5 posts tagged “crime”
On a side note about the Auction a contact of mine wanted to go Auction on Friday but you needed to pay $10.00 to get in a view the bikes.
Able Auctions may have made more then $5000 of their income from entrance fees. What a Scam.
Things need to Change around this Bike Theft Issue or Urban Bike Commuting will only be effective transport for the elite few that can trip plan very carefully far in advance for the best lock up locations, or have off street bike parking or have can use the most elitists solution yet proposed the Bike Locker on Public Property.
Vancouver Police Bike Auction Celebrates the Failure of Law Enforcement to control the Bicycle Theft problem. Although nearly every media source in the city promotes the Auction as Bargain event of the year It really just a place to buy a Cheap Stolen Bicycles for deal seeks and second hand dealers. Many of the Bicycles have been recovered by Vancouver Polices but because there
is no good way to find the rightful owners of the bicycles. The Police do what is easy and sell the stolen bicycles at auction and keep the profits. Many Bicycles are stolen in Vancouver by Biners/Recyclers that break bike racks off there anchor bolts.
Vancouver can address the problem of Bicycle Theft if it wants to
We could have a Lower Mainland database that logs/registers the rightful owners of the bicycles and uses a tag system that would allow the Police track and ID stolen bicycles and parts when the bicycles are disassembled.
Bike Theft is a Crime and the thefts need to do time for possession of stolen property.
Building Owners and City Agencies must do a better job maintaining bicycle racks in our community see photo of a broken bike race. If you cant secure your bike they you not going to use your bicycle and that means you need to use a carbon adding form of transportion. photo by redbike606
Car Keying Suspect arrested but murder's still walk the streets in Vancouver B.C. I really do applaud the Vancouver Police Department for arresting the social misfit who may have damaged more the 100 cars here in Vancouver but I feel even better if the Vancouver Police Department arrested person or person(s) for the 13 targeted shootings/killings that have happened in the City over the past 8 months or so.
So what do Jews do on Christmas. First of all its a day off, so I got up slowing. I would not say I slept in but just took my time getting up. I started my day off reading book I picked up on the
the weekend. The Best American Crime Reporting 2007.
I read the story of Talented Dr. Krist.
It was a appropriate tale for a Christmas regarding young Criminal who buried a women alive in a box in Atlanta area in 1968 and unlashed a unsuccessful ransom plot.
Once Caught and in justice System he did what he could to try to prove the Parole Board the he deserved to be on the outside again. To do this he used his strong will and sharp mind he did get paroled. Then he went to University and then Medical School.
To practice medicine he would need to get a pardon and then he went back to successful skills of manipulation and was able to secure medical license in a state short of doctors and then opened up a clinic in a town in Indiana that had not had a doctor in Ten Years.
Although Dr Krist and the supporters of his redemption thought the power a pray and saved his sole and he had now became a model citizen.
His criminal past was raised by both the Local and National Media and with that attention came and investigation by the Indiana State medical board which found problems in both his how he practiced his craft and and his failure to disclose problems he along the way. Krist lost his medical license and after he went back to the profession he really did understand crime. Krist was caught with many pounds of cocaine in a boat that he rented, of course that was not all he was for a fee smuggling human cargo on the boat. When Krist's home was searched police found what a crack lab in the sub basement. Now Krist is back behind bars for another six years.
I guess the point of this tale of redemption is that Redemption is very very difficult thing to do and lets not hurt other people along the way.
Last nights Critical Mass ride started with the air of a party. The First Biker I met came by with an open box of chocolates. Of course there was normal talks about bike and the holidays. It really was not a massive group about 30 bikers were at the Art Gallery. One female biker was talking about trip she taken to Mexico were she was acting as observer journalist. Her skills likely came useful later in the nights ride.
For the benefits of readers that do not live in the Vancouver area our City will be Hosting the 2010Winter Olympics and Vancouver's Mayor has made cracking down on social disorder a top priority. Biking with-out a helmet was named as a top cause of social disorder in Vancouver. In this backdrop there increased reports of Bikers in Vancouver getting tickets for running stop signs and not having lights on bikes at night.
At about 6pm the group of Mass rides grew to about 80 rides. I always amazed the range of people that come to ride on Critical Mass. There are the people you expect Young Bike Messengers riding their fixed gear bikes. It the riders you don't except that make the ride so joyous. A guy used his bike as RV with BBQ and cooler attached to a extra long frame. Their are older folks that ride 3speeds with mental fenders and young guys riding an extreme mountain bike with disk brakes rotors that rival the size and stopping power of a full size SUV.
At the start of the ride there were a few announcement about a party at local club with a cover charge that seemed like the main concern to the ride leaders. I always wondered if the people make that important annoucement get a cut of the door take. There was very short safety briefing by a guy who told us that all riders were part of one big bus.
The group was off we went down one set of blocks and turned up Granville Street and then past the Main Library down to Hastings street up the hill toward Commercial drive no real problems except that the riders has spread out over about three blocks.
All of a sudden a gray unmarked police car blocks traffic for the ride at a Commercial Drive intersection at this point I knew the ride was going to have problems I have never seen VPD help a Critical Mass ride before so I decided to speed up and catch up with the pack next thing I know women tells the pack to pull over and we stop by old body shop and wait.
Reports and rumors fly someone got a ticket for not having a helmet, someone else got a ticket for not having lights on their bike and then after about five mins a clean cut guy who has said he was from Toronto a few mins before ride started rode by the pack yelling out "I going home this is getting weird".
The pack talks about if bikes should go back to the police site to support the rider(s) that got sited. No one really seems to want to turn the ride into an all out confrontation and group stays put for about 10 mins listing to box radio playing dance music. Then another cell phone call comes in and its reported to the group women making the announcements at the start of the ride had been arrested and being taken away in a wagon.
The women with cell phone asked people to go back the site of the police incident but there were conditions and well I broke off with a group of about ten riders that decided to the club that was hosting the after ride party that really was not going to be much of party after all. When I got club a young guy that ride a home-made that put him high up in the air started tried to make everyone feel bad because we did not go back to support the other riders.
I decided to nicely tell this guy I did not agree with him and last thing I heard out of his mouth was I glad I did not get a ticket. Which was how I felt myself and I decided to ride home and eat dinner.
Updated Jan 1pm
A rider that was corking (or interacting with drivers) stopped an un-marked police car he was ticketed and two other riders intervened on the corke's behalf were ticked by police for not wearing helmets. One female rider that was very vocal was hand cuffed by police and taken by wagon and later released before being brought to the station for booking. (This is a typical tactic of VPD. Vancouver riders will have to wait for the next Mass to if this type of incident occurs again.
