Armed robbery of bicycles

[Sergeant Pluck]

First time it has made the news as person was famous.

I don’t think that’s why. It’s because people like to think of Richmond Park as being an oasis of tranquility, but because it actually isn’t due to colossal levels of traffic through it, there is huge army of people on social media that pick up on anything that happens there that is related to traffic / cyclist interactions, of which this is a form.

Like all crimes like this, wherever it occurs, it also attracts a lot of interest because of the difficulty in preventing it, and the difficulty in catching culprits who go about on stolen mopeds, wearing balaclavas. It was the same when there was a wave of footpath phone snatching by similarly equipped scrotes. Catching them in the act and then ramming them to fuck engaging them tactically was the only way. 

[ian]

It was always the story you'd get robbed on the Waterlink Way in south London, which is a reasonable concern, it's narrow in places with plenty of bushes to hide in and plentiful feral youth in the vicinity. Undoubtedly it happened, but not to anyone I knew. Sense and sensibility dictated that even a gent wouldn't cycle down it in anything but daylight.

[Jurek]

I know someone who was mugged for his bike twice on Waterlink Way.
I was also approached by some guy who had been relieved of his iPhone in broad daylight by 4 or 5 yoof on Waterlink Way.
He wanted me to go after them.
And do exactly what? I asked of him.

[De Sisti]

I know someone who was mugged for his bike twice on Waterlink Way.
I was also approached by some guy who had been relieved of his iPhone in broad daylight by 4 or 5 yoof on Waterlink Way.
He wanted me to go after them.
And do exactly what? I asked of him.

... and his answer was?

[Peter]

"Give us yer bike and I'll do it meself!"

[Jurek]

I know someone who was mugged for his bike twice on Waterlink Way.
I was also approached by some guy who had been relieved of his iPhone in broad daylight by 4 or 5 yoof on Waterlink Way.
He wanted me to go after them.
And do exactly what? I asked of him.

... and his answer was?

I don't remember.
But I did lend him my phone so that he could call the poliss.

[Cudzoziemiec]

It was always the story you'd get robbed on the Waterlink Way in south London, which is a reasonable concern, it's narrow in places with plenty of bushes to hide in and plentiful feral youth in the vicinity. Undoubtedly it happened, but not to anyone I knew. Sense and sensibility dictated that even a gent wouldn't cycle down it in anything but daylight.

Most of the bike robberies on the Bristol to Bath path have been in populated areas at evening commuter times.

[ian]

It was always the story you'd get robbed on the Waterlink Way in south London, which is a reasonable concern, it's narrow in places with plenty of bushes to hide in and plentiful feral youth in the vicinity. Undoubtedly it happened, but not to anyone I knew. Sense and sensibility dictated that even a gent wouldn't cycle down it in anything but daylight.

Most of the bike robberies on the Bristol to Bath path have been in populated areas at evening commuter times.

I did it often and never had an issue, it's probably a lot safer than the roads in the area. That said, always rely on your spidey sense, if there's a cluster of be-hooded and loitering youth ahead, go another way.

[Sergeant Pluck]

From someone (who seems pretty well informed) on NextDoor.

https://news.met.police.uk/news/teenager-arrested-in-connection-with-richmond-park-bike-robberies-435911

Officers investigating a spate of bike robberies in the Richmond Park area have arrested as 16-year-old boy.
He was arrested on Friday, 15 October on suspicion of robbery, attempted robbery, possession of an offensive weapon and allowing to be carried in a stolen vehicle.
He was subsequently charged with offences related to a separate investigation. He remains under investigation for the offences relating to the robberies.

[giropaul]

The chap who was robbed rode the Nationals on Sunday, so thankfully he seems ok.

[markcjagar]

...Chinese Disease...

Really?

...the police failed/decided not to take any action (apart from giving out a crime number for insurance purposes).

I wonder if it's just a Greater Manchester police thing?

Not just GMP and it's not a bicycle specific thing. There aren't enough resources to investigate every theft, even with video evidence.

[Peter]

Mark, I just get tired of writing "Covid" or hearing "Pandemic".  In my church, the vicar continually prays for everyone "in time of Pandemic" not THIS pandemic, as if it was some sort of magic-realist title by a South American author.  Some sort of spiritual mantra.  Is it no longer thought that Covid originated in China?  I certainly didn't mean to give offence and apologise if I have.  Obviously Chinese people suffer just the same as anyone else.  Same as they would from Spanish Flu.  Writing that last sentence has made me feel uneasy so I guess I understand why it is wrong to particularise the diseases in the way I have - I do apologise.

Best wishes

Peter

[Kim]

I think the issue is that Chinese people suffer needlessly if you name a disease after them.

Which is why diseases now get abstract names like COVID-19, rather than geographical ones.  (Spanish Flu was notable for being first found in Kansas - the name was an artefact of newspaper censorship.)

(Your irregular reminder that there are currently two pandemics.  The other one also had a problematic name for a while, before they worked out what it was....)

[Peter]

That is what I was saying, really, Kim - except I wasn't aware about the Kansas bit.  I haven't really studied much about the origins of Covid-19 but I understand that (as with some previous epidemics) animal conditions in China were implicated.  Is that still thought to be the case?  If so, does avoiding using a geographical name limit the ability to research the origins of the disease rigorously?  I just don't know - but diplomacy has been known to stand in the way of practically everything at some time or other, has it not?!  But obviously one does not blame individual Chinese or Spanish people (or Kansans) for the origins of the diseases, in the same way that one does not blame all English people for, say, battery farming.  But I own my ignorance in the matter of origins - I'm sick of the whole bloody thing!

All the best

Peter

[grams]

Language can never be divorced from the cultural baggage that it’s acquired along the way, and oh boy does “Chinese Disease” have a lot of it.

[Cudzoziemiec]

(Your irregular reminder that there are currently two pandemics.  The other one also had a problematic name for a while, before they worked out what it was....)

(Just goggled and found out that HIV also currently has pandemic status, depending who's assessing, so presumably that's what you were referring to. The WHO call it officially a 'global epidemic', which makes me question what I thought a pandemic was.

HIV is considered by some to be a pandemic, although the WHO class it as a ‘global epidemic’. HIV infection first began in Africa and then spread to Haiti. From there, it spread to the United States between and then into other nations around the world in the 1980s. HIV is now controllable outside of Africa, but it is currently an epidemic/pandemic in Africa.

https://www.news-medical.net/health/Current-Pandemics.aspx
It must be more than simply global spread.)

[Peter]

Language can never be divorced from the cultural baggage that it’s acquired along the way, and oh boy does “Chinese Disease” have a lot of it.

Grams, can you enlighten me, please?

Peter

[Cudzoziemiec]

(Your irregular reminder that there are currently two pandemics.  The other one also had a problematic name for a while, before they worked out what it was....)

(Just goggled and found out that HIV also currently has pandemic status, depending who's assessing, so presumably that's what you were referring to. The WHO call it officially a 'global epidemic', which makes me question what I thought a pandemic was.

HIV is considered by some to be a pandemic, although the WHO class it as a ‘global epidemic’. HIV infection first began in Africa and then spread to Haiti. From there, it spread to the United States between and then into other nations around the world in the 1980s. HIV is now controllable outside of Africa, but it is currently an epidemic/pandemic in Africa.

https://www.news-medical.net/health/Current-Pandemics.aspx
It must be more than simply global spread.)

We also have a syndemic!

The first reinforces points I shared in my address last year. I cited Richard Horton from The Lancet.

He argued we aren’t suffering merely from a pandemic but a syndemic, in which two categories of disease are interacting: the communicable disease, Covid-19, and the non-communicable diseases that cluster around poverty and inequality.

https://www.bristol247.com/news-and-features/news/marvin-rees-state-of-the-city-address-2021/

[hatler]

A quick piece on this on the Beeb - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-59000605

Includes footage of a 'tactical interception'.

[Peter]

Horrific stuff.  Is there any evidence where these bikes end up?  Certainly absolutely shocking for the victims.