Bike jacking, Richmond Park

[Bonzothechippy]

Stealing a bike is bad enough, but lately a gang has been going around threatening to use a baseball bat on you unless you hand over your bike.
This as happened to a lot of people in Richmond Park.
I’m local, so I know the park is not open till 8am and the police don’t get in before 8am!! The cyclist ride around pre 8am and the gang is waiting for them.
Society has gone mad.

 

[Drago]

I'd stick it up their arse and march them round the park like a giant lollipop until they apologise.

 

[Rusty Nails]

Except they probably don't pick on anyone who looks big enough to do such a thing to a number of armed and probably violent thieves in one go.

I doubt that Jack Reacher cycles around Richmond Park.

 

[Beebo]

Richmond park has a high percentage of people on £5k plus bikes.
If I was a bike jacker it would be very near the top of my list.
If people didn’t buy stolen bikes there would be no need to steal. But how many of us know for sure where the second hand bikes and parts we buy on the internet come from?

 

[Bonzothechippy]

Recently a woman was stopped and kicked off her bike in Richmond Park. They are going for the high end bikes.
How do you defend yourself, without getting nicked for being tooled up yourself 🤷‍♂️

 

[Bonzothechippy]

Richmond park has a high percentage of people on £5k plus bikes.
If I was a bike jacker it would be very near the top of my list.
If people didn’t buy stolen bikes there would be no need to steal. But how many of us know for sure where the second hand bikes and parts we buy on the internet come from?

I think these guys steal them and put them in a container and there shipped off to another country.

 

[Bonzothechippy]

This type of theft is massively on the increase, has a similar feel to van tool theft. (Massive problem). They are happy to use violence if needed to get the tools.
The police know they are selling them at car boots or shipped abroad, but can do nothing as there is no proof who previously owned them!

 

[Rusty Nails]

I believe there is the same problem for cyclists who ride in the early morning around Regents Park. Definitely organised and targeted at high-end bikes...of which there are many in that area.

 

[Bonzothechippy]

I believe there is the same problem for cyclists who ride in the early morning around Regents Park. Definitely organised and targeted at high-end bikes...of which there are many in that area.

If only tasers were legal in this country. I’d have one for sure.
Seems wrong that the uk defence budget is going up and we will have to pay for it. Yet we can’t even legally defend ourselves in our own country.

 

[Profpointy]

If only tasers were legal in this country. I’d have one for sure.
Seems wrong that the uk defence budget is going up and we will have to pay for it. Yet we can’t even legally defend ourselves in our own country.

I'm not sure you or your bike would be much safer if you'd just been tazered rather than merely threatened.

 

[Drago]

Except they probably don't pick on anyone who looks big enough to do such a thing to a number of armed and probably violent thieves in one go.

I doubt that Jack Reacher cycles around Richmond Park.

I had three try and rob me once at a cashpoint, despite me being bigger than all of them combined at an inch shorter and 20lbs heavier than Reacher.

They threatened to shank me, but no one was eager to actually show me a knife which suggested they were bluffing. Nutted one very heavily, smacked another and ran for all I was worth.

It was righteous, but rather than spend months answering questions from PSD I kept schtum. It wasn't my county, my car was some distance away so they didn't have a reg, I took my chances.

Unless they have a gun and actually show it to me they can ferk off, they're not having it.

 

[Drago]

If only tasers were legal in this country. I’d have one for sure.
Seems wrong that the uk defence budget is going up and we will have to pay for it. Yet we can’t even legally defend ourselves in our own country.

Weapons are OK to a point. The danger is that if you're unskilled in it's use it comes down to physics - if your opponent is bigger than you they'll like as not take it off you and use it on you.

In the eighties the FBI were looking to update their defensive tactics training for agents. They went through over half a million felony assault reports to see what worked on the street, and what didn't. Sure, there was the occasional incident where the victim was a black belt death ninja and overpowered the aggressor, the odd one where the victim was tooled up and turned the tables, but the only factor that gave a consistently above average chance of a victim overcoming and attacker was...

Muscle mass.

 

[Bonzothechippy]

I'm not sure you or your bike would be much safer if you'd just been tazered rather than merely threatened.

The idea is not to use it, just to make the thugs think twice. Can’t have women kicked off their bikes just for the thugs steal it. Obviously it’s not legal so I wouldn’t have a taser.

 

[Bonzothechippy]

Weapons are OK to a point. The danger is that if you're unskilled in it's use it comes down to physics - if your opponent is bigger than you they'll like as not take it off you and use it on you.

In the eighties the FBI were looking to update their defensive tactics training for agents. They went through over half a million felony assault reports to see what worked on the street, and what didn't. Sure, there was the occasional incident where the victim was a black belt death ninja and overpowered the aggressor, the odd one where the victim was tooled up and turned the tables, but the only factor that gave a consistently above average chance of a victim overcoming and attacker was...

Muscle mass.

Then we need a punishment that will make them think twice

 

[Drago]

The idea is not to use it, just to make the thugs think twice. Can’t have women kicked off their bikes just for the thugs steal it. Obviously it’s not legal so I wouldn’t have a taser.

If I were a sheetbag it wouldon't make me think twice. Being taser trained I know how they work and would have little difficulty negating any effect as a weapon.

Then we need a punishment that will make them think twice

Amen on that Brother.

Three summary convictions should mean 5 years in chokey, and you actually serve 5, and three indictable convictions should mean life. I don't give a monkeys about rehabilitation - I care about decent folk being safer because persistent sheetbags are on ice.