[Closed] General question - Tea leafs, thieving scum - why do they?

Good rant.
What's the question?

Of course proper rants need to be in CAPITALS

Maybe if Magistrates and Judges where made aware of the pride of ownership and attachement riders have with their bikes, then the sentencing of thieves would be more proportionate with the offence. QED the theft rate would decline.

CAPITALS are very important.

CHOP THEIR HANDS OFF.

They take them, not because hey hate you but because they don't know work and pride. They don't see that you had to work hard /save /sacrifice etc. for your bike, all they see is that you have one and they don't and that's not fair.

They take them, not because hey hate you but because they don't know work and pride. They don't see that you had to work hard /save /sacrifice etc. for your bike, all they see is that you have onbe and they don't and that's not fair.

I don' think more severe punishments automatically equals less crime. If that were so, countries with a death penalty for murder wouldn’t have very many murders, and as we see with the US, that is far from the case. Most criminals don’t think they’ll get caught, therefore the punishment is irrelevant.

What has been shown to be a very strong deterrent to many is public opinion. Unfortunately in this country we views crimes like theft as quite minor, people even joke about the amount of stuff they’ve nicked from work.. A recent online survey on honesty by one of the Universities gave starling result as to just how dishonest people are prepared to be, yet think they are doing nothing wrong. We aren’t a particularly law abiding country, just look at the cars with illegal plates, or of the amount of forum posters who readily boast about taking illegal substances.

The scales have fallen from my eyes and I should have seen before that the death penalty is a bit harsh for bike theft. How the blinking flip do we change public opinion to make all thieving scum mend their ways?

TuckerUK - Member

I don' think more severe punishments automatically equals less crime

In fact, it's been proven beyond any doubt that it doesn't. But unfortunately the things that genuinely do reduce crime don't play well with the media or voters.

One way of reducing bike thefts would be to introduce a punishment for people who leave their bikes unattended or lock up a £2000 bike with a £10 lock 😉

There is a database for bikes, and lots of other stuff, its www.immobilise.com. Create an account and upload some pics and the frame number.

One way of reducing bike thefts would be to introduce a punishment for people who leave their bikes unattended or lock up a £2000 bike with a £10 lock

Isn't that like punishing girls who walk through the bad part of town inebriated and alone at 3am wearing little more than cheap perfume? 😉

I... uh... wait... Hmm... Yeah, that's one of those rare valid point things isn't it

Warning to the PC / Squeamish - don't watch this.

A short film about crime prevention, made in Spain

I see more top end boutique downhill bikes where.... Rochdale town centre the home of the pound shop and Britains largest percentage of families claiming benifits
now these boys/ girls got thier 3k rides one of three ways.. somebodys missing a bike.. retailing pharmaceuticals.. saving up from thier legitimate benifit income ( some estates over 90% of families claim housing benifit) although to be fair some people must just throw them away as I did see a Marin on the back of a scrap wagon a couple of months ago..

Money - bikes are easy to fence and largely untraceable, but yeah money.

Why do these people steel?

Stolen bike and or bike parts = free money.

Smack costs money.

Money = smack.

No emotion or feelings involved. I honestly believe the same sentiment should be employed when handing out sentence.

first offence, shoot them in the face. no second offence

yeah, the important thing is not to take it personally.
Your bike has been stolen because you were stupid, negligent, showing off quite a lot, insensitive or just plain unlucky. But don't take it personally.

theft is just theft, part of human nature, even Eve stole that apple and Adam received stolen goods. We all try to get away with what we can, pens from work, the odd private phone call. Buying stuff for home and claiming it on exspenses, you name it - it is all the same thing!

it's just hard when it happens to you. I have had a lot of stuff stolen over the years and taking it to heart never helps. Lock your stuf up better and move on, save your emotional energy for something that's worth it 😉

It's endemic, just like how nicking hot hatchbacks was in the late 1980s. The problem needs to be tackled three ways, firstly by a scheme to register and trace frames, secondly by fitting a tracker chip with a standardised signal that can be read by all police forces and thirdly by ensuring that those who habitually steal bikes face very stiff penalties.

Additionally, councils and employers should be obliged to provide secure bike storage facilities too.

They don't take them through any deep sociological reason. They take them cos they can sell them and make some easy cash.

Remove one small connection in any of our brains and we'd all be doing it. After all we all like easy money don't we?

Would you buy a niche 3grander down the pub for 300 quid?? A lot of people will, such as someone I was once talking to who worked in London for a bit!! That's a big part of the problem, if there's are Market for it people are always willing to be the supplier!!

Prohibition of heroin is the issue. Most petty theft is done to pay for the next fix. some estimates 50% of all crime.

Make your bikes hard to steal and they will go on to the next one. Not much you can do about the more "professional" but rarer crims to deter / prevent them

I've had six motorcycles stolen but never a pushbike. There are things that I could've done to at least make it harder when the w@nkers looked at the opportunity of stealing my property. The best thing I've done to counter this is to move out of the ghetto in Wolverhampton where I use to live and move to a quiet cul-de-sac in Lancaster. The distinct lack of major drug deals outside my house and gun crime is a positive indicator.

If you live in the wrong neighbourhood then sometimes it is just a fact of life. But the bitterness I have felt at being robbed has made me cynical enough not to trust or chance it and I take a no nonsense approach to security. If anyone steals my bike or motorcycle they will have to work at it.

The other day I saw a very very expensive mountain bike locked up with a tiny thin cable lock that you could've got through with some tin snips let alone bolt croppers. If you make it so easy for someone who is desperate to get a bag of smack to do so then you are partially responsible.

I agree that heroin is the major factor.. although I believe that it starts much earlier than that.. to dismiss the sociological factor is a bit naive..

The kids across the road from me always had the best bikes.. at 10 and 11 years old they were already being treated to top of the range kit..

was I jealous..?
Hell yeah..

I realised from a young age that other people got nice stuff and as a rule we had to settle for jumble sale kit.. this theme continued all through my childhood..
It can set up a bit of a mentality where you start thinking that maybe these other folk can afford to lose a few things here and there.. or maybe even that they should feel your pain a little bit.. just to wipe the smug grins off their faces.. I was lucky and was taught to have dreams and also that I could better myself if I worked hard..
Some people don't benefit from this advice though and it's not long before a person starts realising that the only way they are [i]ever[/i] gonna get the things that they want is by taking them..

If you factor in the infinitely increased need that heroin instills I guess it doesn't take long to put the childish dreams into action..
Consumerism isn't a very benevolent patriarch..