• 0 Posts
  • 2 Comments
Joined 4 years ago
Cake day: April 11th, 2021
  • Four_mile_circus@lemmy.mltoFuck Cars@lemmy.ml•Bike thefts at stations 'decriminalised'
    112·
    2 days ago

    If it helps, I think bicycle theft is (mostly) a symptom of state violence.

    What I mean is, most people who steal bikes aren’t doing it because they want a bike. They steal bikes to resell them.

    Some people do it because they’re homeless, can’t get a job, and need money to live.

    Some people do it because they’re drug addicts, can’t function well enough to do a job, and need money for drugs.

    Some people just do it because they’re broke and it’s easy money.

    In other words, because of capitalism, because of capitalism, and because of capitalism.

    And all those people are willing to risk state violence (in the form of being arrested for theft) in order to get the money they need.

    Because, in general, those groups are already the subject of state violence in so many ways that they’re not deterred by more state violence. I mean, why the fuck shouldn’t a homeless person steal a bike? Because he might be arrested? He might be arrested for sitting on the fucking sidewalk minding his own business.

    When you risk arrest every single day just for existing in public, or for using the chemicals that big pharma prescribed to you, addicted you to, and then illegalized you for being addicted, the marginally greater danger of arrest from stealing someone’s bicycle doesn’t really make a big difference.

    Fix the fucking social safety net and bicycle theft will plummet.