A sad state of affairs

[ColinJ]

Didn't New York go the other way about 30 or 40 years ago and start tackling every petty crime in the belief that criminals start off petty but slowly graduate to more serious crimes? Things like letting people get away with breaking the odd window. Then you'd get graffiti. Then you'd get squatters. Then perhaps the house would get burned down. That kind of thing ...

I remember reading that crime rates have dropped a lot there. You watch films from the 70s with criminal gangs roaming the subways almost at will. I think they are much safer now.

 

[Oxo]

It's like any other lock except with greater intelligence, sex appeal and influence.

Not like the people who live there then!

 

[Drago]

Yes, otherwise people who register their cars and have legal documentation will end up driving 75mph on a motorway. This is obviously unacceptable.

Absolutely it is. Aside from being speeding, unnecessary wasting of fuel in that manner is a national security issue, holding our security and economy hostage to foreign oil producers.

 

[fossyant]

Unfortunately there aren't enough officers to investigate it. They couldn't be bothered with a serious injury. The force are at bare bones, and only serious crime can be investigated.

Moral of the story, never lock a bike with a chain. Burly d-lock and another lock. My nephew (mid 20's) has lost his hardly ridden bike - locked it with a chain.

 

[mjr]

Moral of the story, never lock a bike with a chain.

I think you can, but it has to be one of those huge motorcycle chains, which are much harder to carry around than a D lock. One tip is to remember that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, so look at the thickness of the chain and ask yourself if you'd lock the bike with a D lock that thin.

 

[steveindenmark]

As an ex copper, interacting with the public was the best part of the job. Whether it be the people I was resting or the odd guy who was coming it to report the aliens....again.

Stand away from the car.........they are watching the wrong cop shows I think.

 

[screenman]

Take your quick release squewers out, or the nuts off of the spindles.

 

[fossyant]

I think you can, but it has to be one of those huge motorcycle chains, which are much harder to carry around than a D lock. One tip is to remember that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, so look at the thickness of the chain and ask yourself if you'd lock the bike with a D lock that thin.

I have one of those chains, actually 4. The big one weighs 10lbs !! We use them at the caravan.

 

[Blue Hills]

As an ex copper, interacting with the public was the best part of the job. Whether it be the people I was resting

Got talking to a retired copper from the north in London's St James's Park (didn't look old - hell they can retire young) about cycling and other stuff. He said they called the local crooks/habitual thieves "clients". Even as a lefty liberal I found this a bit much.

 

[PK99]

Didn't New York go the other way about 30 or 40 years ago and start tackling every petty crime in the belief that criminals start off petty but slowly graduate to more serious crimes? Things like letting people get away with breaking the odd window. Then you'd get graffiti. Then you'd get squatters. Then perhaps the house would get burned down. That kind of thing ...

I remember reading that crime rates have dropped a lot there. You watch films from the 70s with criminal gangs roaming the subways almost at will. I think they are much safer now.

>>
from the NY Times:
The Human Cost of ‘Zero Tolerance’

There is no proof that the zero-tolerance policing adopted by New York and other cities in the 1990’s had anything to do with the decline in violent crime across the nation. Crime also dropped in jurisdictions that did not use the approach.

Millions of people have been arrested under the policy for minor violations, like possession of small amounts of marijuana. And one thing is beyond dispute: this arrest-first policy has filled the courts to bursting with first-time, minor offenders who do not belong there and wreaked havoc with people’s lives. Even when cases are dismissed, people can be shadowed for years by error-ridden criminal records.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/29/opinion/sunday/the-cost-of-zero-tolerance.html
>>

In "Freakonomics" (or one of the follow ups) Levitt and Dubner, argued that the fall in violent crime closely tracked the fall in numbers in the age groups normally committing violent crime as a result of Roe v Wade and the legalising of abortion in the US

http://freakonomics.com/2005/05/15/abortion-and-crime-who-should-you-believe/

 

[Hill Wimp]

What zero tolerance did do is to push the crime into the next borough.

You get tough in one area, the criminals move on.

 

[steveindenmark]

Got talking to a retired copper from the north in London's St James's Park (didn't look old - hell they can retire young) about cycling and other stuff. He said they called the local crooks/habitual thieves "clients". Even as a lefty liberal I found this a bit much.

I never called them clients but was always courteous with the people I was arresting. Being anything else just made the situation worse.

 

[screenman]

Got talking to a retired copper from the north in London's St James's Park (didn't look old - hell they can retire young) about cycling and other stuff. He said they called the local crooks/habitual thieves "clients". Even as a lefty liberal I found this a bit much.

I think if they were on the old pension scheme they could get out at 50 or after 30 years, maybe somebody will correct me.

 

[Drago]

Stand away from the car.........they are watching the wrong cop shows I think.

Or they've been reading the NCA security bulletins.

 

[ColinJ]

>>
from the NY Times:
The Human Cost of ‘Zero Tolerance’

There is no proof that the zero-tolerance policing adopted by New York and other cities in the 1990’s had anything to do with the decline in violent crime across the nation. Crime also dropped in jurisdictions that did not use the approach.

Millions of people have been arrested under the policy for minor violations, like possession of small amounts of marijuana. And one thing is beyond dispute: this arrest-first policy has filled the courts to bursting with first-time, minor offenders who do not belong there and wreaked havoc with people’s lives. Even when cases are dismissed, people can be shadowed for years by error-ridden criminal records.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/29/opinion/sunday/the-cost-of-zero-tolerance.html
>>

In "Freakonomics" (or one of the follow ups) Levitt and Dubner, argued that the fall in violent crime closely tracked the fall in numbers in the age groups normally committing violent crime as a result of Roe v Wade and the legalising of abortion in the US

http://freakonomics.com/2005/05/15/abortion-and-crime-who-should-you-believe/

What zero tolerance did do is to push the crime into the next borough.
You get tough in one area, the criminals move on.

Fair enough!

TBH, I think it is a bit late once they have become criminals. The failing system that creates them in the first place needs to be sorted out.

I think I have a copy of 'Freakonomics' somewhere in my pile of unread books. I will have to search for it and see what it has to say. I obviously thought it was worth buying at the time! (It is possible that I DID read it, but my memory is a bit iffy these days. I have a vague recollection of reading that Roe vs Wade argument somewhere before.)