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My summary from the article: take down the fence — the middleman criminal who provides a market where thieves can sell their stolen bicycles — and be especially
by gorgoiler 6y ago
My summary from the article: take down the fence — the middleman criminal who provides a market where thieves can sell their stolen bicycles — and be especially ruthless about it.
This is an option only really available to the police. Perhaps there’s a reason for law enforcement to tolerate fencing though? Maybe there are nuances downsides to society if we eliminate the black markets?
Do fences act as some kind of lubricant to the underclasses? Do we allow fences to exist because, if we didn’t, the desperate / evil thieves would resort to violently extorting cash instead of non-violently stealing bicycles?
Imagine a future, for example, where the black market for stolen goods is quashed. It is much safer to lock bicycles up outside, but ATM knife extortions go up tenfold.
- LargoLasskhyfv 6y agoGet a larger knife (up to machete), a can of bear spray, a tazer or gun. Don't go alone, pay cashless, etc.
- 082349872349872 6y agoMy wife finds it hard to believe my tales of how things in the US would grow legs if left unattended, and how sidewalk cafés there would lock the tables to the pavement and bring the chairs inside at night. (caveat: the "big city" where I lived when I met her is 30k, hers was 80k) So I do believe rampant petty crime is a deliberate societal choice, but as to whether it serves a purpose or why it would be tolerated, I have no clue. All I can say is that in at least some jurisdictions, lack of bike theft does not translate into increase in mugging. Tangentially related (education instead of petty crime) but I still find it darkly amusing that people who call Brave New World's five colour-coded castes a dystopia voluntarily sort themselves by five-digit ZIP code: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24269640 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24269640 "I'm really awfully glad I'm a 94301"
- wasdfff 6y agoIn the U.S. bike theft is not pursued since it isn’t a felony usually. People don’t spend a lot of time in jail for bike theft even when they do get caught, so not much downside for a very high possibility of an upside.