A new low???

Rocker

This break in and theft of equipment must be close to a new low in peoples behaviour. It is becoming increasingly difficult to argue against the re-introduction of public birchings to prevent or protect against thefts such as this:

https://www.rte.ie/news/connacht/2018/0402/951712-gear-worth-thousands-stolen-from-mountain-rescue-team/

Words fail me. 

Phil_aka_Pip

Bastards!

darthed1981

Ambulances get robbed and vandalised here in the UK all the time, when the doors are open because they have rushed in to save someone's life.

You can't understand the mentality of it, because the people involved are amoral, or they wouldn't be criminals.

rolls1392

When I was in the Plod, myself and and another officer were in a pub giving a collapsed bloke CPR, whilst waiting for the ambulance.
Local idiots torched our Police car as we worked on the bloke.
Thankfully bloke survived
Sadly Police car didn't.
People never fail to disappoint.

randella

darthed1981 said:

Ambulances get robbed and vandalised here in the UK all the time, when the doors are open because they have rushed in to save someone's life.

You can't understand the mentality of it, because the people involved are amoral, or they wouldn't be criminals.

Amoral or simply desperate.  The latter could be helped more with rehabilitation but often aren't, and the former are - well - amoral.

Either way I'm not sure the reintroduction of corporal punishment is going to be a deterrent in any case.  You're either so desperate that you'll risk it, or amoral and cocky and think you'll get away with it.

Look at the number of people who, every day, commit crimes in the US which carry the maximum tariff of death.

Nitefly

Transportation to Australia!

In the overhead luggage racks - they'll be safe up there.

randella

Nitefly said:

Transportation to Australia!

At least if that was your punishment, you'd still have more room on the ship than you get on a 747-400.

(Yes I realise it takes a wee while longer )

darthed1981

randella said:

darthed1981 said:

Ambulances get robbed and vandalised here in the UK all the time, when the doors are open because they have rushed in to save someone's life.

You can't understand the mentality of it, because the people involved are amoral, or they wouldn't be criminals.

Amoral or simply desperate.  The latter could be helped more with rehabilitation but often aren't, and the former are - well - amoral.

I guess the old adage, never judge a man mile shoes etc. does apply. 

If a starving homeless person steals a sandwich however, thats one thing, frankly its immoral on our part that anyone would be starving in a country as rich as Britain.

However robbing high value, potentially life saving equipment simply smacks of not caring about the consequences, I'd imagine the typical criminal will be a long way along the scale of a sociopath.

Philly_Q

Rocker said:

This break in and theft of equipment must be close to a new low in peoples behaviour. It is becoming increasingly difficult to argue against the re-introduction of public birchings to prevent or protect against thefts such as this:

I agree that the crime is despicable, but I wasn't aware that the re-introduction of public birchings was on the government's agenda.

Maybe after Brexit.  I'm sure Liam Fox would be up for it.

randella

darthed1981 said:

I guess the old adage, never judge a man mile shoes etc. does apply. 

If a starving homeless person steals a sandwich however, thats one thing, frankly its immoral on our part that anyone would be starving in a country as rich as Britain.

However robbing high value, potentially life saving equipment simply smacks of not caring about the consequences, I'd imagine the typical criminal will be a long way along the scale of a sociopath.

I think we're probably in agreement. I'd go a bit further though and say that someone who was so deep into their drug habit, and so scared of the gangs they were buying from, all to escape their shitty existence that they'd do something desperate like this, also shouldn't exist in this age of plenty.

On the more criminal side though, I don't know what it's like over in Ireland but here in the UK I've noticed something.  I'm not one of those who refuses to leave the house because 'hoodies will abduct you and murder you with their dubstep', but petty crime's on the up.

I get 'suchabody had their car keys nicked off them'-type emails at work now, on the regular - the part of Manchester where I'm based has seen an upturn in muggings, thefts from car, that sort of thing.  I get the impression that the perpetrators believe (probably correctly) that there's sod-all chance they'll see any consequences whatsoever. 

This is nothing to do with the type of punishment - we had the same laws a few years ago when crime was at an all-time low - it's more I think to do with the strangulation of cash from the Police and support services, and the fact that they simply can't afford to enforce the laws we do have.

randella

Philly_Q said:

I'm sure Liam Fox would be up for it.

Bircher or birchee?

Philly_Q

randella said:

Philly_Q said:

I'm sure Liam Fox would be up for it.

Bircher or birchee?

Birchee, without a shadow of a doubt.

Paul_C

Whilst I would agree that doing such a thing is a criminal thing to do, it's by no means a low point, there are far worse things happening around the world daily.

VimFuego

I wonder how much lower it would be if they'd' stolen a load of cave rescue gear.

Ben8010

randella said:

I get the impression that the perpetrators believe (probably correctly) that there's sod-all chance they'll see any consequences whatsoever.  

This is nothing to do with the type of punishment - we had the same laws a few years ago when crime was at an all-time low - it's more I think to do with the strangulation of cash from the Police and support services, and the fact that they simply can't afford to enforce the laws we do have.

This. There's a problem around a lot of the areas near me at the moment with unruly teenage kids running around causing havoc. Shops are getting robbed and then the windows smashed for good measure, cars are being vandalised for no reason (even torched in some cases), there's been reports of stabbings - among other shite. It's the worst we've ever seen it. There's always been kids like this around, but now they're getting away with it due to the lack of policing - and they know that they're gonna continue to get away with it.

PC_Dave

Ben8010 said:

randella said:

I get the impression that the perpetrators believe (probably correctly) that there's sod-all chance they'll see any consequences whatsoever.  

This is nothing to do with the type of punishment - we had the same laws a few years ago when crime was at an all-time low - it's more I think to do with the strangulation of cash from the Police and support services, and the fact that they simply can't afford to enforce the laws we do have.

This. There's a problem around a lot of the areas near me at the moment with unruly teenage kids running around causing havoc. Shops are getting robbed and then the windows smashed for good measure, cars are being vandalised for no reason (even torched in some cases), there's been reports of stabbings - among other shite. It's the worst we've ever seen it. There's always been kids like this around, but now they're getting away with it due to the lack of policing - and they know that they're gonna continue to get away with it.

Bloody hell!! Where do you live?! Downtown Baghdad?!? Aleppo?!

Fretwired

darthed1981 said:

Ambulances get robbed and vandalised here in the UK all the time, when the doors are open because they have rushed in to save someone's life.

You can't understand the mentality of it, because the people involved are amoral, or they wouldn't be criminals.

Gangs follow them and ransack them for drugs. Happened a few times where I live. The worst case was the theft of an ambulance parked outside someone's home. The crew were tending to a lady who had collapsed and put her on a trolley to take her to the ambulance - when they got outside it was gone. It had been stolen.

You also get people attacking ambulance crews for parking in their streets .. check this arsehole out ..

ESBlonde

Ambulance crewsa are issued with stab vests as a matter of course and have been for several years.

randella

PC_Dave said:

Ben8010 said:

This. There's a problem around a lot of the areas near me at the moment with unruly teenage kids running around causing havoc. Shops are getting robbed and then the windows smashed for good measure, cars are being vandalised for no reason (even torched in some cases), there's been reports of stabbings - among other shite. It's the worst we've ever seen it. There's always been kids like this around, but now they're getting away with it due to the lack of policing - and they know that they're gonna continue to get away with it.

Bloody hell!! Where do you live?! Downtown Baghdad?!? Aleppo?!

Herein lies the problem.  When I first moved to Manchester, I couldn't afford the nice areas that through long slog and good fortune I can now.

The crap areas were a sight to behold.  20 years ago, walking through Salford Precinct every day wasn't a bag of laughs.  Then the town cleaned up, crime dropped right down, and you felt reasonably safe pretty much anywhere.  As long as you weren't wandering around Gorton at 1am staring into your iPhone you were right enough.

Now it's slipping back and the crap that @Ben8010 mentions is rearing its head again.  The things he talks about are starting to happen once more in our cities because there's absolutely no chance of the old bill turning up to do anything about it.  They simply don't have the resources.

Rocker

While my post might have been labelled a bit OTT, the good news is that the equipment has been recovered:

https://www.rte.ie/news/connacht/2018/0406/952591-mountain-rescue-gear-recovered/

Why anyone would steal equipment that is part of a mountain rescue teams kit is impossible to understand.  Especially as one never knows who might be in danger and in need of rescuing.  So go on guys, throw the book at the thieves......

Deadman

When I was in the RAF I was on a team covering the fireman strike in Leeds in 2002. We got pelted with rocks twice when responding to incidents. We'd have got out and kicked fuck out of the idiots if the coppers hadn't been escorting us.