The safe streets of London

just thought i’d share this with all you peeps out there…
Was cycling home at about 930 this evening about 1 mile from my home, along a brightly lit street (part of the TFL cycle route no less) when i was cut up by a teenager on a minimoto, part of a gang of 4 youths . So, of course i slowed down to avoid the impending collision. Ok, good i thought collision avoided and on my way, muttering under my breath… stupid kids etc:) Only another ran across in front of me, again evasive action taken!! next thing I get slammed to the ground by said person and get told to “give me the ******* bike” to which i reply no ******* way mate… a tussle ensues with this young “gentleman” and then I get smacked to the floor from behind by a third as a reminder to give up the bike. As i pick myself up from the floor I see my bike disappearing into the blurry eyed distance… Police show up and i get told that apparently this is a common occurrence on the streets of London these days… WTF? and all they blab on about is how i’m gonna get a letter with a crime reference number… Let me see I couldnt give a **** about your crime statistics Mr. Police, just want you to get the perps and bring back my wheels!!.. Just brings home to me how toothless Law and order has become in this country and particularly in London… rant over;)

That’s absolutely shocking! :w00t:

Years ago it happened to me a scooter, somewhere in hackney, where some scrotes jumped in front of me and said “give me your bike”. Just screwed it on and shoulder-checked them out of the way :cool:

No chance you could have beaten their heads in with your u-lock?

Blooming heck mate that’s bad, i didn’t now that happened.
The police can’t do anything as they won’t be able to find who did it or find you’re bike. Was your bike insured.

sorry to hear this but you did well to come away from this unscathed. They were probably carrying knives which is why it’s usually best not to put up a fight if you know they’re serious about it, unless you’re made of kevlar. Best option is to ride an old or tatty bike which you can pick up for about £20, it will get you to your destination and no one will want to stab you for it. This is nothing new, it happened to a friend of mine in Camberwell in 1992.

Sorry to hear about it.
Where in London exactly did this happen? Were there no other people around?

Just the other day I saw 2 kids on a bicycle checking out the locking device on another parked bicycle in broad day light in view of everyone.
They just rode off within seconds but I am sure they were back there later that night.
Everyone saw it but it was all so quick that no one had the presence of mind to react.

Punishment for such crimes involving assault should be severe or else there is no deterrent.

Bluddie hell sorry to hear about it, dirty little cnuts :angry:
Vigilante action is looking more favourable by the day.

Sorry to hear that Zed but you may have had a lucky escape (although I appreciate you may not feel that way right now)…

Last summer in the middle of the day, a guy who used to work for me (mild as you like, wouldn’t say ‘boo’ to a goose) was walking along The Greeenway toward Boundary Road (this is in Plaistow) coming back to work… A couple of young jokers hussle up to him and block his way. He tries to step around, doesn’t say a word and one of these clown steps right up and asks for his wallet. Our man says something polite but firm so joker numer one pulls a knife to emphasize the point and gets what he wants.

Our man walked away shaken but unharmed, to my knowledge this is just another London unsolved statistic. Around Christmas, again on Boundary Road, a young lad was stabbed and killed less than a quarter mile from his home.

The moral is, it sucks but you walked away unhurt and it’s only a bit of metal.

Best wishes

Mmm, it seldom works like that. I once wound up in a 3 to1 punch-up in the middle of Picadilly Circus with 3 guys from a Golf GTI. That was about 300yrs ago when I thought was young enough to do summit about it, not to mentioned foolhardy enough. You dont even run the risk of getting stabbed any more. Todays scrotes will just shoot yo’a$$ very dead…:blink: Mind you, I’m still of the mind that if you shoot me dead I’m gonna kick yo’a$$!:smiley:

Sorry to hear this, Zed.
I know what if feels like as I was mugged by kids while training for the marathon on a clear Sunday afternoon a few months ago. People will say couldn’t you have hit them with this or that, but the fact is, once you’ve been smacked in the face unexpectedly you can’t think clear, and you don’t know if one is going to pull a knife.
It’s a sad state, and in my opinion, those kids, and probably their parents, aren’t worth the oxygen they breath. If you don’t respect, you don’t deserve a place on this planet.

It sounds like you had a crap response from the police though. When my incidence happened, the police were really good. There were a few teams looking for them straight away, and a guy interviewing me on the way to the hospital. They phone me a few times afterwards to see if I could ID some people (I couldn’t) and finally rang me to apologise that they were going to have to close the case as they had insufficient evidence, although they think some of them had been arrested for a different case.

I hope you’re feeling alright. You’ll be angry for a while, but don’t let it take over. Main thing is you’re ok.

Hopefully gonna get something back through the house insurance…

I can see your point in part there eezyrida, but i think if you start to think like that then these scumbags come out winners. It wasnt as if I left it unlocked or rode through a dodgy low lit area in the middle of the night, I was riding on a brightly lit residential street, part of TFL cycle network. If we extend that way of thinking to motorbikes (and that isnt much of a big jump) then we’d all be buying 10 year old C90’s for fear of attracting the attention of these animals (no offence to all the C90 folks on here!!:D). At the end of the day where there upbringing has failed them there needs to be a robust government deterrent to punish these individuals and unfortunately there doesnt appear to be one. So i think these events will sadly only increase in scale:angry:

Cheers driesie, much appreciated:cool:

Yes I agree, a similar thing happened to me In Havana and in the end it turned out to be an experience verging more on the positive, but then thats another story;) Good to still be alive no doubt!:hehe:

That’s terrible, whats wrong with people, main thing is your alright. I read something about this happening in the Hackney area and the bikes were showing up on Brick Lane market for sale the next day.

Glad you’re ok mate, it sucks your bike was stolen but your still walkin which is the important bit.

so can I ride around with a baseball bat? well can I ride around with a baseball bat a ball and a glove? what a bout a glof club?

maybe I should wear my biker gear when I cycle? at least I can smack a few with my gloves and armoured jacket shoudl stop knife attacks from idiots, since no one can use a knife properly anyhow.

I actually own some pairs of stab proof clothes:) maybe I should carry a knife on me… or get a gun no? but then I will get pulled for a routine check and get in ****.

The UK is getting more in more in ****, and people accept any crap just because there is nothing to be done.

Vigilante teams is probably the only way or increase teh punishement every time a re-offending criminal gets cough… so start doubling the sentances and time in prison.