Comment on Reckless quads on the streets of Birmingham, almost knocking someone down
zeezee@slrpnk.net 1 day agoI mean I think this is a good opportunity to discuss what an alternative to cops hounding them down would be?
and like why would they choose to entertain themselves by putting others in danger? do they feel part of a community by being daring and reckless which they can’t get by doing things that contribute positively to society? and if so why is that?
and would adding more cops actually resolve the underlying issue of alienation or would it just embolden them more by creating more exciting situations?
i know this sounds super theorethetical but it’s not like we live in a anarchist utopia that doesn’t have any cops – Birmingham police force has actually increased by over 25% over the last 10 years – how come these incidents have become more frequent not less if all that was needed was more cops?
hraegsvelmir@ani.social 18 hours ago
They could make use of all those CCTVs the UK is famous for having everywhere, and just try and track the illegal vehicles to wherever they’re being stored when the rides finish, then seize them there. Chasing them while they’re riding tends to lead to fatalities and injuries, for either the people riding them, or more often, for the people who just happen to be in the area.
As far as the underlying issues, I have to confess I really don’t get the thought process of people who do this. I was watching a youtube video following some of them in NYC, and they were like “Well, the city doesn’t have any place for us to ride our bikes legally, so they should build us some parks and trails where we can go ride if they don’t want us taking our bikes out on the streets.” Seems a bit backwards to me, like I wouldn’t move to Austria and then demand the city build a waterway for me to ride a boat on if they don’t want me rocking up to the local swimming pool and launching my sail boat on it.
I think a part of it also comes down to the people riding them choosing to be assholes about it. We can do soul searching all we want about how they’ve been oppressed or whatever, but sometimes I get the feeling that “You’re being an antisocial asshole, knock it off,” is pretty close to the right answer, but it’s become taboo to actually attribute any amount of fault to someone who could be categorized as belonging to any sort of marginalized group. The people who do it in NYC could easily just book a train trip upstate and rent a quad for a weekend to ride on approved trails, for example, but choose instead to buy these quads and dirt bikes and ride them on city streets, where they become menaces to themselves and others. I don’t see how you square someone being so oppressed and downtrodden that they can’t afford to do things the proper way and rent a bike for the odd weekend and ride it on designated trails with them having enough money to purchase a quad outright, store it in a major city and keep paying to put fuel in it.