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  • there have been numerous times on the forum when I've been surprised at the lack of positive feedback for the police when they do finally start listening to us (cyclists) or rather policy has changed.

    Years of nakedly, aggressively pursued racism is unlikely to see the police being praised when they finally decide not to be cunts. Resentment takes a while to subside after such a prolonged and successful campaign by the police, perhaps it might never entirely go having become a fixed part of how we view the police.

    So when a new policy decides to deal with an issue people think has been ignored it takes a while for the actual successful implementation of the policy (rather than merely it's announcement) to filter down and start to change people's opinions.

    For example, Brick Lane has been known as a place to shift stolen bikes for years and for years cyclists and people on this forum have been saying 'why don't the police do something about it'. Bicycle theft generally in London hasn't really been taken seriously. Until recently. On the Stolen Bikes thread Oliver posted links to the new police initiative to properly crack down on bike theft. I was impressed to see something finally being done:

    http://www.lfgss.com/thread123-82.html

    The link is at the top of the page. But when you read down the page we *still* see negative comments about the police; now they are doing something. And nothing positive. Comments like this:

    The operative word here is 'still' I think. People at this stage have still only got bad stories, stories of stolen bikes, police disinterest and so on. Like I say, don't expect opinions to change overnight after years of police disinterest.

    But the thing is after Oliver posted this and he said 'Anyway, just a small bit of good news in all the gloom' nobody commented on what the police had achieved, not one person.

    I can only make the same point really, people feel they have the right to not have their bikes stolen, if and when they are, they expect the police to take their case seriously - just because, after decades of disinterest, the police decide to take bike theft seriously does not particularly put them in a good light, it's a tacit admission to their past failure.

    Like I say the day they crack racism in the force I won't be sending them a congratulatory card, my thoughts are likely to be like everyone else's ("about time too, you bunch of fucking cunts").

    It certainly seems that the police are damned if they do and damned if they don't.

    Not at all, it just all takes time.

    As long as we continue to lock a grands worth of Hetchins with a waxed shoelace we're continuing to make bike theft an easy option.

    What has also massively contributed to bike theft is the knowledge that if you steal a grand's worth of bike, the police are unlikely to put much effort into investigating, if any at all.

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