Ontopic: I hope you find your bike.
Actually, I’d be reluctant to credit him with speaking even one language, or telling the truth about anything, but there is one thing I do know about him: he has successfully hijacked this thread, which is supposed to be about bicycle theft. I imagine several people have reported this, so until a Mod addresses the complaints, why don’t we all return to the OP and refrain from responding further? That’s the course I’m choosing, anyway.
So far I see one person, not “some people,” defining theft as fair redistribution. Even if you do have some people who honestly do believe that, it’s still not impressive.
Do you happen to make sense in any of the other three? We’ve already discovered that you’re not making a lick of sense in English.
Bummer about your bike.
Bummer that taxes are going to rise.
(And both sentiments are sincerely meant.)
This sucks. Can we go back to bitching about bike thieves? Go away Terr. Nobody likes you. This thread is about bike thieves, not taxes. Your posts in this thread are bad and you should feel bad.
Maybe we can compromise and talk about the horrible barbaric crimes we would make an exception to in our ultra-liberal mentalities in order to punish bike thieves, and apply those to **Terr **as well. For example, I would gladly insert some fine print in my principled objections to waterboarding to allow for bike thieves (and Terr, of course) to receive a few hours of enhanced interrogation. Or kicking in the balls. That works for me too. Also not getting a lawyer, and just getting thrown in jail to rot for a few months. This is fun, getting to act like an unprincipled idiot, just because it’s fun to do. I can see why assholes like **Terr **enjoy acting like this most of the time.
Sorry about your bike, I’ve had a couple stolen myself. The first was with a u-lock, which thieves apparently laughed at at the time (nyc in the 90’s), the second was with a big thick chain and a padlock, which still didn’t seem to present much problem to them. I finally got both, the conventional wisdom at the the time being that your average bike thief would carry one type of tool but not both. This seemed to work, since I never lost another, but by then I was so tired of lugging around 25 pounds of locks, I pretty much gave up bicycling, it just stopped being worth it to me.
The really troubling part, to me, borne out by personal experience and by youtube testimony, is how little cops care.
Seems to me this would be a “quality of life” crime that is solvable by a few simple steps.
- mandate an unremovable ID number on all new bikes sold
- issue nuisance tickets ($3) to all bike-owners riding bikes without the ID number
- set up bait bikes with well-hidden GPS devices (INSIDE the bikes’ metal tubing)
- use the GPS devices to get warrants to enter premises where the stolen bikes are stored
- jail time for owners of said premises
Do this for a year or two and bike theft disappears. No?
I don’t think that bike theft would disappear entirely (some people will steal just to steal, and aren’t necessarily motivated by profit), but by making bike theft much less profitable, I’m sure that the rate would drop dramatically.
Right now, it seems that the cops are, for the most part, willing to tolerate bike theft. Both bike thieves and victims of bike thefts have this impression.
I think you’re wrong…my bike, and most stolen bikes I’ve read about, are not stolen by casual impulse thieves, but by pros, using fairly expensive, professional level tools like bolt-cutters, often loading the bokes onto flatbed trucks. If we could limit theft to immature individuals acting on impulse, that’s what I’d call “disappeared.”
I wouldn’t call it disappeared…but I’d call it a huge step forward. Right now, the problem appears to be rampant, to the point where people just can’t have nice bikes unless they can keep them completely secured at all times.
I have to say that this is just my impression, though. I haven’t had a bike since I was about 17.
I think the problem is that most bike thieves (whether casual or professional) simply don’t get caught, and if they DO get caught, they don’t face any real punishment. Right now, the rewards for stealing a bike far outweigh the risks.
Wow. I had no idea it was this bad. I rely on my bike for a long commute every day… maybe I should start locking it up! Guess I should be glad the pros haven’t descended on midwest college towns yet (it’d be easy pickin’s here).
Oh, and we’re a pretty liberal town, so we’d just be handing them to anyone who could show us a 1040 with a lower income :rolleyes: …
Maybe not lack of concern, but lack of ability to actually do anything. After all, a bike is a fairly small thing compared to a truck or car.
Let’s examin those, shall we?
Automobiles have a VIN. They are required to display a license plate with current registration/inspection stickers.
Automobiles without license plates and registration/ispection stickers are ticketed.
Did you ever see those bait car police videos? Also, what’s the cost of a GPS device inside the tubing? How long will the battery last if the thief cannot get to it? What’s to prevent a thief from simply cutting into the tubing and discarding the GPS?
Sounds good, but unworkable.
No. It hasn’t prevented autotheft and chop shops. No way it’ll prevent bicycle theft.
FTR: I mentioned that a bike is a fairly small thing compared to a car, not to downplay the issue of its theft but to indicate that it’s a lot harder to notice or even find a stolen bike. A car is a pretty obvious chunk of machinery.
I thought you were the liberal. 
My frothiness is always very coherent. :mad:
6; pack the frame tubing with your favorite explosive of choice (black powder, C4, detcord, napalm, etc… and a remote RF detonator, when you realize your bike has been stolen, simply detonate it, voila! That bike thief won’t be stealing any more bikes
If an explosive frame is too much for you, how about just exploding handlebars, can’t steal any bikes without hands, can they?
Is there no place in your home you can hang your bike?
You drop a rant about taxes into a thread about a guy who got his bike stolen, and it’s liberals who are incoherent?