fuck. Horse thieves used to get the death penalty.
- rich people had horses, poor people have bikes.
  that explains it
Plug for bikeindex.org, which I have heard used to actually recover stolen bikes in some cases.

14 comments