London police ramming "moped bandits"

[Stig / Major Tom]

Wondered what the feeling is of forum members for this method of handling the increasing number of crimes committed by scooter riding bandits in the London, and other large cities in the U.K.?

Specially trained police units follow and, when safe, ram the scooter bandits, knocking them off the scooters. Since they all seem to be wearing helmets (to avoid later identification?)  they likely get little more than skinned up.


Must have been a real shock to them the first few times the police resorted to this.

A sad situation, which happens to invlovle our hobby.

Nothing going on here......

Stig

[Forbes1964]

It’s sad that folks steal. But I honestly like what the police are doing, especially since it doesn’t cause excessive harm. However, my hope would be for them to get rammed in front of someone who knows them so they’ll be totally embarrassed.


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[hypophthalmus]

Sounds like they aren't all wearing helmets. And even if they were, it wouldn't preclude them from injury.

I have mixed feelings about it. I'm quite wary about normalizing the police being violent. On the other hand, it sounds likely they're responding to violent crimes -- mugging. If it's non-violent theft, it's certainly unjustified.

Here's a video, with a comment section full of horrible people:

[Clampett]

What is not mentioned is that there has been a policy to let scooters off due to the unsafe nature of the pursuit.
So scooters have become more commonly used by criminals to commit their deeds over the years knowing they get off scott free.
There have been muggings, stealing of others bikes/scooters, and even murders that have been allowed to flee.
So the crimes had escalated out of control. Now that the upper class citizenry have suffered with no recourse,
law enforcement is becoming policy again. Though it is a bit extreme, it is working.
I've not seen it yet, but it just a matter of time before innocents are hurt. This will cause the policy to be rescinded (again).
London statistics say there were almost 20,000 reported crimes on scooters for 2017 from Jan-Oct.
Implementation of this policy has dropped the statistics by 44% for 2018.
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/gotcha-dramatic-footage-reveals-met-polices-new-hardline-war-on-londons-violent-moped-gangs-a3998141.html?fbclid=IwAR0cVuKtaNELpyvfJ18SzGn8Qf76L5LX6XJ4y664hnUlaXllFJQGhCnAZN0

[mcdcfc3]

Living here in the UK, I fully support the action being taken. These thieves have no conscience and are making the lives of law abiding citizens a misery. Unlike the US our police officers are not armed. This is long overdue

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[CROSSBOLT]

 Quote from hypothalmus: Here's a video, with a comment section full of horrible people: 

Hypothalmus, you have to realize that Britain is invaded by 10's of thousands third-world heathens bent on havoc. Most of these "refugees" are wild and out of control terrorizing the innocent population. They are very street-smart and work the system to their advantage. Further, there is a generally peaceful population that has been disarmed and disenfranchised by their own government. The angry outbursts are evidence of the populace frustration.

[Snorvey]

Finally. FINALY the British police get some teeth. Ram 'em all. And then reverse back over the twitching corpse just to make sure.

The only connection they have with law abiding scooter riders is the bike. But even then theirs is probably nicked.

[Forbes1964]

I’ll just say this. Most situations aren’t simply black and white. There are often nuisances between the extremes. There’s a BALANCE between over the top police tactics and letting the criminals take over. My personal feelings is that this CAN be a valid law enforcement tactic in some cases because folk should not be able to commit crimes (large or small) with impunity . But I also see a potential for abuse by law enforcement where the enforcement tactics well exceed the crime being committed.


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[Viper254]

There's been big problems in the UK with motorcycles/moped becoming the vehicle of choice for robbery and muggings. This has been facilitated in no small part by the fact that our Police have always struggled to pursue them with cars, though we do have effective motorcycle Police who just push them off, and have done for years.

We don't worry so much about our Police going too far in this country - they're quite restrained compared to other countries and we largely trust them.

It's a good thing. After a couple of years of knocking them off, the message will get through that bikes are no longer an untouchable tool, as it hurts the image of all of us riding them.

[GLV55]

There's been big problems in the UK with motorcycles/moped becoming the vehicle of choice for robbery and muggings. This has been facilitated in no small part by the fact that our Police have always struggled to pursue them with cars, though we do have effective motorcycle Police who just push them off, and have done for years.

We don't worry so much about our Police going too far in this country - they're quite restrained compared to other countries and we largely trust them.

It's a good thing. After a couple of years of knocking them off, the message will get through that bikes are no longer an untouchable tool, as it hurts the image of all of us riding them.

Well said, Viper. Unarmed police have to do something to get the message across to these jerks. This is a very good and reasonable solution.

[Forbes1964]

There's been big problems in the UK with motorcycles/moped becoming the vehicle of choice for robbery and muggings. This has been facilitated in no small part by the fact that our Police have always struggled to pursue them with cars, though we do have effective motorcycle Police who just push them off, and have done for years.

We don't worry so much about our Police going too far in this country - they're quite restrained compared to other countries and we largely trust them.

It's a good thing. After a couple of years of knocking them off, the message will get through that bikes are no longer an untouchable tool, as it hurts the image of all of us riding them.

I guess knowing the country and traditions give clarity to this subject. Also, the ability to trust law enforcement to act with proper restraint goes a long way. I wouldn’t trust our police to use the same method without abusing it. Others may feel differently.


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[TroutBum]

I think this is a sensible tactic that will hopefully deter the number of crimes committed.   

[klaviator]

Some of these thieves have been throwing acid on scooter riders and then attempting to steal their scooters.  This is more than just theft and needs to be stopped.

Interesting story of an attempted scooter-jacking here in the USA.  I like the way this one was handled:  https://advrider.com/f/threads/attempted-scooter-jacking.1352935/

[CROSSBOLT]

Some of these thieves have been throwing acid on scooter riders and then attempting to steal their scooters.  This is more than just theft and needs to be stopped.

Interesting story of an attempted scooter-jacking here in the USA.  I like the way this one was handled:  https://advrider.com/f/threads/attempted-scooter-jacking.1352935/