I have a friend who drove from Anchorage to the Miami Keys Key West, Florida. She spent almost as long getting from Anchorage to Seattle, as from Seattle to Florida.
I was just tidying a bookcase, when I came across my old Psion 5. A 1997 computer, which I used to write up notes and other stuff on walks and camping trips before retiring it twenty or so years ago. I slipped in a couple of AA batteries, and the blooming thing still works, and all my data is still on the compact flash card.
Aside from one horizontal line (a sign the cable to the screen is going), it appears to work fine. Given the three- or five-year built-in obsolescence in most modern devices, the Psion 5 really was a remarkable product.
And I still love the keyboard-and-screen form factor if you actually want to create content.
The Psion 5 was amazing, best keyboard ever attached to a pocket sized device. When I was at University I got myself a tiny little Sharp Zaurus from Japan which ran linux and had a rotating screen to read stuff off. It was brilliant but the typing experience was so much worse than the Psion.
The 7 series could have been a breakthrough into light weight laptops. I had a pre launch test machine. If they had scaled up production and halved the price it would have swept the market.
I suspect halving the price was the problem - I used to love my Sony Vaio z505 though
I was just tidying a bookcase, when I came across my old Psion 5. A 1997 computer, which I used to write up notes and other stuff on walks and camping trips before retiring it twenty or so years ago. I slipped in a couple of AA batteries, and the blooming thing still works, and all my data is still on the compact flash card.
Aside from one horizontal line (a sign the cable to the screen is going), it appears to work fine. Given the three- or five-year built-in obsolescence in most modern devices, the Psion 5 really was a remarkable product.
And I still love the keyboard-and-screen form factor if you actually want to create content.
Why do modern computers break down after about 6 or 7 years but our ZX Spectrum from 1986 and QL from 1984 are still working fine?
Survivor bias. There's a cottage industry re-capping and rebuilding retro computers so people can use them again.
I think the small size (and large heat output) of modern circuits mean they are running right on the edge of the physically possible.
Older chips or at least chips made with older fabrication technology are used in hostile environments as they survive better.
Though on the survivor bias front, my father in law has a boxed / unused ZX Spectrum somewhere...
All doors temporarily locked. Had to unlock them for me so I could get in
“Disruption by shoplifters, Sir”
But remember we are all imagining it, as @Eabhal assures us
Jeezo, this has really upset you.
FWIW, my local Scotmid regularly gets cleaned out by a group of 16-year olds. I'm not suggesting it's not happening, just that the sudden obsession with it is a bit odd.
The big spike happened in 2020 and I don't recall any conniptions about it then. It's similar to small boats to a lesser extent, with the giant leap happening in 2022.
I respect your lived experience, of course.
The sudden obsession is possibly because, according to the Economist last week, shoplifting has increased ten-fold in ten years
You'd have picked up on it 5 years ago if your finger was on the pulse.
But I do think a discussion on crime is overdue. There has been brilliant progress in violence, theft, criminal damage and so on - and that's from surveys of actual people. All governments since the 90s can take credit for that.
Otoh, 4 million people experienced fraud last year, with a huge percentage increase as part of a long term trend. That's much more devastating than shoplifting, I suggest.
You were telling us it hadn’t increased at all. Now you’re blithely admitting shoplifting has increased ten-fold in ten years. Give over. You’re ridiculous
No I didn't. Come on.
I mean you literally did say there was just a small rise in theft. It was and remains one of the more laughable statements from anyone on here and I consider you someone I generally think is pretty sensible, though a little bit lacking in common sense (as we saw yesterday where you quoted a bunch of nonsense statistics while people literally witnessed criminality themselves). Like too many liberals I think you're far too accepting of official statistics and unable to conceive that the police, government and civil service are all useless and love to lie to the public.
I'm gonna go with stats over anecdote except in the rarest of circumstances. I'm happy to accept that they could be wildly out in this case, but I think that's down to the difference between people v businesses experiencing crime, and reporting issues, which is an interesting finding in itself.
I doubt there is much lying going on. It would be a conspiracy that extends across governments. And when it comes to anecodotes, shoplifting was constant when I was worked in retail 8+ years ago.
The Economist - not known for being an alt.right outlet - posted actual stats. A tenfold increase in shoplifting in ten years
Doubling every 3 years. It's truly shocking how bad the breakdown of law and order was under the Tories.
All doors temporarily locked. Had to unlock them for me so I could get in
“Disruption by shoplifters, Sir”
But remember we are all imagining it, as @Eabhal assures us
Jeezo, this has really upset you.
FWIW, my local Scotmid regularly gets cleaned out by a group of 16-year olds. I'm not suggesting it's not happening, just that the sudden obsession with it is a bit odd.
The big spike happened in 2020 and I don't recall any conniptions about it then. It's similar to small boats to a lesser extent, with the giant leap happening in 2022.
I respect your lived experience, of course.
Lived experience is code for own facts.
This is actual EXPERIENCE.
We've both seen it over the last 48 hours. It's rife.
You're a Moron. That's my lived experience of you.
Unnecessary.
Don't worry about me - cycling around a Scottish city inures you to abuse.
I was just tidying a bookcase, when I came across my old Psion 5. A 1997 computer, which I used to write up notes and other stuff on walks and camping trips before retiring it twenty or so years ago. I slipped in a couple of AA batteries, and the blooming thing still works, and all my data is still on the compact flash card.
Aside from one horizontal line (a sign the cable to the screen is going), it appears to work fine. Given the three- or five-year built-in obsolescence in most modern devices, the Psion 5 really was a remarkable product.
And I still love the keyboard-and-screen form factor if you actually want to create content.
The Psion 5 was amazing, best keyboard ever attached to a pocket sized device. When I was at University I got myself a tiny little Sharp Zaurus from Japan which ran linux and had a rotating screen to read stuff off. It was brilliant but the typing experience was so much worse than the Psion.
I ran our departmental website from a Zaurus for a while just to make the point that we didn't need a five-grand SUN workstation to handle the five people a day who visited it.
I have a friend who drove from Anchorage to the Miami Keys Key West, Florida. She spent almost as long getting from Anchorage to Seattle, as from Seattle to Florida.
I just looked it up on Google Maps:
41 hours of driving from Anchorage to Seattle, 51 hours from Seattle to Key West.
All doors temporarily locked. Had to unlock them for me so I could get in
“Disruption by shoplifters, Sir”
But remember we are all imagining it, as @Eabhal assures us
Jeezo, this has really upset you.
FWIW, my local Scotmid regularly gets cleaned out by a group of 16-year olds. I'm not suggesting it's not happening, just that the sudden obsession with it is a bit odd.
The big spike happened in 2020 and I don't recall any conniptions about it then. It's similar to small boats to a lesser extent, with the giant leap happening in 2022.
I respect your lived experience, of course.
Lived experience is code for own facts.
This is actual EXPERIENCE.
We've both seen it over the last 48 hours. It's rife.
You're a Moron. That's my lived experience of you.
My lived experience from 8 years ago = constant shoplifting and getting spoken to by the police for energetically removing headtorches from a thief.
We never reported it.
That's my concern about these statistics. Has something happened that makes it more likely that these offences are reported or is this a genuine increase? My anecdotal impression is very much the latter but there may be other reasons.
All doors temporarily locked. Had to unlock them for me so I could get in
“Disruption by shoplifters, Sir”
But remember we are all imagining it, as @Eabhal assures us
Jeezo, this has really upset you.
FWIW, my local Scotmid regularly gets cleaned out by a group of 16-year olds. I'm not suggesting it's not happening, just that the sudden obsession with it is a bit odd.
The big spike happened in 2020 and I don't recall any conniptions about it then. It's similar to small boats to a lesser extent, with the giant leap happening in 2022.
I respect your lived experience, of course.
Lived experience is code for own facts.
This is actual EXPERIENCE.
We've both seen it over the last 48 hours. It's rife.
You're a Moron. That's my lived experience of you.
My lived experience from 8 years ago = constant shoplifting and getting spoken to by the police for energetically removing headtorches from a thief.
We never reported it.
That's my concern about these statistics. Has something happened that makes it more likely that these offences are reported or is this a genuine increase? My anecdotal impression is very much the latter but there may be other reasons.
I think there has been a genuine increase, caused by the dramatic reductions in the level of policing, and gummed up courts.
All doors temporarily locked. Had to unlock them for me so I could get in
“Disruption by shoplifters, Sir”
But remember we are all imagining it, as @Eabhal assures us
Jeezo, this has really upset you.
FWIW, my local Scotmid regularly gets cleaned out by a group of 16-year olds. I'm not suggesting it's not happening, just that the sudden obsession with it is a bit odd.
The big spike happened in 2020 and I don't recall any conniptions about it then. It's similar to small boats to a lesser extent, with the giant leap happening in 2022.
I respect your lived experience, of course.
Lived experience is code for own facts.
This is actual EXPERIENCE.
We've both seen it over the last 48 hours. It's rife.
You're a Moron. That's my lived experience of you.
Unnecessary.
Don't worry about me - cycling around a Scottish city inures you to abuse.
All doors temporarily locked. Had to unlock them for me so I could get in
“Disruption by shoplifters, Sir”
But remember we are all imagining it, as @Eabhal assures us
Jeezo, this has really upset you.
FWIW, my local Scotmid regularly gets cleaned out by a group of 16-year olds. I'm not suggesting it's not happening, just that the sudden obsession with it is a bit odd.
The big spike happened in 2020 and I don't recall any conniptions about it then. It's similar to small boats to a lesser extent, with the giant leap happening in 2022.
I respect your lived experience, of course.
Lived experience is code for own facts.
This is actual EXPERIENCE.
We've both seen it over the last 48 hours. It's rife.
You're a Moron. That's my lived experience of you.
My lived experience from 8 years ago = constant shoplifting and getting spoken to by the police for energetically removing headtorches from a thief.
We never reported it.
That's my concern about these statistics. Has something happened that makes it more likely that these offences are reported or is this a genuine increase? My anecdotal impression is very much the latter but there may be other reasons.
I reckon there's been a massive increase in supermarket theft, and they have a much more robust system for recording it and responding to surveys etc, while very rarely reporting to the police. That might explain why the police, business numbers and consumer numbers don't add up.
I think about 50% of retail theft was staff when I was in the sector. We had bag searches. That ratio will have changed dramatically.
I have a friend who drove from Anchorage to the Miami Keys Key West, Florida. She spent almost as long getting from Anchorage to Seattle, as from Seattle to Florida.
I just looked it up on Google Maps:
41 hours of driving from Anchorage to Seattle, 51 hours from Seattle to Key West.
That's insane.
Not really. It's a bloody long way. With some super inconvenient monster mountains, fjords and stuff in the way.
All doors temporarily locked. Had to unlock them for me so I could get in
“Disruption by shoplifters, Sir”
But remember we are all imagining it, as @Eabhal assures us
Jeezo, this has really upset you.
FWIW, my local Scotmid regularly gets cleaned out by a group of 16-year olds. I'm not suggesting it's not happening, just that the sudden obsession with it is a bit odd.
The big spike happened in 2020 and I don't recall any conniptions about it then. It's similar to small boats to a lesser extent, with the giant leap happening in 2022.
I respect your lived experience, of course.
Lived experience is code for own facts.
This is actual EXPERIENCE.
We've both seen it over the last 48 hours. It's rife.
You're a Moron. That's my lived experience of you.
My lived experience from 8 years ago = constant shoplifting and getting spoken to by the police for energetically removing headtorches from a thief.
We never reported it.
That's my concern about these statistics. Has something happened that makes it more likely that these offences are reported or is this a genuine increase? My anecdotal impression is very much the latter but there may be other reasons.
Well, my lived experience is that the local Lidl now has a bouncer on the door, as does Sainsbury's.
The local corner shop has put up a glass wall for the checkout.
All doors temporarily locked. Had to unlock them for me so I could get in
“Disruption by shoplifters, Sir”
But remember we are all imagining it, as @Eabhal assures us
Jeezo, this has really upset you.
FWIW, my local Scotmid regularly gets cleaned out by a group of 16-year olds. I'm not suggesting it's not happening, just that the sudden obsession with it is a bit odd.
The big spike happened in 2020 and I don't recall any conniptions about it then. It's similar to small boats to a lesser extent, with the giant leap happening in 2022.
I respect your lived experience, of course.
Lived experience is code for own facts.
This is actual EXPERIENCE.
We've both seen it over the last 48 hours. It's rife.
You're a Moron. That's my lived experience of you.
My lived experience from 8 years ago = constant shoplifting and getting spoken to by the police for energetically removing headtorches from a thief.
We never reported it.
That's my concern about these statistics. Has something happened that makes it more likely that these offences are reported or is this a genuine increase? My anecdotal impression is very much the latter but there may be other reasons.
Well, my lived experience is that the local Lidl now has a bouncer on the door, as does Sainsbury's.
The local corner shop has put up a glass wall for the checkout.
Something has changed.
Slightly unrelated perhaps, but there were Coppers, Revenue Protection guys AND the normal everyday station staff at Ilford Lizzie Line station today!
EXC: More than a dozen senior Tories break ranks with their own party to call for immediate recognition of Palestine.
A number of us have written to the Prime Minister calling for recognition of Palestine.
“By failing to recognise Palestine, we send the dangerous message that Palestinian statehood is conditional, while Israeli territorial expansion continues unchecked.”
I was just tidying a bookcase, when I came across my old Psion 5. A 1997 computer, which I used to write up notes and other stuff on walks and camping trips before retiring it twenty or so years ago. I slipped in a couple of AA batteries, and the blooming thing still works, and all my data is still on the compact flash card.
Aside from one horizontal line (a sign the cable to the screen is going), it appears to work fine. Given the three- or five-year built-in obsolescence in most modern devices, the Psion 5 really was a remarkable product.
And I still love the keyboard-and-screen form factor if you actually want to create content.
Why do modern computers break down after about 6 or 7 years but our ZX Spectrum from 1986 and QL from 1984 are still working fine?
Complexity. Modern computers are orders of magnitude more complex than ones from twenty years ago, let alone forty. The BBC B that was operating a machine in a lab somewhere after thirty years of work was, by modern standards, an *incredibly* simple machine. No backup battery; indeed, no battery. Very simple hardware. The Operating System was simple and did not need updating. Indeed, it could not be updated without swapping ROMs (remember those?)
A *support* chip in a modern mobile phone is probably far more complex than the ZX Spectrum. Even a power control chip (*).
But perhaps the biggest reason for obsolescence is the Internet. If you connect a device to the Internet, then someone can infiltrate or hack it. Which means the Operating System and applications need to be kept updated to combat new and emerging threat vectors. This may be coped with by updating the OS if the OS is upgradeable, but some attacks use hardware exploits (e.g. Spectre/Meltdown), and these may require new hardware for proper fixes.
Then there is the ever-increasing need for 'better' computers: software that requires more processor power, more threads, and especially more memory. (In the latter case, often because of programmer laziness, but efficiency costs.)
Basically: your ZX Spectrum from 1986 and QL from 1984 cannot do the stuff you are asking your modern device to do.
(*) I bet few people on PB even know what one of those is...
I have a friend who drove from Anchorage to the Miami Keys Key West, Florida. She spent almost as long getting from Anchorage to Seattle, as from Seattle to Florida.
I just looked it up on Google Maps:
41 hours of driving from Anchorage to Seattle, 51 hours from Seattle to Key West.
That's insane.
Hey Chel, you know it's kinda funny Texas always seems so big But you know you're in the largest state in the Union When you're anchored down in Anchorage
All doors temporarily locked. Had to unlock them for me so I could get in
“Disruption by shoplifters, Sir”
But remember we are all imagining it, as @Eabhal assures us
Jeezo, this has really upset you.
FWIW, my local Scotmid regularly gets cleaned out by a group of 16-year olds. I'm not suggesting it's not happening, just that the sudden obsession with it is a bit odd.
The big spike happened in 2020 and I don't recall any conniptions about it then. It's similar to small boats to a lesser extent, with the giant leap happening in 2022.
I respect your lived experience, of course.
Lived experience is code for own facts.
This is actual EXPERIENCE.
We've both seen it over the last 48 hours. It's rife.
You're a Moron. That's my lived experience of you.
My lived experience from 8 years ago = constant shoplifting and getting spoken to by the police for energetically removing headtorches from a thief.
We never reported it.
That's my concern about these statistics. Has something happened that makes it more likely that these offences are reported or is this a genuine increase? My anecdotal impression is very much the latter but there may be other reasons.
Well, my lived experience is that the local Lidl now has a bouncer on the door, as does Sainsbury's.
The local corner shop has put up a glass wall for the checkout.
Something has changed.
My lived experience is that I've not witnessed anything like that in any stores around here, however my local Asda now requires a pound coin for its trolleys which is bloody annoying when I don't carry cash and don't use pound coins.
They don't have any staff on the checkouts most of the time, most of the self-checkout machines are card-only, but then they insist on a coin for the trolley.
All doors temporarily locked. Had to unlock them for me so I could get in
“Disruption by shoplifters, Sir”
But remember we are all imagining it, as @Eabhal assures us
Jeezo, this has really upset you.
FWIW, my local Scotmid regularly gets cleaned out by a group of 16-year olds. I'm not suggesting it's not happening, just that the sudden obsession with it is a bit odd.
The big spike happened in 2020 and I don't recall any conniptions about it then. It's similar to small boats to a lesser extent, with the giant leap happening in 2022.
I respect your lived experience, of course.
Lived experience is code for own facts.
This is actual EXPERIENCE.
We've both seen it over the last 48 hours. It's rife.
You're a Moron. That's my lived experience of you.
Unnecessary.
No. Necessary
I quite like @Eabhal - he is one of the saner of the PB Woke Liberal herd. However yesterday he denied there had been any serious increase in shoplifting. "It was like this when I worked in retail 10 years ago"
Now he is casually accepting that in fact it has risen ten-fold in those ten years, and yet pretending that his stance has not changed, and he hasn't been proved wrong
That is moronic. He's not a moron, but that is moronic
All doors temporarily locked. Had to unlock them for me so I could get in
“Disruption by shoplifters, Sir”
But remember we are all imagining it, as @Eabhal assures us
Jeezo, this has really upset you.
FWIW, my local Scotmid regularly gets cleaned out by a group of 16-year olds. I'm not suggesting it's not happening, just that the sudden obsession with it is a bit odd.
The big spike happened in 2020 and I don't recall any conniptions about it then. It's similar to small boats to a lesser extent, with the giant leap happening in 2022.
I respect your lived experience, of course.
Lived experience is code for own facts.
This is actual EXPERIENCE.
We've both seen it over the last 48 hours. It's rife.
You're a Moron. That's my lived experience of you.
My lived experience from 8 years ago = constant shoplifting and getting spoken to by the police for energetically removing headtorches from a thief.
We never reported it.
That's my concern about these statistics. Has something happened that makes it more likely that these offences are reported or is this a genuine increase? My anecdotal impression is very much the latter but there may be other reasons.
Well, my lived experience is that the local Lidl now has a bouncer on the door, as does Sainsbury's.
The local corner shop has put up a glass wall for the checkout.
Something has changed.
My lived experience is that I've not witnessed anything like that in any stores around here, however my local Asda now requires a pound coin for its trolleys which is bloody annoying when I don't carry cash and don't use pound coins.
They don't have any staff on the checkouts most of the time, most of the self-checkout machines are card-only, but then they insist on a coin for the trolley.
Madness.
When I was growing up, you always needed a pound coin for trolleys*... and then that died out... and now it's coming back again.
I was just tidying a bookcase, when I came across my old Psion 5. A 1997 computer, which I used to write up notes and other stuff on walks and camping trips before retiring it twenty or so years ago. I slipped in a couple of AA batteries, and the blooming thing still works, and all my data is still on the compact flash card.
Aside from one horizontal line (a sign the cable to the screen is going), it appears to work fine. Given the three- or five-year built-in obsolescence in most modern devices, the Psion 5 really was a remarkable product.
And I still love the keyboard-and-screen form factor if you actually want to create content.
Why do modern computers break down after about 6 or 7 years but our ZX Spectrum from 1986 and QL from 1984 are still working fine?
Survivor bias. There's a cottage industry re-capping and rebuilding retro computers so people can use them again.
I think the small size (and large heat output) of modern circuits mean they are running right on the edge of the physically possible.
Older chips or at least chips made with older fabrication technology are used in hostile environments as they survive better.
Though on the survivor bias front, my father in law has a boxed / unused ZX Spectrum somewhere...
Chips have moved to progressively smaller transistor sizes, allowing many more transistors to be on a chip. This allows more stuff on the chip that improves speed. In ye olden days that was things like caching and pipelining; now it may be integrated graphics or tensor cores.
But smaller transistors are less resilient due to things like quantum tunneling (yes, that is really a thing) or even stray RF or voltage surges or drop-offs.
All doors temporarily locked. Had to unlock them for me so I could get in
“Disruption by shoplifters, Sir”
But remember we are all imagining it, as @Eabhal assures us
Jeezo, this has really upset you.
FWIW, my local Scotmid regularly gets cleaned out by a group of 16-year olds. I'm not suggesting it's not happening, just that the sudden obsession with it is a bit odd.
The big spike happened in 2020 and I don't recall any conniptions about it then. It's similar to small boats to a lesser extent, with the giant leap happening in 2022.
I respect your lived experience, of course.
Lived experience is code for own facts.
This is actual EXPERIENCE.
We've both seen it over the last 48 hours. It's rife.
You're a Moron. That's my lived experience of you.
My lived experience from 8 years ago = constant shoplifting and getting spoken to by the police for energetically removing headtorches from a thief.
We never reported it.
That's my concern about these statistics. Has something happened that makes it more likely that these offences are reported or is this a genuine increase? My anecdotal impression is very much the latter but there may be other reasons.
Well, my lived experience is that the local Lidl now has a bouncer on the door, as does Sainsbury's.
The local corner shop has put up a glass wall for the checkout.
Something has changed.
I remember drink shops in particular having glass walls and metal bars 20 years ago. But I am not disputing there has been an increase. When people stop enforcing the law people take advantage. It is (wrongly) regarded as a victimless crime.
And its ridiculous it is like this. When I was a fiscal in Dundee 25 years ago we would get the Sheriff to go off the bench and we (prosecution and defence) would look at the videos. If the accused could be ID'd they pled. It they couldn't the case was dropped. The percentage where the CCTV was so poor that ID was not possible was high.
These days CCTV can give you an identification at least a couple of hundred yards away. It is incredibly clear. Catching these people, if we could be bothered, should be easy.
I made it to Foix; just over twenty eight miles from Saint Girons, and I’m knackered
I think I might have an easy day tomorrow
Foix is gorgeous. Loads of history and culture. And seemingly lots of decent restaurants
Unfortunately I arrived a bit late to enjoy any of them. I did, though, find a fantastic kebab shop. I’ve just had the best lamb shawarma I’ve ever eaten - the lamb was pink and so tender
All doors temporarily locked. Had to unlock them for me so I could get in
“Disruption by shoplifters, Sir”
But remember we are all imagining it, as @Eabhal assures us
Jeezo, this has really upset you.
FWIW, my local Scotmid regularly gets cleaned out by a group of 16-year olds. I'm not suggesting it's not happening, just that the sudden obsession with it is a bit odd.
The big spike happened in 2020 and I don't recall any conniptions about it then. It's similar to small boats to a lesser extent, with the giant leap happening in 2022.
I respect your lived experience, of course.
Lived experience is code for own facts.
This is actual EXPERIENCE.
We've both seen it over the last 48 hours. It's rife.
You're a Moron. That's my lived experience of you.
My lived experience from 8 years ago = constant shoplifting and getting spoken to by the police for energetically removing headtorches from a thief.
We never reported it.
That's my concern about these statistics. Has something happened that makes it more likely that these offences are reported or is this a genuine increase? My anecdotal impression is very much the latter but there may be other reasons.
Well, my lived experience is that the local Lidl now has a bouncer on the door, as does Sainsbury's.
The local corner shop has put up a glass wall for the checkout.
Something has changed.
My lived experience is that I've not witnessed anything like that in any stores around here, however my local Asda now requires a pound coin for its trolleys which is bloody annoying when I don't carry cash and don't use pound coins.
They don't have any staff on the checkouts most of the time, most of the self-checkout machines are card-only, but then they insist on a coin for the trolley.
Madness.
When I was growing up, you always needed a pound coin for trolleys*... and then that died out... and now it's coming back again.
* 'cause the kids from my school would steal them
Not so much about trolley theft as trolley can't be bothered to return it.
Whilst we could (and did) employ someone to go round collecting them, much easier and cheaper and better use of manpower to not bother. After all, employing someone to collect shopping trolleys is the epitome of a low value-adding job.
God of economics, make my country more productive, but not just yet (and not like that)...
All doors temporarily locked. Had to unlock them for me so I could get in
“Disruption by shoplifters, Sir”
But remember we are all imagining it, as @Eabhal assures us
Jeezo, this has really upset you.
FWIW, my local Scotmid regularly gets cleaned out by a group of 16-year olds. I'm not suggesting it's not happening, just that the sudden obsession with it is a bit odd.
The big spike happened in 2020 and I don't recall any conniptions about it then. It's similar to small boats to a lesser extent, with the giant leap happening in 2022.
I respect your lived experience, of course.
Lived experience is code for own facts.
This is actual EXPERIENCE.
We've both seen it over the last 48 hours. It's rife.
You're a Moron. That's my lived experience of you.
Unnecessary.
No. Necessary
I quite like @Eabhal - he is one of the saner of the PB Woke Liberal herd. However yesterday he denied there had been any serious increase in shoplifting. "It was like this when I worked in retail 10 years ago"
Now he is casually accepting that in fact it has risen ten-fold in those ten years, and yet pretending that his stance has not changed, and he hasn't been proved wrong
That is moronic. He's not a moron, but that is moronic
Are you two going at cross purposes? This is boiling frog syndrome - it’s been getting progressively worse for some time, but it’s now broken out from being an industry story to being a news story.
Has there been a significant increase? Yes. Is it new, recent, urgent - especially for the hyper partisan trying to imply all kinds of political implications? No.
The question is how the party of law and order allowed law and order collapse into such a state. An economy which crushes communities and drives petty crime? We’ve had that before, but with a justice system capable of policing, nicking and jailing. This time? Economic crisis, a visible lack of police, a notable inability to prosecute and petty criminals released from crush-loaded jails.
All doors temporarily locked. Had to unlock them for me so I could get in
“Disruption by shoplifters, Sir”
But remember we are all imagining it, as @Eabhal assures us
Jeezo, this has really upset you.
FWIW, my local Scotmid regularly gets cleaned out by a group of 16-year olds. I'm not suggesting it's not happening, just that the sudden obsession with it is a bit odd.
The big spike happened in 2020 and I don't recall any conniptions about it then. It's similar to small boats to a lesser extent, with the giant leap happening in 2022.
I respect your lived experience, of course.
Lived experience is code for own facts.
This is actual EXPERIENCE.
We've both seen it over the last 48 hours. It's rife.
You're a Moron. That's my lived experience of you.
My lived experience from 8 years ago = constant shoplifting and getting spoken to by the police for energetically removing headtorches from a thief.
We never reported it.
That's my concern about these statistics. Has something happened that makes it more likely that these offences are reported or is this a genuine increase? My anecdotal impression is very much the latter but there may be other reasons.
Well, my lived experience is that the local Lidl now has a bouncer on the door, as does Sainsbury's.
The local corner shop has put up a glass wall for the checkout.
Something has changed.
I remember drink shops in particular having glass walls and metal bars 20 years ago. But I am not disputing there has been an increase. When people stop enforcing the law people take advantage. It is (wrongly) regarded as a victimless crime.
And its ridiculous it is like this. When I was a fiscal in Dundee 25 years ago we would get the Sheriff to go off the bench and we (prosecution and defence) would look at the videos. If the accused could be ID'd they pled. It they couldn't the case was dropped. The percentage where the CCTV was so poor that ID was not possible was high.
These days CCTV can give you an identification at least a couple of hundred yards away. It is incredibly clear. Catching these people, if we could be bothered, should be easy.
When I was a student in London over thirty years ago, a friend was a teacher at a school in the east end. It got in the papers as being the first school in the country to have locked gates and doors and security passes, or somesuch. Now my son's school feels more secure than Bedford prison...
MoreinCommon has the Tories a bit higher at 21% but still third in both polls.
Ironically you would now get more Conservative MPs elected with proportional representation than FPTP.
PR would also be the best way to ensure Farage and Reform can't get a majority and the best chance at the moment for Starmer to stay PM with LD and Green support (which with Yougov would be 2% higher combined than Reform and the Conservatives combined)
But it’s not gonna happen because to do it you’d have to get a referendum passed and Starmer’s chances of getting ANY referendum passed are 0.00000000200%
He is loathed and derided. People would vote against any referendum he proposed just for the hell of it
There's scope for them to do things in the current reorganisations of local govt around regional devolution and Mayors. It is all a little complex whilst in transition.
I was trying to get an idea what was happening with future elections, and it was a horrible job trying to trace it.
I don't think there is scope for PR, but there may be scope for eg moving to multi-member divisions, not single member boards, and aligned with however new unitary Councils emerge. That's not PR, but it gives voters alternative options.
I have no idea what it will look like, or approaches different regions and parties will try and take.
If a political party changes the voting system without a referendum or having it as a prominent part of their manifesto for general elections then personally (and I suspect many others will feel the same) that any future government elected under this new system has less legitimacy than one of johnsons love children
It won't be the voting system - it will be ward boundaries, which is what happens already.
I have a friend who drove from Anchorage to the Miami Keys Key West, Florida. She spent almost as long getting from Anchorage to Seattle, as from Seattle to Florida.
I just looked it up on Google Maps:
41 hours of driving from Anchorage to Seattle, 51 hours from Seattle to Key West.
That's insane.
Hey Chel, you know it's kinda funny Texas always seems so big But you know you're in the largest state in the Union When you're anchored down in Anchorage
Ah!
One of my favourite songs of ALL TIME
Equally good is:
I kicked in his door at 5 am I've come for the bike I told the repo man My 920's gonna take me far today You can travel for miles and never leave L.A.
Genuinely one of the greatest lyric music talents that is most neglected; I love her
All doors temporarily locked. Had to unlock them for me so I could get in
“Disruption by shoplifters, Sir”
But remember we are all imagining it, as @Eabhal assures us
Jeezo, this has really upset you.
FWIW, my local Scotmid regularly gets cleaned out by a group of 16-year olds. I'm not suggesting it's not happening, just that the sudden obsession with it is a bit odd.
The big spike happened in 2020 and I don't recall any conniptions about it then. It's similar to small boats to a lesser extent, with the giant leap happening in 2022.
I respect your lived experience, of course.
Lived experience is code for own facts.
This is actual EXPERIENCE.
We've both seen it over the last 48 hours. It's rife.
You're a Moron. That's my lived experience of you.
My lived experience from 8 years ago = constant shoplifting and getting spoken to by the police for energetically removing headtorches from a thief.
We never reported it.
That's my concern about these statistics. Has something happened that makes it more likely that these offences are reported or is this a genuine increase? My anecdotal impression is very much the latter but there may be other reasons.
Well, my lived experience is that the local Lidl now has a bouncer on the door, as does Sainsbury's.
The local corner shop has put up a glass wall for the checkout.
Something has changed.
Slightly unrelated perhaps, but there were Coppers, Revenue Protection guys AND the normal everyday station staff at Ilford Lizzie Line station today!
Amazingly consistent support for Reform. It's not quite LuckyGuy's idea of young people lurching to the Right, but compared to the Conservatives there is barely a generational divide.
I think Labour will be happy that they are primarily losing ground to the Greens in the youngest groups. But just imagine if the Greens had a decent leader.
All doors temporarily locked. Had to unlock them for me so I could get in
“Disruption by shoplifters, Sir”
But remember we are all imagining it, as @Eabhal assures us
Jeezo, this has really upset you.
FWIW, my local Scotmid regularly gets cleaned out by a group of 16-year olds. I'm not suggesting it's not happening, just that the sudden obsession with it is a bit odd.
The big spike happened in 2020 and I don't recall any conniptions about it then. It's similar to small boats to a lesser extent, with the giant leap happening in 2022.
I respect your lived experience, of course.
Lived experience is code for own facts.
This is actual EXPERIENCE.
We've both seen it over the last 48 hours. It's rife.
You're a Moron. That's my lived experience of you.
My lived experience from 8 years ago = constant shoplifting and getting spoken to by the police for energetically removing headtorches from a thief.
We never reported it.
That's my concern about these statistics. Has something happened that makes it more likely that these offences are reported or is this a genuine increase? My anecdotal impression is very much the latter but there may be other reasons.
Well, my lived experience is that the local Lidl now has a bouncer on the door, as does Sainsbury's.
The local corner shop has put up a glass wall for the checkout.
Something has changed.
Slightly unrelated perhaps, but there were Coppers, Revenue Protection guys AND the normal everyday station staff at Ilford Lizzie Line station today!
All doors temporarily locked. Had to unlock them for me so I could get in
“Disruption by shoplifters, Sir”
But remember we are all imagining it, as @Eabhal assures us
Jeezo, this has really upset you.
FWIW, my local Scotmid regularly gets cleaned out by a group of 16-year olds. I'm not suggesting it's not happening, just that the sudden obsession with it is a bit odd.
The big spike happened in 2020 and I don't recall any conniptions about it then. It's similar to small boats to a lesser extent, with the giant leap happening in 2022.
I respect your lived experience, of course.
Lived experience is code for own facts.
This is actual EXPERIENCE.
We've both seen it over the last 48 hours. It's rife.
You're a Moron. That's my lived experience of you.
My lived experience from 8 years ago = constant shoplifting and getting spoken to by the police for energetically removing headtorches from a thief.
We never reported it.
That's my concern about these statistics. Has something happened that makes it more likely that these offences are reported or is this a genuine increase? My anecdotal impression is very much the latter but there may be other reasons.
Well, my lived experience is that the local Lidl now has a bouncer on the door, as does Sainsbury's.
The local corner shop has put up a glass wall for the checkout.
Something has changed.
I remember drink shops in particular having glass walls and metal bars 20 years ago. But I am not disputing there has been an increase. When people stop enforcing the law people take advantage. It is (wrongly) regarded as a victimless crime.
And its ridiculous it is like this. When I was a fiscal in Dundee 25 years ago we would get the Sheriff to go off the bench and we (prosecution and defence) would look at the videos. If the accused could be ID'd they pled. It they couldn't the case was dropped. The percentage where the CCTV was so poor that ID was not possible was high.
These days CCTV can give you an identification at least a couple of hundred yards away. It is incredibly clear. Catching these people, if we could be bothered, should be easy.
Obviously, some of the PB oldies have rose tinted glasses on, and remember the 80s as a time when you could leave your front door open, go on holiday for a fortnight, and the local kids would go in and vacuum your house for you and leave your kitchen immaculate.
Despite their obvious senility, it is clear that shoplifting has gotten significantly more prevalent since funding for the police and courts was slashed, because the likelihood of negative consequences for those who do is close to zero.
All doors temporarily locked. Had to unlock them for me so I could get in
“Disruption by shoplifters, Sir”
But remember we are all imagining it, as @Eabhal assures us
Jeezo, this has really upset you.
FWIW, my local Scotmid regularly gets cleaned out by a group of 16-year olds. I'm not suggesting it's not happening, just that the sudden obsession with it is a bit odd.
The big spike happened in 2020 and I don't recall any conniptions about it then. It's similar to small boats to a lesser extent, with the giant leap happening in 2022.
I respect your lived experience, of course.
Lived experience is code for own facts.
This is actual EXPERIENCE.
We've both seen it over the last 48 hours. It's rife.
You're a Moron. That's my lived experience of you.
Unnecessary.
Don't worry about me - cycling around a Scottish city inures you to abuse.
Damn, if I had known you were a cyclist...
Quite seriously ... how on earth did you miss THAT ?? !!
All doors temporarily locked. Had to unlock them for me so I could get in
“Disruption by shoplifters, Sir”
But remember we are all imagining it, as @Eabhal assures us
Jeezo, this has really upset you.
FWIW, my local Scotmid regularly gets cleaned out by a group of 16-year olds. I'm not suggesting it's not happening, just that the sudden obsession with it is a bit odd.
The big spike happened in 2020 and I don't recall any conniptions about it then. It's similar to small boats to a lesser extent, with the giant leap happening in 2022.
I respect your lived experience, of course.
Lived experience is code for own facts.
This is actual EXPERIENCE.
We've both seen it over the last 48 hours. It's rife.
You're a Moron. That's my lived experience of you.
Unnecessary.
No. Necessary
I quite like @Eabhal - he is one of the saner of the PB Woke Liberal herd. However yesterday he denied there had been any serious increase in shoplifting. "It was like this when I worked in retail 10 years ago"
Now he is casually accepting that in fact it has risen ten-fold in those ten years, and yet pretending that his stance has not changed, and he hasn't been proved wrong
That is moronic. He's not a moron, but that is moronic
Are you two going at cross purposes? This is boiling frog syndrome - it’s been getting progressively worse for some time, but it’s now broken out from being an industry story to being a news story.
Has there been a significant increase? Yes. Is it new, recent, urgent - especially for the hyper partisan trying to imply all kinds of political implications? No.
The question is how the party of law and order allowed law and order collapse into such a state. An economy which crushes communities and drives petty crime? We’ve had that before, but with a justice system capable of policing, nicking and jailing. This time? Economic crisis, a visible lack of police, a notable inability to prosecute and petty criminals released from crush-loaded jails.
You have become a touch verbose, and your opinions are scattered, of late
This is absolutely not a hostile judgment. You mentioned being a bit blue, recently. This is discernible in your remarks. If you ever come to London send me a DM and I will tell you sensational gossip to cheer you up, I hope
Amazingly consistent support for Reform. It's not quite LuckyGuy's idea of young people lurching to the Right, but compared to the Conservatives there is barely a generational divide.
I think Labour will be happy that they are primarily losing ground to the Greens in the youngest groups. But just imagine if the Greens had a decent leader.
And the Lib Dems are the new boomer party.
18-24 would make some of the Uni seats more interesting.
All doors temporarily locked. Had to unlock them for me so I could get in
“Disruption by shoplifters, Sir”
But remember we are all imagining it, as @Eabhal assures us
Jeezo, this has really upset you.
FWIW, my local Scotmid regularly gets cleaned out by a group of 16-year olds. I'm not suggesting it's not happening, just that the sudden obsession with it is a bit odd.
The big spike happened in 2020 and I don't recall any conniptions about it then. It's similar to small boats to a lesser extent, with the giant leap happening in 2022.
I respect your lived experience, of course.
Lived experience is code for own facts.
This is actual EXPERIENCE.
We've both seen it over the last 48 hours. It's rife.
You're a Moron. That's my lived experience of you.
My lived experience from 8 years ago = constant shoplifting and getting spoken to by the police for energetically removing headtorches from a thief.
We never reported it.
That's my concern about these statistics. Has something happened that makes it more likely that these offences are reported or is this a genuine increase? My anecdotal impression is very much the latter but there may be other reasons.
Well, my lived experience is that the local Lidl now has a bouncer on the door, as does Sainsbury's.
The local corner shop has put up a glass wall for the checkout.
Something has changed.
I remember drink shops in particular having glass walls and metal bars 20 years ago. But I am not disputing there has been an increase. When people stop enforcing the law people take advantage. It is (wrongly) regarded as a victimless crime.
And its ridiculous it is like this. When I was a fiscal in Dundee 25 years ago we would get the Sheriff to go off the bench and we (prosecution and defence) would look at the videos. If the accused could be ID'd they pled. It they couldn't the case was dropped. The percentage where the CCTV was so poor that ID was not possible was high.
These days CCTV can give you an identification at least a couple of hundred yards away. It is incredibly clear. Catching these people, if we could be bothered, should be easy.
Obviously, some of the PB oldies have rose tinted glasses on, and remember the 80s as a time when you could leave your front door open, go on holiday for a fortnight, and the local kids would go in and vacuum your house for you and leave your kitchen immaculate.
Despite their obvious senility, it is clear that shoplifting has gotten significantly more prevalent since funding for the police and courts was slashed, because the likelihood of negative consequences for those who do is close to zero.
Yep. Very little police presence. Low probability of getting nicked. Courts system can’t process without extensive delays so witnesses / evidence may be a problem. And in the outrageous scenario where you get convicted, the prisons are full so home you go.
I was just tidying a bookcase, when I came across my old Psion 5. A 1997 computer, which I used to write up notes and other stuff on walks and camping trips before retiring it twenty or so years ago. I slipped in a couple of AA batteries, and the blooming thing still works, and all my data is still on the compact flash card.
Aside from one horizontal line (a sign the cable to the screen is going), it appears to work fine. Given the three- or five-year built-in obsolescence in most modern devices, the Psion 5 really was a remarkable product.
And I still love the keyboard-and-screen form factor if you actually want to create content.
I worked with a guy in the late 90s who wanted to use a bunch of unix scripts he had developed at his previous job
They were on the hard drive of a Sun Sparcsation (pizza box) that he had rescued from a dumpster (this was in the US)
Sadly the backup battery in the Sun was dead, so on power up it couldn't remember how to mount the hard drive. PCs of the same era had a similar problem.
His solution was to serial into it from a Psion 5 and type the magic runes to coax the Sun into life
MoreinCommon has the Tories a bit higher at 21% but still third in both polls.
Ironically you would now get more Conservative MPs elected with proportional representation than FPTP.
PR would also be the best way to ensure Farage and Reform can't get a majority and the best chance at the moment for Starmer to stay PM with LD and Green support (which with Yougov would be 2% higher combined than Reform and the Conservatives combined)
Duvagers Law and FPTP. Duvagers suggests there can only be two parties but ....
The failure of First Past the Post to adequately represent the growing multi-partyism of New Zealand voters was one of the key reasons that drove the switch to PR in the 1990s – the party system hasn’t particularly changed since. Similarly, it was the development of multi-partyism that spurred the introduction of PR in most European countries in the early 20th century.
I saw someone get arrested for shoplifting the other day. Police car appeared suddenly, blocking pavement and out popped two officers who grabbed the person, whilst leaving their companion alone. Seemed very slick.
Definitely my lived experience (not totally sure what the 'lived' bit adds there other than winding up some people) is that shoplifting seems more common as do security guards in shops... feel sorry for the retail workers.
All doors temporarily locked. Had to unlock them for me so I could get in
“Disruption by shoplifters, Sir”
But remember we are all imagining it, as @Eabhal assures us
Jeezo, this has really upset you.
FWIW, my local Scotmid regularly gets cleaned out by a group of 16-year olds. I'm not suggesting it's not happening, just that the sudden obsession with it is a bit odd.
The big spike happened in 2020 and I don't recall any conniptions about it then. It's similar to small boats to a lesser extent, with the giant leap happening in 2022.
I respect your lived experience, of course.
Lived experience is code for own facts.
This is actual EXPERIENCE.
We've both seen it over the last 48 hours. It's rife.
You're a Moron. That's my lived experience of you.
My lived experience from 8 years ago = constant shoplifting and getting spoken to by the police for energetically removing headtorches from a thief.
We never reported it.
That's my concern about these statistics. Has something happened that makes it more likely that these offences are reported or is this a genuine increase? My anecdotal impression is very much the latter but there may be other reasons.
If anything I think unreporting has probably grown as it is pointless on the whole
All doors temporarily locked. Had to unlock them for me so I could get in
“Disruption by shoplifters, Sir”
But remember we are all imagining it, as @Eabhal assures us
Jeezo, this has really upset you.
FWIW, my local Scotmid regularly gets cleaned out by a group of 16-year olds. I'm not suggesting it's not happening, just that the sudden obsession with it is a bit odd.
The big spike happened in 2020 and I don't recall any conniptions about it then. It's similar to small boats to a lesser extent, with the giant leap happening in 2022.
I respect your lived experience, of course.
Lived experience is code for own facts.
This is actual EXPERIENCE.
We've both seen it over the last 48 hours. It's rife.
You're a Moron. That's my lived experience of you.
Unnecessary.
No. Necessary
I quite like @Eabhal - he is one of the saner of the PB Woke Liberal herd. However yesterday he denied there had been any serious increase in shoplifting. "It was like this when I worked in retail 10 years ago"
Now he is casually accepting that in fact it has risen ten-fold in those ten years, and yet pretending that his stance has not changed, and he hasn't been proved wrong
That is moronic. He's not a moron, but that is moronic
Are you two going at cross purposes? This is boiling frog syndrome - it’s been getting progressively worse for some time, but it’s now broken out from being an industry story to being a news story.
Has there been a significant increase? Yes. Is it new, recent, urgent - especially for the hyper partisan trying to imply all kinds of political implications? No.
The question is how the party of law and order allowed law and order collapse into such a state. An economy which crushes communities and drives petty crime? We’ve had that before, but with a justice system capable of policing, nicking and jailing. This time? Economic crisis, a visible lack of police, a notable inability to prosecute and petty criminals released from crush-loaded jails.
You have become a touch verbose, and your opinions are scattered, of late
This is absolutely not a hostile judgment. You mentioned being a bit blue, recently. This is discernible in your remarks. If you ever come to London send me a DM and I will tell you sensational gossip to cheer you up, I hope
I might take you up on that…
What have I said that is wrong? The retail industry was banging on for several years about the crime epidemic. Assaults as well a shop lifting. The media not interested despite the trend getting worse.
So you’re right that it’s been getting much much worse. But you’re talking like there’s been sudden explosion in it. Which isn’t true - what has changed is that the media has latched onto it.
Either way, how do we fix it when there aren’t enough cops and the courts are clogged up and the jails are full? Suggests an out of the box solution which feels like a Reform play and one Labour will hand wring over
All doors temporarily locked. Had to unlock them for me so I could get in
“Disruption by shoplifters, Sir”
But remember we are all imagining it, as @Eabhal assures us
Jeezo, this has really upset you.
FWIW, my local Scotmid regularly gets cleaned out by a group of 16-year olds. I'm not suggesting it's not happening, just that the sudden obsession with it is a bit odd.
The big spike happened in 2020 and I don't recall any conniptions about it then. It's similar to small boats to a lesser extent, with the giant leap happening in 2022.
I respect your lived experience, of course.
Lived experience is code for own facts.
This is actual EXPERIENCE.
We've both seen it over the last 48 hours. It's rife.
You're a Moron. That's my lived experience of you.
My lived experience from 8 years ago = constant shoplifting and getting spoken to by the police for energetically removing headtorches from a thief.
We never reported it.
That's my concern about these statistics. Has something happened that makes it more likely that these offences are reported or is this a genuine increase? My anecdotal impression is very much the latter but there may be other reasons.
Well, my lived experience is that the local Lidl now has a bouncer on the door, as does Sainsbury's.
The local corner shop has put up a glass wall for the checkout.
Something has changed.
I remember drink shops in particular having glass walls and metal bars 20 years ago. But I am not disputing there has been an increase. When people stop enforcing the law people take advantage. It is (wrongly) regarded as a victimless crime.
And its ridiculous it is like this. When I was a fiscal in Dundee 25 years ago we would get the Sheriff to go off the bench and we (prosecution and defence) would look at the videos. If the accused could be ID'd they pled. It they couldn't the case was dropped. The percentage where the CCTV was so poor that ID was not possible was high.
These days CCTV can give you an identification at least a couple of hundred yards away. It is incredibly clear. Catching these people, if we could be bothered, should be easy.
Obviously, some of the PB oldies have rose tinted glasses on, and remember the 80s as a time when you could leave your front door open, go on holiday for a fortnight, and the local kids would go in and vacuum your house for you and leave your kitchen immaculate.
Despite their obvious senility, it is clear that shoplifting has gotten significantly more prevalent since funding for the police and courts was slashed, because the likelihood of negative consequences for those who do is close to zero.
I would ask: whence came this absurd idea that shoplifting shall not be prosecuted?!
It seems to have emerged in the UK and the USA at roughly the same time
All doors temporarily locked. Had to unlock them for me so I could get in
“Disruption by shoplifters, Sir”
But remember we are all imagining it, as @Eabhal assures us
Jeezo, this has really upset you.
FWIW, my local Scotmid regularly gets cleaned out by a group of 16-year olds. I'm not suggesting it's not happening, just that the sudden obsession with it is a bit odd.
The big spike happened in 2020 and I don't recall any conniptions about it then. It's similar to small boats to a lesser extent, with the giant leap happening in 2022.
I respect your lived experience, of course.
Lived experience is code for own facts.
This is actual EXPERIENCE.
We've both seen it over the last 48 hours. It's rife.
You're a Moron. That's my lived experience of you.
Unnecessary.
No. Necessary
I quite like @Eabhal - he is one of the saner of the PB Woke Liberal herd. However yesterday he denied there had been any serious increase in shoplifting. "It was like this when I worked in retail 10 years ago"
Now he is casually accepting that in fact it has risen ten-fold in those ten years, and yet pretending that his stance has not changed, and he hasn't been proved wrong
That is moronic. He's not a moron, but that is moronic
Are you two going at cross purposes? This is boiling frog syndrome - it’s been getting progressively worse for some time, but it’s now broken out from being an industry story to being a news story.
Has there been a significant increase? Yes. Is it new, recent, urgent - especially for the hyper partisan trying to imply all kinds of political implications? No.
The question is how the party of law and order allowed law and order collapse into such a state. An economy which crushes communities and drives petty crime? We’ve had that before, but with a justice system capable of policing, nicking and jailing. This time? Economic crisis, a visible lack of police, a notable inability to prosecute and petty criminals released from crush-loaded jails.
You have become a touch verbose, and your opinions are scattered, of late
This is absolutely not a hostile judgment. You mentioned being a bit blue, recently. This is discernible in your remarks. If you ever come to London send me a DM and I will tell you sensational gossip to cheer you up, I hope
I might take you up on that…
What have I said that is wrong? The retail industry was banging on for several years about the crime epidemic. Assaults as well a shop lifting. The media not interested despite the trend getting worse.
So you’re right that it’s been getting much much worse. But you’re talking like there’s been sudden explosion in it. Which isn’t true - what has changed is that the media has latched onto it.
Either way, how do we fix it when there aren’t enough cops and the courts are clogged up and the jails are full? Suggests an out of the box solution which feels like a Reform play and one Labour will hand wring over
I've given my solution, Innovative, hi-tech new forms of corporal punishment. Short, sharp, painful, nasty, memorable. no long term damage at all. So, no vast expenditure on prison, but justice is done and there is a serious deterrent
But everyone else is about 50 years behind me and doesn't understand I am a true pioneer
Nonetheless, you can't accuse me of whining and not offering a solution, I've given it. Combined with hi tech super surveillance making guilt undeniable, I believe this would work
All doors temporarily locked. Had to unlock them for me so I could get in
“Disruption by shoplifters, Sir”
But remember we are all imagining it, as @Eabhal assures us
Jeezo, this has really upset you.
FWIW, my local Scotmid regularly gets cleaned out by a group of 16-year olds. I'm not suggesting it's not happening, just that the sudden obsession with it is a bit odd.
The big spike happened in 2020 and I don't recall any conniptions about it then. It's similar to small boats to a lesser extent, with the giant leap happening in 2022.
I respect your lived experience, of course.
Lived experience is code for own facts.
This is actual EXPERIENCE.
We've both seen it over the last 48 hours. It's rife.
You're a Moron. That's my lived experience of you.
My lived experience from 8 years ago = constant shoplifting and getting spoken to by the police for energetically removing headtorches from a thief.
We never reported it.
That's my concern about these statistics. Has something happened that makes it more likely that these offences are reported or is this a genuine increase? My anecdotal impression is very much the latter but there may be other reasons.
Well, my lived experience is that the local Lidl now has a bouncer on the door, as does Sainsbury's.
The local corner shop has put up a glass wall for the checkout.
Something has changed.
I remember drink shops in particular having glass walls and metal bars 20 years ago. But I am not disputing there has been an increase. When people stop enforcing the law people take advantage. It is (wrongly) regarded as a victimless crime.
And its ridiculous it is like this. When I was a fiscal in Dundee 25 years ago we would get the Sheriff to go off the bench and we (prosecution and defence) would look at the videos. If the accused could be ID'd they pled. It they couldn't the case was dropped. The percentage where the CCTV was so poor that ID was not possible was high.
These days CCTV can give you an identification at least a couple of hundred yards away. It is incredibly clear. Catching these people, if we could be bothered, should be easy.
Obviously, some of the PB oldies have rose tinted glasses on, and remember the 80s as a time when you could leave your front door open, go on holiday for a fortnight, and the local kids would go in and vacuum your house for you and leave your kitchen immaculate.
Despite their obvious senility, it is clear that shoplifting has gotten significantly more prevalent since funding for the police and courts was slashed, because the likelihood of negative consequences for those who do is close to zero.
I would ask: whence came this absurd idea that shoplifting shall not be prosecuted?!
It seems to have emerged in the UK and the USA at roughly the same time
Probably when it was seen as more expense than it was worth.
At societal level, that's obviously silly- in many areas, we get as much crime as we are willing to collectively walk past- but a dessicated spreadsheet shagger would prioritise other crimes which allow more solved cases for less hassle and expense.
If you manage by KPI- and the UK has done little else since the Blair years, and it's a global trend- expect KPI to bite you on the bum.
I was just tidying a bookcase, when I came across my old Psion 5. A 1997 computer, which I used to write up notes and other stuff on walks and camping trips before retiring it twenty or so years ago. I slipped in a couple of AA batteries, and the blooming thing still works, and all my data is still on the compact flash card.
Aside from one horizontal line (a sign the cable to the screen is going), it appears to work fine. Given the three- or five-year built-in obsolescence in most modern devices, the Psion 5 really was a remarkable product.
And I still love the keyboard-and-screen form factor if you actually want to create content.
I worked with a guy in the late 90s who wanted to use a bunch of unix scripts he had developed at his previous job
They were on the hard drive of a Sun Sparcsation (pizza box) that he had rescued from a dumpster (this was in the US)
Sadly the backup battery in the Sun was dead, so on power up it couldn't remember how to mount the hard drive. PCs of the same era had a similar problem.
His solution was to serial into it from a Psion 5 and type the magic runes to coax the Sun into life
Spencer Hakimian @SpencerHakimian · 2h "We were losing a trillion dollars a year on trade. Now we're not losing anything, you know? That's just the way I look at it.” - Trump
It is INSANE that somebody this stupid managed to make it this far in life.
All doors temporarily locked. Had to unlock them for me so I could get in
“Disruption by shoplifters, Sir”
But remember we are all imagining it, as @Eabhal assures us
Jeezo, this has really upset you.
FWIW, my local Scotmid regularly gets cleaned out by a group of 16-year olds. I'm not suggesting it's not happening, just that the sudden obsession with it is a bit odd.
The big spike happened in 2020 and I don't recall any conniptions about it then. It's similar to small boats to a lesser extent, with the giant leap happening in 2022.
I respect your lived experience, of course.
Lived experience is code for own facts.
This is actual EXPERIENCE.
We've both seen it over the last 48 hours. It's rife.
You're a Moron. That's my lived experience of you.
Unnecessary.
No. Necessary
I quite like @Eabhal - he is one of the saner of the PB Woke Liberal herd. However yesterday he denied there had been any serious increase in shoplifting. "It was like this when I worked in retail 10 years ago"
Now he is casually accepting that in fact it has risen ten-fold in those ten years, and yet pretending that his stance has not changed, and he hasn't been proved wrong
That is moronic. He's not a moron, but that is moronic
Are you two going at cross purposes? This is boiling frog syndrome - it’s been getting progressively worse for some time, but it’s now broken out from being an industry story to being a news story.
Has there been a significant increase? Yes. Is it new, recent, urgent - especially for the hyper partisan trying to imply all kinds of political implications? No.
The question is how the party of law and order allowed law and order collapse into such a state. An economy which crushes communities and drives petty crime? We’ve had that before, but with a justice system capable of policing, nicking and jailing. This time? Economic crisis, a visible lack of police, a notable inability to prosecute and petty criminals released from crush-loaded jails.
You have become a touch verbose, and your opinions are scattered, of late
This is absolutely not a hostile judgment. You mentioned being a bit blue, recently. This is discernible in your remarks. If you ever come to London send me a DM and I will tell you sensational gossip to cheer you up, I hope
I might take you up on that…
What have I said that is wrong? The retail industry was banging on for several years about the crime epidemic. Assaults as well a shop lifting. The media not interested despite the trend getting worse.
So you’re right that it’s been getting much much worse. But you’re talking like there’s been sudden explosion in it. Which isn’t true - what has changed is that the media has latched onto it.
Either way, how do we fix it when there aren’t enough cops and the courts are clogged up and the jails are full? Suggests an out of the box solution which feels like a Reform play and one Labour will hand wring over
I've given my solution, Innovative, hi-tech new forms of corporal punishment. Short, sharp, painful, nasty, memorable. no long term damage at all. So, no vast expenditure on prison, but justice is done and there is a serious deterrent
But everyone else is about 50 years behind me and doesn't understand I am a true pioneer
Nonetheless, you can't accuse me of whining and not offering a solution, I've given it. Combined with hi tech super surveillance making guilt undeniable, I believe this would work
You could just go to a Soho dungeon like any normal kinkster.
All doors temporarily locked. Had to unlock them for me so I could get in
“Disruption by shoplifters, Sir”
But remember we are all imagining it, as @Eabhal assures us
Jeezo, this has really upset you.
FWIW, my local Scotmid regularly gets cleaned out by a group of 16-year olds. I'm not suggesting it's not happening, just that the sudden obsession with it is a bit odd.
The big spike happened in 2020 and I don't recall any conniptions about it then. It's similar to small boats to a lesser extent, with the giant leap happening in 2022.
I respect your lived experience, of course.
Lived experience is code for own facts.
This is actual EXPERIENCE.
We've both seen it over the last 48 hours. It's rife.
You're a Moron. That's my lived experience of you.
My lived experience from 8 years ago = constant shoplifting and getting spoken to by the police for energetically removing headtorches from a thief.
We never reported it.
That's my concern about these statistics. Has something happened that makes it more likely that these offences are reported or is this a genuine increase? My anecdotal impression is very much the latter but there may be other reasons.
Well, my lived experience is that the local Lidl now has a bouncer on the door, as does Sainsbury's.
The local corner shop has put up a glass wall for the checkout.
Something has changed.
My lived experience is that I've not witnessed anything like that in any stores around here, however my local Asda now requires a pound coin for its trolleys which is bloody annoying when I don't carry cash and don't use pound coins.
They don't have any staff on the checkouts most of the time, most of the self-checkout machines are card-only, but then they insist on a coin for the trolley.
Madness.
Doesn't have to be a £1 coin - there are tokens the same shape & size which are made for that purpose. They used to be quite common but I haven't seen one for ages (except my own).
All doors temporarily locked. Had to unlock them for me so I could get in
“Disruption by shoplifters, Sir”
But remember we are all imagining it, as @Eabhal assures us
Jeezo, this has really upset you.
FWIW, my local Scotmid regularly gets cleaned out by a group of 16-year olds. I'm not suggesting it's not happening, just that the sudden obsession with it is a bit odd.
The big spike happened in 2020 and I don't recall any conniptions about it then. It's similar to small boats to a lesser extent, with the giant leap happening in 2022.
I respect your lived experience, of course.
Lived experience is code for own facts.
This is actual EXPERIENCE.
We've both seen it over the last 48 hours. It's rife.
You're a Moron. That's my lived experience of you.
My lived experience from 8 years ago = constant shoplifting and getting spoken to by the police for energetically removing headtorches from a thief.
We never reported it.
That's my concern about these statistics. Has something happened that makes it more likely that these offences are reported or is this a genuine increase? My anecdotal impression is very much the latter but there may be other reasons.
Well, my lived experience is that the local Lidl now has a bouncer on the door, as does Sainsbury's.
The local corner shop has put up a glass wall for the checkout.
Something has changed.
I remember drink shops in particular having glass walls and metal bars 20 years ago. But I am not disputing there has been an increase. When people stop enforcing the law people take advantage. It is (wrongly) regarded as a victimless crime.
And its ridiculous it is like this. When I was a fiscal in Dundee 25 years ago we would get the Sheriff to go off the bench and we (prosecution and defence) would look at the videos. If the accused could be ID'd they pled. It they couldn't the case was dropped. The percentage where the CCTV was so poor that ID was not possible was high.
These days CCTV can give you an identification at least a couple of hundred yards away. It is incredibly clear. Catching these people, if we could be bothered, should be easy.
Obviously, some of the PB oldies have rose tinted glasses on, and remember the 80s as a time when you could leave your front door open, go on holiday for a fortnight, and the local kids would go in and vacuum your house for you and leave your kitchen immaculate.
Despite their obvious senility, it is clear that shoplifting has gotten significantly more prevalent since funding for the police and courts was slashed, because the likelihood of negative consequences for those who do is close to zero.
I would ask: whence came this absurd idea that shoplifting shall not be prosecuted?!
It seems to have emerged in the UK and the USA at roughly the same time
Probably when it was seen as more expense than it was worth.
At societal level, that's obviously silly- in many areas, we get as much crime as we are willing to collectively walk past- but a dessicated spreadsheet shagger would prioritise other crimes which allow more solved cases for less hassle and expense.
If you manage by KPI- and the UK has done little else since the Blair years, and it's a global trend- expect KPI to bite you on the bum.
Yes, that makes sense. Ivory towers of nonsense have realtime effects
All doors temporarily locked. Had to unlock them for me so I could get in
“Disruption by shoplifters, Sir”
But remember we are all imagining it, as @Eabhal assures us
Jeezo, this has really upset you.
FWIW, my local Scotmid regularly gets cleaned out by a group of 16-year olds. I'm not suggesting it's not happening, just that the sudden obsession with it is a bit odd.
The big spike happened in 2020 and I don't recall any conniptions about it then. It's similar to small boats to a lesser extent, with the giant leap happening in 2022.
I respect your lived experience, of course.
Lived experience is code for own facts.
This is actual EXPERIENCE.
We've both seen it over the last 48 hours. It's rife.
You're a Moron. That's my lived experience of you.
My lived experience from 8 years ago = constant shoplifting and getting spoken to by the police for energetically removing headtorches from a thief.
We never reported it.
That's my concern about these statistics. Has something happened that makes it more likely that these offences are reported or is this a genuine increase? My anecdotal impression is very much the latter but there may be other reasons.
Well, my lived experience is that the local Lidl now has a bouncer on the door, as does Sainsbury's.
The local corner shop has put up a glass wall for the checkout.
Something has changed.
My lived experience is that I've not witnessed anything like that in any stores around here, however my local Asda now requires a pound coin for its trolleys which is bloody annoying when I don't carry cash and don't use pound coins.
They don't have any staff on the checkouts most of the time, most of the self-checkout machines are card-only, but then they insist on a coin for the trolley.
Madness.
Doesn't have to be a £1 coin - there are tokens the same shape & size which are made for that purpose. They used to be quite common but I haven't seen one for ages (except my own).
Bolt cutters work fine as well for the chain and in addition you can use them to steal a bike to get home
Local Co-op was almost out of fruit and vegetables thanks to the cyber-attack. It's one thing for there to be a shortage due to a bad harvest or panic buying in a pandemic, but this isn't either of those.
All doors temporarily locked. Had to unlock them for me so I could get in
“Disruption by shoplifters, Sir”
But remember we are all imagining it, as @Eabhal assures us
Jeezo, this has really upset you.
FWIW, my local Scotmid regularly gets cleaned out by a group of 16-year olds. I'm not suggesting it's not happening, just that the sudden obsession with it is a bit odd.
The big spike happened in 2020 and I don't recall any conniptions about it then. It's similar to small boats to a lesser extent, with the giant leap happening in 2022.
I respect your lived experience, of course.
Lived experience is code for own facts.
This is actual EXPERIENCE.
We've both seen it over the last 48 hours. It's rife.
You're a Moron. That's my lived experience of you.
My lived experience from 8 years ago = constant shoplifting and getting spoken to by the police for energetically removing headtorches from a thief.
We never reported it.
That's my concern about these statistics. Has something happened that makes it more likely that these offences are reported or is this a genuine increase? My anecdotal impression is very much the latter but there may be other reasons.
Well, my lived experience is that the local Lidl now has a bouncer on the door, as does Sainsbury's.
The local corner shop has put up a glass wall for the checkout.
Something has changed.
I remember drink shops in particular having glass walls and metal bars 20 years ago. But I am not disputing there has been an increase. When people stop enforcing the law people take advantage. It is (wrongly) regarded as a victimless crime.
And its ridiculous it is like this. When I was a fiscal in Dundee 25 years ago we would get the Sheriff to go off the bench and we (prosecution and defence) would look at the videos. If the accused could be ID'd they pled. It they couldn't the case was dropped. The percentage where the CCTV was so poor that ID was not possible was high.
These days CCTV can give you an identification at least a couple of hundred yards away. It is incredibly clear. Catching these people, if we could be bothered, should be easy.
Obviously, some of the PB oldies have rose tinted glasses on, and remember the 80s as a time when you could leave your front door open, go on holiday for a fortnight, and the local kids would go in and vacuum your house for you and leave your kitchen immaculate.
Despite their obvious senility, it is clear that shoplifting has gotten significantly more prevalent since funding for the police and courts was slashed, because the likelihood of negative consequences for those who do is close to zero.
I would ask: whence came this absurd idea that shoplifting shall not be prosecuted?!
It seems to have emerged in the UK and the USA at roughly the same time
Totally off topic: Has anyone ever produced an electric car with a sizable battery incorporating a petrol/diesel fueled generator that can extend the range? i.e. the petrol/diesel just powers a generator which feeds the engine or battery, not the wheels.
Would mean that (a) you would not need two drive trains like a hybrid (b) you would avoid needing a "performance" petrol engine able to accelerate fast (c) recharging on long journeys is via a classic petrol station.
You'd aim for the generator to produce at least the average power requirements of the electric engine. Obviously the driver would need to anticipate they were on a long journey and turn on the generator to keep the battery topped up, but that seems fairly straightforward.
I do single digit miles every day in London then 200 miles+ a few times a year on holiday - this would seem to fit that bill.
It might be worth a look for that application. Produced 2013 to 2022. Official range ~80 miles on battery with 200 miles with the range extender tank (which had a petrol generator to make electricity, and was called "Range Extender"). Battery size increased later. Nippy.
Well built, but a quite German ride when new - I had a test drive. Second hand prices seem to be from about 6k to a bit under 20k. New prices were 30k to 40k+ .
Hyundai have done similar, but I'm not sure in which time periods.
All doors temporarily locked. Had to unlock them for me so I could get in
“Disruption by shoplifters, Sir”
But remember we are all imagining it, as @Eabhal assures us
Jeezo, this has really upset you.
FWIW, my local Scotmid regularly gets cleaned out by a group of 16-year olds. I'm not suggesting it's not happening, just that the sudden obsession with it is a bit odd.
The big spike happened in 2020 and I don't recall any conniptions about it then. It's similar to small boats to a lesser extent, with the giant leap happening in 2022.
I respect your lived experience, of course.
Lived experience is code for own facts.
This is actual EXPERIENCE.
We've both seen it over the last 48 hours. It's rife.
You're a Moron. That's my lived experience of you.
My lived experience from 8 years ago = constant shoplifting and getting spoken to by the police for energetically removing headtorches from a thief.
We never reported it.
That's my concern about these statistics. Has something happened that makes it more likely that these offences are reported or is this a genuine increase? My anecdotal impression is very much the latter but there may be other reasons.
Well, my lived experience is that the local Lidl now has a bouncer on the door, as does Sainsbury's.
The local corner shop has put up a glass wall for the checkout.
Something has changed.
I remember drink shops in particular having glass walls and metal bars 20 years ago. But I am not disputing there has been an increase. When people stop enforcing the law people take advantage. It is (wrongly) regarded as a victimless crime.
And its ridiculous it is like this. When I was a fiscal in Dundee 25 years ago we would get the Sheriff to go off the bench and we (prosecution and defence) would look at the videos. If the accused could be ID'd they pled. It they couldn't the case was dropped. The percentage where the CCTV was so poor that ID was not possible was high.
These days CCTV can give you an identification at least a couple of hundred yards away. It is incredibly clear. Catching these people, if we could be bothered, should be easy.
Obviously, some of the PB oldies have rose tinted glasses on, and remember the 80s as a time when you could leave your front door open, go on holiday for a fortnight, and the local kids would go in and vacuum your house for you and leave your kitchen immaculate.
Despite their obvious senility, it is clear that shoplifting has gotten significantly more prevalent since funding for the police and courts was slashed, because the likelihood of negative consequences for those who do is close to zero.
I would ask: whence came this absurd idea that shoplifting shall not be prosecuted?!
It seems to have emerged in the UK and the USA at roughly the same time
Probably when it was seen as more expense than it was worth.
At societal level, that's obviously silly- in many areas, we get as much crime as we are willing to collectively walk past- but a dessicated spreadsheet shagger would prioritise other crimes which allow more solved cases for less hassle and expense.
If you manage by KPI- and the UK has done little else since the Blair years, and it's a global trend- expect KPI to bite you on the bum.
And that's not necessarily a bad thing. Just look how good the stats are on physical violence, theft (primarily because burglaries have dropped off), and so on.
If you were to take a cold look at it, it's fraud and sexual assault that you would spend all the cash on. Both can be devastating to people in a way that shoplifting simply is not - the ROI there is unbeatable.
(but I do understand the broken window theory. I also think there is an intrinsic value in just walking around in a broadly crime free society).
All doors temporarily locked. Had to unlock them for me so I could get in
“Disruption by shoplifters, Sir”
But remember we are all imagining it, as @Eabhal assures us
Jeezo, this has really upset you.
FWIW, my local Scotmid regularly gets cleaned out by a group of 16-year olds. I'm not suggesting it's not happening, just that the sudden obsession with it is a bit odd.
The big spike happened in 2020 and I don't recall any conniptions about it then. It's similar to small boats to a lesser extent, with the giant leap happening in 2022.
I respect your lived experience, of course.
Lived experience is code for own facts.
This is actual EXPERIENCE.
We've both seen it over the last 48 hours. It's rife.
You're a Moron. That's my lived experience of you.
My lived experience from 8 years ago = constant shoplifting and getting spoken to by the police for energetically removing headtorches from a thief.
We never reported it.
That's my concern about these statistics. Has something happened that makes it more likely that these offences are reported or is this a genuine increase? My anecdotal impression is very much the latter but there may be other reasons.
Well, my lived experience is that the local Lidl now has a bouncer on the door, as does Sainsbury's.
The local corner shop has put up a glass wall for the checkout.
Something has changed.
I remember drink shops in particular having glass walls and metal bars 20 years ago. But I am not disputing there has been an increase. When people stop enforcing the law people take advantage. It is (wrongly) regarded as a victimless crime.
And its ridiculous it is like this. When I was a fiscal in Dundee 25 years ago we would get the Sheriff to go off the bench and we (prosecution and defence) would look at the videos. If the accused could be ID'd they pled. It they couldn't the case was dropped. The percentage where the CCTV was so poor that ID was not possible was high.
These days CCTV can give you an identification at least a couple of hundred yards away. It is incredibly clear. Catching these people, if we could be bothered, should be easy.
Obviously, some of the PB oldies have rose tinted glasses on, and remember the 80s as a time when you could leave your front door open, go on holiday for a fortnight, and the local kids would go in and vacuum your house for you and leave your kitchen immaculate.
Despite their obvious senility, it is clear that shoplifting has gotten significantly more prevalent since funding for the police and courts was slashed, because the likelihood of negative consequences for those who do is close to zero.
I would ask: whence came this absurd idea that shoplifting shall not be prosecuted?!
It seems to have emerged in the UK and the USA at roughly the same time
It's nothing to do with the US, it's the fact that the coalition (and specifically Kenneth Clarke, Nick Herbert and Damian Green) oversaw massive cuts to the policing and criminal justice budgets.
The consequence of this was that there simply are no local police most of the time because all the police stations have been closed, so the shop has to try and hang on to you for hours waiting for the police to come. And even if you are caught, the first available court date for a trial is two and a half years away. And the criminals know that if they turn up, at least one of the witnesses won't bother, so they'll walk away scot free.
This really isn't very complicated: fund the police and (just as importantly) fund the judicial system. There's no point in the police catching people, if the courts don't have the bandwidth to try them.
(Added to which legal aid rates are now so low, it is next to impossible to get even the most junior of barristers to turn up at Uxbridge Magistrates Court, and so when Delinquent X turns up for trial, he doesn't have representation, and therefore his trial gets delayed indefinitely.)
All doors temporarily locked. Had to unlock them for me so I could get in
“Disruption by shoplifters, Sir”
But remember we are all imagining it, as @Eabhal assures us
Jeezo, this has really upset you.
FWIW, my local Scotmid regularly gets cleaned out by a group of 16-year olds. I'm not suggesting it's not happening, just that the sudden obsession with it is a bit odd.
The big spike happened in 2020 and I don't recall any conniptions about it then. It's similar to small boats to a lesser extent, with the giant leap happening in 2022.
I respect your lived experience, of course.
Lived experience is code for own facts.
This is actual EXPERIENCE.
We've both seen it over the last 48 hours. It's rife.
You're a Moron. That's my lived experience of you.
My lived experience from 8 years ago = constant shoplifting and getting spoken to by the police for energetically removing headtorches from a thief.
We never reported it.
That's my concern about these statistics. Has something happened that makes it more likely that these offences are reported or is this a genuine increase? My anecdotal impression is very much the latter but there may be other reasons.
Well, my lived experience is that the local Lidl now has a bouncer on the door, as does Sainsbury's.
The local corner shop has put up a glass wall for the checkout.
Something has changed.
I remember drink shops in particular having glass walls and metal bars 20 years ago. But I am not disputing there has been an increase. When people stop enforcing the law people take advantage. It is (wrongly) regarded as a victimless crime.
And its ridiculous it is like this. When I was a fiscal in Dundee 25 years ago we would get the Sheriff to go off the bench and we (prosecution and defence) would look at the videos. If the accused could be ID'd they pled. It they couldn't the case was dropped. The percentage where the CCTV was so poor that ID was not possible was high.
These days CCTV can give you an identification at least a couple of hundred yards away. It is incredibly clear. Catching these people, if we could be bothered, should be easy.
Obviously, some of the PB oldies have rose tinted glasses on, and remember the 80s as a time when you could leave your front door open, go on holiday for a fortnight, and the local kids would go in and vacuum your house for you and leave your kitchen immaculate.
Despite their obvious senility, it is clear that shoplifting has gotten significantly more prevalent since funding for the police and courts was slashed, because the likelihood of negative consequences for those who do is close to zero.
I would ask: whence came this absurd idea that shoplifting shall not be prosecuted?!
It seems to have emerged in the UK and the USA at roughly the same time
Probably when it was seen as more expense than it was worth.
At societal level, that's obviously silly- in many areas, we get as much crime as we are willing to collectively walk past- but a dessicated spreadsheet shagger would prioritise other crimes which allow more solved cases for less hassle and expense.
If you manage by KPI- and the UK has done little else since the Blair years, and it's a global trend- expect KPI to bite you on the bum.
And that's not necessarily a bad thing. Just look how good the stats are on physical violence, theft (primarily because burglaries have dropped off), and so on.
If you were to take a cold look at it, it's fraud and sexual assault that you would spend all the cash on. Both can be devastating to people in a way that shoplifting simply is not - the ROI there is unbeatable.
(but I do understand the broken window theory. I also think there is an intrinsic value in just walking around in a broadly crime free society).
Burglary has pretty much dropped though because there is little you can steal from a house that holds any fenceable value not because of any governmental policies
I saw someone get arrested for shoplifting the other day. Police car appeared suddenly, blocking pavement and out popped two officers who grabbed the person, whilst leaving their companion alone. Seemed very slick.
Definitely my lived experience (not totally sure what the 'lived' bit adds there other than winding up some people) is that shoplifting seems more common as do security guards in shops... feel sorry for the retail workers.
Lived experience means experience. Sadly it's become a sociology catchphrase. Sociology catchphrases worming their way into activist discourse and thereby into general discourse is not a great development. They become magic, ungainsayable mantras.
You could, I suppose, contrast lived experience with vicarious experience. But that's already distinguished by 'vicarious'.
All doors temporarily locked. Had to unlock them for me so I could get in
“Disruption by shoplifters, Sir”
But remember we are all imagining it, as @Eabhal assures us
Jeezo, this has really upset you.
FWIW, my local Scotmid regularly gets cleaned out by a group of 16-year olds. I'm not suggesting it's not happening, just that the sudden obsession with it is a bit odd.
The big spike happened in 2020 and I don't recall any conniptions about it then. It's similar to small boats to a lesser extent, with the giant leap happening in 2022.
I respect your lived experience, of course.
Lived experience is code for own facts.
This is actual EXPERIENCE.
We've both seen it over the last 48 hours. It's rife.
You're a Moron. That's my lived experience of you.
My lived experience from 8 years ago = constant shoplifting and getting spoken to by the police for energetically removing headtorches from a thief.
We never reported it.
That's my concern about these statistics. Has something happened that makes it more likely that these offences are reported or is this a genuine increase? My anecdotal impression is very much the latter but there may be other reasons.
Well, my lived experience is that the local Lidl now has a bouncer on the door, as does Sainsbury's.
The local corner shop has put up a glass wall for the checkout.
Something has changed.
I remember drink shops in particular having glass walls and metal bars 20 years ago. But I am not disputing there has been an increase. When people stop enforcing the law people take advantage. It is (wrongly) regarded as a victimless crime.
And its ridiculous it is like this. When I was a fiscal in Dundee 25 years ago we would get the Sheriff to go off the bench and we (prosecution and defence) would look at the videos. If the accused could be ID'd they pled. It they couldn't the case was dropped. The percentage where the CCTV was so poor that ID was not possible was high.
These days CCTV can give you an identification at least a couple of hundred yards away. It is incredibly clear. Catching these people, if we could be bothered, should be easy.
Obviously, some of the PB oldies have rose tinted glasses on, and remember the 80s as a time when you could leave your front door open, go on holiday for a fortnight, and the local kids would go in and vacuum your house for you and leave your kitchen immaculate.
Despite their obvious senility, it is clear that shoplifting has gotten significantly more prevalent since funding for the police and courts was slashed, because the likelihood of negative consequences for those who do is close to zero.
I would ask: whence came this absurd idea that shoplifting shall not be prosecuted?!
It seems to have emerged in the UK and the USA at roughly the same time
Probably when it was seen as more expense than it was worth.
At societal level, that's obviously silly- in many areas, we get as much crime as we are willing to collectively walk past- but a dessicated spreadsheet shagger would prioritise other crimes which allow more solved cases for less hassle and expense.
If you manage by KPI- and the UK has done little else since the Blair years, and it's a global trend- expect KPI to bite you on the bum.
And that's not necessarily a bad thing. Just look how good the stats are on physical violence, theft (primarily because burglaries have dropped off), and so on.
If you were to take a cold look at it, it's fraud and sexual assault that you would spend all the cash on. Both can be devastating to people in a way that shoplifting simply is not - the ROI there is unbeatable.
(but I do understand the broken window theory. I also think there is an intrinsic value in just walking around in a broadly crime free society).
Burglary has pretty much dropped though because there is little you can steal from a house that holds any fenceable value not because of any governmental policies
Most moves in crime rates are nothing to do with governmental policies.
All doors temporarily locked. Had to unlock them for me so I could get in
“Disruption by shoplifters, Sir”
But remember we are all imagining it, as @Eabhal assures us
Jeezo, this has really upset you.
FWIW, my local Scotmid regularly gets cleaned out by a group of 16-year olds. I'm not suggesting it's not happening, just that the sudden obsession with it is a bit odd.
The big spike happened in 2020 and I don't recall any conniptions about it then. It's similar to small boats to a lesser extent, with the giant leap happening in 2022.
I respect your lived experience, of course.
Lived experience is code for own facts.
This is actual EXPERIENCE.
We've both seen it over the last 48 hours. It's rife.
You're a Moron. That's my lived experience of you.
My lived experience from 8 years ago = constant shoplifting and getting spoken to by the police for energetically removing headtorches from a thief.
We never reported it.
That's my concern about these statistics. Has something happened that makes it more likely that these offences are reported or is this a genuine increase? My anecdotal impression is very much the latter but there may be other reasons.
Well, my lived experience is that the local Lidl now has a bouncer on the door, as does Sainsbury's.
The local corner shop has put up a glass wall for the checkout.
Something has changed.
My lived experience is that I've not witnessed anything like that in any stores around here, however my local Asda now requires a pound coin for its trolleys which is bloody annoying when I don't carry cash and don't use pound coins.
They don't have any staff on the checkouts most of the time, most of the self-checkout machines are card-only, but then they insist on a coin for the trolley.
Madness.
Doesn't have to be a £1 coin - there are tokens the same shape & size which are made for that purpose. They used to be quite common but I haven't seen one for ages (except my own).
Bolt cutters work fine as well for the chain and in addition you can use them to steal a bike to get home
LOL the coin's only a way to engage the mechanism, you're not paying £1 to use the trolley. Return the trolley, the coin/token is returned to you.
All doors temporarily locked. Had to unlock them for me so I could get in
“Disruption by shoplifters, Sir”
But remember we are all imagining it, as @Eabhal assures us
Jeezo, this has really upset you.
FWIW, my local Scotmid regularly gets cleaned out by a group of 16-year olds. I'm not suggesting it's not happening, just that the sudden obsession with it is a bit odd.
The big spike happened in 2020 and I don't recall any conniptions about it then. It's similar to small boats to a lesser extent, with the giant leap happening in 2022.
I respect your lived experience, of course.
Lived experience is code for own facts.
This is actual EXPERIENCE.
We've both seen it over the last 48 hours. It's rife.
You're a Moron. That's my lived experience of you.
My lived experience from 8 years ago = constant shoplifting and getting spoken to by the police for energetically removing headtorches from a thief.
We never reported it.
That's my concern about these statistics. Has something happened that makes it more likely that these offences are reported or is this a genuine increase? My anecdotal impression is very much the latter but there may be other reasons.
Well, my lived experience is that the local Lidl now has a bouncer on the door, as does Sainsbury's.
The local corner shop has put up a glass wall for the checkout.
Something has changed.
I remember drink shops in particular having glass walls and metal bars 20 years ago. But I am not disputing there has been an increase. When people stop enforcing the law people take advantage. It is (wrongly) regarded as a victimless crime.
And its ridiculous it is like this. When I was a fiscal in Dundee 25 years ago we would get the Sheriff to go off the bench and we (prosecution and defence) would look at the videos. If the accused could be ID'd they pled. It they couldn't the case was dropped. The percentage where the CCTV was so poor that ID was not possible was high.
These days CCTV can give you an identification at least a couple of hundred yards away. It is incredibly clear. Catching these people, if we could be bothered, should be easy.
Obviously, some of the PB oldies have rose tinted glasses on, and remember the 80s as a time when you could leave your front door open, go on holiday for a fortnight, and the local kids would go in and vacuum your house for you and leave your kitchen immaculate.
Despite their obvious senility, it is clear that shoplifting has gotten significantly more prevalent since funding for the police and courts was slashed, because the likelihood of negative consequences for those who do is close to zero.
I would ask: whence came this absurd idea that shoplifting shall not be prosecuted?!
It seems to have emerged in the UK and the USA at roughly the same time
It's nothing to do with the US, it's the fact that the coalition (and specifically Kenneth Clarke, Nick Herbert and Damian Green) oversaw massive cuts to the policing and criminal justice budgets.
The consequence of this was that there simply are no local police most of the time because all the police stations have been closed, so the shop has to try and hang on to you for hours waiting for the police to come. And even if you are caught, the first available court date for a trial is two and a half years away. And the criminals know that if they turn up, at least one of the witnesses won't bother, so they'll walk away scot free.
This really isn't very complicated: fund the police and (just as importantly) fund the judicial system. There's no point in the police catching people, if the courts don't have the bandwidth to try them.
(Added to which legal aid rates are now so low, it is next to impossible to get even the most junior of barristers to turn up at Uxbridge Magistrates Court, and so when Delinquent X turns up for trial, he doesn't have representation, and therefore his trial gets delayed indefinitely.)
Possible counterpoint: 1% of people probably do 80% of shop thefts. You don't have to catch them every time. Once will do, if handled appropriately.
I saw someone get arrested for shoplifting the other day. Police car appeared suddenly, blocking pavement and out popped two officers who grabbed the person, whilst leaving their companion alone. Seemed very slick.
Definitely my lived experience (not totally sure what the 'lived' bit adds there other than winding up some people) is that shoplifting seems more common as do security guards in shops... feel sorry for the retail workers.
"Lived experience" is an important phrase.
It is intended to prevent ignorant people using their own opinions to belittle the experience of others. For example men lecturing women about dangers of sex crime, or able bodied lecturing disabled people about "I could get a wheelchair through there - why can't you?" when they thoughtlessly block a pavement with their vehicle, or assuming that a Guide Dog can walk ahead of a blind person rather than requiring a gap for side by side.
It means far more than a mere "my opinion".
There's a reason why we all have two ears and one mouth, to borrow a phrase from my gran.
All doors temporarily locked. Had to unlock them for me so I could get in
“Disruption by shoplifters, Sir”
But remember we are all imagining it, as @Eabhal assures us
Jeezo, this has really upset you.
FWIW, my local Scotmid regularly gets cleaned out by a group of 16-year olds. I'm not suggesting it's not happening, just that the sudden obsession with it is a bit odd.
The big spike happened in 2020 and I don't recall any conniptions about it then. It's similar to small boats to a lesser extent, with the giant leap happening in 2022.
I respect your lived experience, of course.
Lived experience is code for own facts.
This is actual EXPERIENCE.
We've both seen it over the last 48 hours. It's rife.
You're a Moron. That's my lived experience of you.
My lived experience from 8 years ago = constant shoplifting and getting spoken to by the police for energetically removing headtorches from a thief.
We never reported it.
That's my concern about these statistics. Has something happened that makes it more likely that these offences are reported or is this a genuine increase? My anecdotal impression is very much the latter but there may be other reasons.
Well, my lived experience is that the local Lidl now has a bouncer on the door, as does Sainsbury's.
The local corner shop has put up a glass wall for the checkout.
Something has changed.
I remember drink shops in particular having glass walls and metal bars 20 years ago. But I am not disputing there has been an increase. When people stop enforcing the law people take advantage. It is (wrongly) regarded as a victimless crime.
And its ridiculous it is like this. When I was a fiscal in Dundee 25 years ago we would get the Sheriff to go off the bench and we (prosecution and defence) would look at the videos. If the accused could be ID'd they pled. It they couldn't the case was dropped. The percentage where the CCTV was so poor that ID was not possible was high.
These days CCTV can give you an identification at least a couple of hundred yards away. It is incredibly clear. Catching these people, if we could be bothered, should be easy.
Obviously, some of the PB oldies have rose tinted glasses on, and remember the 80s as a time when you could leave your front door open, go on holiday for a fortnight, and the local kids would go in and vacuum your house for you and leave your kitchen immaculate.
Despite their obvious senility, it is clear that shoplifting has gotten significantly more prevalent since funding for the police and courts was slashed, because the likelihood of negative consequences for those who do is close to zero.
I would ask: whence came this absurd idea that shoplifting shall not be prosecuted?!
It seems to have emerged in the UK and the USA at roughly the same time
Probably when it was seen as more expense than it was worth.
At societal level, that's obviously silly- in many areas, we get as much crime as we are willing to collectively walk past- but a dessicated spreadsheet shagger would prioritise other crimes which allow more solved cases for less hassle and expense.
If you manage by KPI- and the UK has done little else since the Blair years, and it's a global trend- expect KPI to bite you on the bum.
And that's not necessarily a bad thing. Just look how good the stats are on physical violence, theft (primarily because burglaries have dropped off), and so on.
If you were to take a cold look at it, it's fraud and sexual assault that you would spend all the cash on. Both can be devastating to people in a way that shoplifting simply is not - the ROI there is unbeatable.
(but I do understand the broken window theory. I also think there is an intrinsic value in just walking around in a broadly crime free society).
Burglary has pretty much dropped though because there is little you can steal from a house that holds any fenceable value not because of any governmental policies
Most moves in crime rates are nothing to do with governmental policies.
Like shoplifting, that correlates with the cost of living crisis?
All doors temporarily locked. Had to unlock them for me so I could get in
“Disruption by shoplifters, Sir”
But remember we are all imagining it, as @Eabhal assures us
Jeezo, this has really upset you.
FWIW, my local Scotmid regularly gets cleaned out by a group of 16-year olds. I'm not suggesting it's not happening, just that the sudden obsession with it is a bit odd.
The big spike happened in 2020 and I don't recall any conniptions about it then. It's similar to small boats to a lesser extent, with the giant leap happening in 2022.
I respect your lived experience, of course.
Lived experience is code for own facts.
This is actual EXPERIENCE.
We've both seen it over the last 48 hours. It's rife.
You're a Moron. That's my lived experience of you.
My lived experience from 8 years ago = constant shoplifting and getting spoken to by the police for energetically removing headtorches from a thief.
We never reported it.
That's my concern about these statistics. Has something happened that makes it more likely that these offences are reported or is this a genuine increase? My anecdotal impression is very much the latter but there may be other reasons.
Well, my lived experience is that the local Lidl now has a bouncer on the door, as does Sainsbury's.
The local corner shop has put up a glass wall for the checkout.
Something has changed.
My lived experience is that I've not witnessed anything like that in any stores around here, however my local Asda now requires a pound coin for its trolleys which is bloody annoying when I don't carry cash and don't use pound coins.
They don't have any staff on the checkouts most of the time, most of the self-checkout machines are card-only, but then they insist on a coin for the trolley.
Madness.
Doesn't have to be a £1 coin - there are tokens the same shape & size which are made for that purpose. They used to be quite common but I haven't seen one for ages (except my own).
Bolt cutters work fine as well for the chain and in addition you can use them to steal a bike to get home
Someone tried bolt cutters on the chain I’d wrapped around a building pillar to create something to lock my bike to, a while back.
I’d used a rather special chain. Judging by the fragments of bolt cutter blade and some blood, the would be third wasn’t skilled with bolt cutters or wearing protection.
I saw someone get arrested for shoplifting the other day. Police car appeared suddenly, blocking pavement and out popped two officers who grabbed the person, whilst leaving their companion alone. Seemed very slick.
Definitely my lived experience (not totally sure what the 'lived' bit adds there other than winding up some people) is that shoplifting seems more common as do security guards in shops... feel sorry for the retail workers.
"Lived experience" is an important phrase.
It is intended to prevent ignorant people using their own opinions to belittle the experience of others. For example men lecturing women about dangers of sex crime, or able bodied lecturing disabled people about "I could get a wheelchair through there - why can't you" when they block a pavement, or assuming that a Guide Dog can walk ahead of a blind person rather than requiring a gap for side by side.
It means far more than a mere "my opinion".
I suppose you are right, in that experience of seeing disabled people is different from experience of being a disabled person.
All doors temporarily locked. Had to unlock them for me so I could get in
“Disruption by shoplifters, Sir”
But remember we are all imagining it, as @Eabhal assures us
Jeezo, this has really upset you.
FWIW, my local Scotmid regularly gets cleaned out by a group of 16-year olds. I'm not suggesting it's not happening, just that the sudden obsession with it is a bit odd.
The big spike happened in 2020 and I don't recall any conniptions about it then. It's similar to small boats to a lesser extent, with the giant leap happening in 2022.
I respect your lived experience, of course.
Lived experience is code for own facts.
This is actual EXPERIENCE.
We've both seen it over the last 48 hours. It's rife.
You're a Moron. That's my lived experience of you.
My lived experience from 8 years ago = constant shoplifting and getting spoken to by the police for energetically removing headtorches from a thief.
We never reported it.
That's my concern about these statistics. Has something happened that makes it more likely that these offences are reported or is this a genuine increase? My anecdotal impression is very much the latter but there may be other reasons.
Well, my lived experience is that the local Lidl now has a bouncer on the door, as does Sainsbury's.
The local corner shop has put up a glass wall for the checkout.
Something has changed.
I remember drink shops in particular having glass walls and metal bars 20 years ago. But I am not disputing there has been an increase. When people stop enforcing the law people take advantage. It is (wrongly) regarded as a victimless crime.
And its ridiculous it is like this. When I was a fiscal in Dundee 25 years ago we would get the Sheriff to go off the bench and we (prosecution and defence) would look at the videos. If the accused could be ID'd they pled. It they couldn't the case was dropped. The percentage where the CCTV was so poor that ID was not possible was high.
These days CCTV can give you an identification at least a couple of hundred yards away. It is incredibly clear. Catching these people, if we could be bothered, should be easy.
Obviously, some of the PB oldies have rose tinted glasses on, and remember the 80s as a time when you could leave your front door open, go on holiday for a fortnight, and the local kids would go in and vacuum your house for you and leave your kitchen immaculate.
Despite their obvious senility, it is clear that shoplifting has gotten significantly more prevalent since funding for the police and courts was slashed, because the likelihood of negative consequences for those who do is close to zero.
I would ask: whence came this absurd idea that shoplifting shall not be prosecuted?!
It seems to have emerged in the UK and the USA at roughly the same time
Probably when it was seen as more expense than it was worth.
At societal level, that's obviously silly- in many areas, we get as much crime as we are willing to collectively walk past- but a dessicated spreadsheet shagger would prioritise other crimes which allow more solved cases for less hassle and expense.
If you manage by KPI- and the UK has done little else since the Blair years, and it's a global trend- expect KPI to bite you on the bum.
And that's not necessarily a bad thing. Just look how good the stats are on physical violence, theft (primarily because burglaries have dropped off), and so on.
If you were to take a cold look at it, it's fraud and sexual assault that you would spend all the cash on. Both can be devastating to people in a way that shoplifting simply is not - the ROI there is unbeatable.
(but I do understand the broken window theory. I also think there is an intrinsic value in just walking around in a broadly crime free society).
Agreed- the principle is pretty sensible. Put the money where it will do most good first, and work down from there. It's a similar sort of idea to QALYs in medicine. The catch is that you have to get the "benefit" calculation spot-on, and there seems to be a reality check missing here.
The other problem is what happens if the money runs out before you get to the bottom of your list of crimes you would like to stop? Which is almost certainly the case at the moment. We want less shoplifting, less grafitti... does that want extend to paying more, or having less of something else, to achieve it? The reality is... probably not.
All doors temporarily locked. Had to unlock them for me so I could get in
“Disruption by shoplifters, Sir”
But remember we are all imagining it, as @Eabhal assures us
Jeezo, this has really upset you.
FWIW, my local Scotmid regularly gets cleaned out by a group of 16-year olds. I'm not suggesting it's not happening, just that the sudden obsession with it is a bit odd.
The big spike happened in 2020 and I don't recall any conniptions about it then. It's similar to small boats to a lesser extent, with the giant leap happening in 2022.
I respect your lived experience, of course.
Lived experience is code for own facts.
This is actual EXPERIENCE.
We've both seen it over the last 48 hours. It's rife.
You're a Moron. That's my lived experience of you.
My lived experience from 8 years ago = constant shoplifting and getting spoken to by the police for energetically removing headtorches from a thief.
We never reported it.
That's my concern about these statistics. Has something happened that makes it more likely that these offences are reported or is this a genuine increase? My anecdotal impression is very much the latter but there may be other reasons.
Well, my lived experience is that the local Lidl now has a bouncer on the door, as does Sainsbury's.
The local corner shop has put up a glass wall for the checkout.
Something has changed.
My lived experience is that I've not witnessed anything like that in any stores around here, however my local Asda now requires a pound coin for its trolleys which is bloody annoying when I don't carry cash and don't use pound coins.
They don't have any staff on the checkouts most of the time, most of the self-checkout machines are card-only, but then they insist on a coin for the trolley.
Madness.
Doesn't have to be a £1 coin - there are tokens the same shape & size which are made for that purpose. They used to be quite common but I haven't seen one for ages (except my own).
Bolt cutters work fine as well for the chain and in addition you can use them to steal a bike to get home
LOL the coin's only a way to engage the mechanism, you're not paying £1 to use the trolley. Return the trolley, the coin/token is returned to you.
Always better in green terms to go for a gadget that can be used for more than one thing however. Reusability being a green credo
All doors temporarily locked. Had to unlock them for me so I could get in
“Disruption by shoplifters, Sir”
But remember we are all imagining it, as @Eabhal assures us
Jeezo, this has really upset you.
FWIW, my local Scotmid regularly gets cleaned out by a group of 16-year olds. I'm not suggesting it's not happening, just that the sudden obsession with it is a bit odd.
The big spike happened in 2020 and I don't recall any conniptions about it then. It's similar to small boats to a lesser extent, with the giant leap happening in 2022.
I respect your lived experience, of course.
Lived experience is code for own facts.
This is actual EXPERIENCE.
We've both seen it over the last 48 hours. It's rife.
You're a Moron. That's my lived experience of you.
My lived experience from 8 years ago = constant shoplifting and getting spoken to by the police for energetically removing headtorches from a thief.
We never reported it.
That's my concern about these statistics. Has something happened that makes it more likely that these offences are reported or is this a genuine increase? My anecdotal impression is very much the latter but there may be other reasons.
Well, my lived experience is that the local Lidl now has a bouncer on the door, as does Sainsbury's.
The local corner shop has put up a glass wall for the checkout.
Something has changed.
My lived experience is that I've not witnessed anything like that in any stores around here, however my local Asda now requires a pound coin for its trolleys which is bloody annoying when I don't carry cash and don't use pound coins.
They don't have any staff on the checkouts most of the time, most of the self-checkout machines are card-only, but then they insist on a coin for the trolley.
Madness.
Doesn't have to be a £1 coin - there are tokens the same shape & size which are made for that purpose. They used to be quite common but I haven't seen one for ages (except my own).
Bolt cutters work fine as well for the chain and in addition you can use them to steal a bike to get home
Someone tried bolt cutters on the chain I’d wrapped around a building pillar to create something to lock my bike to, a while back.
I’d used a rather special chain. Judging by the fragments of bolt cutter blade and some blood, the would be third wasn’t skilled with bolt cutters or wearing protection.
Well don't buy bolt cutters from wilko is an early lesson
I saw someone get arrested for shoplifting the other day. Police car appeared suddenly, blocking pavement and out popped two officers who grabbed the person, whilst leaving their companion alone. Seemed very slick.
Definitely my lived experience (not totally sure what the 'lived' bit adds there other than winding up some people) is that shoplifting seems more common as do security guards in shops... feel sorry for the retail workers.
"Lived experience" is an important phrase.
It is intended to prevent ignorant people using their own opinions to belittle the experience of others. For example men lecturing women about dangers of sex crime, or able bodied lecturing disabled people about "I could get a wheelchair through there - why can't you?" when they thoughtlessly block a pavement with their vehicle, or assuming that a Guide Dog can walk ahead of a blind person rather than requiring a gap for side by side.
It means far more than a mere "my opinion".
There's a reason why we all have two ears and one mouth, to borrow a phrase from my gran.
All doors temporarily locked. Had to unlock them for me so I could get in
“Disruption by shoplifters, Sir”
But remember we are all imagining it, as @Eabhal assures us
Jeezo, this has really upset you.
FWIW, my local Scotmid regularly gets cleaned out by a group of 16-year olds. I'm not suggesting it's not happening, just that the sudden obsession with it is a bit odd.
The big spike happened in 2020 and I don't recall any conniptions about it then. It's similar to small boats to a lesser extent, with the giant leap happening in 2022.
I respect your lived experience, of course.
Lived experience is code for own facts.
This is actual EXPERIENCE.
We've both seen it over the last 48 hours. It's rife.
You're a Moron. That's my lived experience of you.
My lived experience from 8 years ago = constant shoplifting and getting spoken to by the police for energetically removing headtorches from a thief.
We never reported it.
That's my concern about these statistics. Has something happened that makes it more likely that these offences are reported or is this a genuine increase? My anecdotal impression is very much the latter but there may be other reasons.
Well, my lived experience is that the local Lidl now has a bouncer on the door, as does Sainsbury's.
The local corner shop has put up a glass wall for the checkout.
Something has changed.
I remember drink shops in particular having glass walls and metal bars 20 years ago. But I am not disputing there has been an increase. When people stop enforcing the law people take advantage. It is (wrongly) regarded as a victimless crime.
And its ridiculous it is like this. When I was a fiscal in Dundee 25 years ago we would get the Sheriff to go off the bench and we (prosecution and defence) would look at the videos. If the accused could be ID'd they pled. It they couldn't the case was dropped. The percentage where the CCTV was so poor that ID was not possible was high.
These days CCTV can give you an identification at least a couple of hundred yards away. It is incredibly clear. Catching these people, if we could be bothered, should be easy.
Obviously, some of the PB oldies have rose tinted glasses on, and remember the 80s as a time when you could leave your front door open, go on holiday for a fortnight, and the local kids would go in and vacuum your house for you and leave your kitchen immaculate.
Despite their obvious senility, it is clear that shoplifting has gotten significantly more prevalent since funding for the police and courts was slashed, because the likelihood of negative consequences for those who do is close to zero.
I would ask: whence came this absurd idea that shoplifting shall not be prosecuted?!
It seems to have emerged in the UK and the USA at roughly the same time
Probably when it was seen as more expense than it was worth.
At societal level, that's obviously silly- in many areas, we get as much crime as we are willing to collectively walk past- but a dessicated spreadsheet shagger would prioritise other crimes which allow more solved cases for less hassle and expense.
If you manage by KPI- and the UK has done little else since the Blair years, and it's a global trend- expect KPI to bite you on the bum.
And that's not necessarily a bad thing. Just look how good the stats are on physical violence, theft (primarily because burglaries have dropped off), and so on.
If you were to take a cold look at it, it's fraud and sexual assault that you would spend all the cash on. Both can be devastating to people in a way that shoplifting simply is not - the ROI there is unbeatable.
(but I do understand the broken window theory. I also think there is an intrinsic value in just walking around in a broadly crime free society).
Burglary has pretty much dropped though because there is little you can steal from a house that holds any fenceable value not because of any governmental policies
Most moves in crime rates are nothing to do with governmental policies.
Like shoplifting, that correlates with the cost of living crisis?
Groceries as perctange of average household expenditure today: 15%. 1970, 30%, 1910 60%. Of course, rent has almost the reverse trajectory, and averages don't tell the whole story.
All doors temporarily locked. Had to unlock them for me so I could get in
“Disruption by shoplifters, Sir”
But remember we are all imagining it, as @Eabhal assures us
Jeezo, this has really upset you.
FWIW, my local Scotmid regularly gets cleaned out by a group of 16-year olds. I'm not suggesting it's not happening, just that the sudden obsession with it is a bit odd.
The big spike happened in 2020 and I don't recall any conniptions about it then. It's similar to small boats to a lesser extent, with the giant leap happening in 2022.
I respect your lived experience, of course.
Lived experience is code for own facts.
This is actual EXPERIENCE.
We've both seen it over the last 48 hours. It's rife.
You're a Moron. That's my lived experience of you.
My lived experience from 8 years ago = constant shoplifting and getting spoken to by the police for energetically removing headtorches from a thief.
We never reported it.
That's my concern about these statistics. Has something happened that makes it more likely that these offences are reported or is this a genuine increase? My anecdotal impression is very much the latter but there may be other reasons.
Well, my lived experience is that the local Lidl now has a bouncer on the door, as does Sainsbury's.
The local corner shop has put up a glass wall for the checkout.
Something has changed.
I remember drink shops in particular having glass walls and metal bars 20 years ago. But I am not disputing there has been an increase. When people stop enforcing the law people take advantage. It is (wrongly) regarded as a victimless crime.
And its ridiculous it is like this. When I was a fiscal in Dundee 25 years ago we would get the Sheriff to go off the bench and we (prosecution and defence) would look at the videos. If the accused could be ID'd they pled. It they couldn't the case was dropped. The percentage where the CCTV was so poor that ID was not possible was high.
These days CCTV can give you an identification at least a couple of hundred yards away. It is incredibly clear. Catching these people, if we could be bothered, should be easy.
Obviously, some of the PB oldies have rose tinted glasses on, and remember the 80s as a time when you could leave your front door open, go on holiday for a fortnight, and the local kids would go in and vacuum your house for you and leave your kitchen immaculate.
Despite their obvious senility, it is clear that shoplifting has gotten significantly more prevalent since funding for the police and courts was slashed, because the likelihood of negative consequences for those who do is close to zero.
I would ask: whence came this absurd idea that shoplifting shall not be prosecuted?!
It seems to have emerged in the UK and the USA at roughly the same time
Probably when it was seen as more expense than it was worth.
At societal level, that's obviously silly- in many areas, we get as much crime as we are willing to collectively walk past- but a dessicated spreadsheet shagger would prioritise other crimes which allow more solved cases for less hassle and expense.
If you manage by KPI- and the UK has done little else since the Blair years, and it's a global trend- expect KPI to bite you on the bum.
And that's not necessarily a bad thing. Just look how good the stats are on physical violence, theft (primarily because burglaries have dropped off), and so on.
If you were to take a cold look at it, it's fraud and sexual assault that you would spend all the cash on. Both can be devastating to people in a way that shoplifting simply is not - the ROI there is unbeatable.
(but I do understand the broken window theory. I also think there is an intrinsic value in just walking around in a broadly crime free society).
Burglary has pretty much dropped though because there is little you can steal from a house that holds any fenceable value not because of any governmental policies
Most moves in crime rates are nothing to do with governmental policies.
Like shoplifting, that correlates with the cost of living crisis?
Groceries as perctange of average household expenditure today: 15%. 1970, 30%, 1910 60%. Of course, rent has almost the reverse trajectory, and averages don't tell the whole story.
All doors temporarily locked. Had to unlock them for me so I could get in
“Disruption by shoplifters, Sir”
But remember we are all imagining it, as @Eabhal assures us
Jeezo, this has really upset you.
FWIW, my local Scotmid regularly gets cleaned out by a group of 16-year olds. I'm not suggesting it's not happening, just that the sudden obsession with it is a bit odd.
The big spike happened in 2020 and I don't recall any conniptions about it then. It's similar to small boats to a lesser extent, with the giant leap happening in 2022.
I respect your lived experience, of course.
Lived experience is code for own facts.
This is actual EXPERIENCE.
We've both seen it over the last 48 hours. It's rife.
You're a Moron. That's my lived experience of you.
My lived experience from 8 years ago = constant shoplifting and getting spoken to by the police for energetically removing headtorches from a thief.
We never reported it.
That's my concern about these statistics. Has something happened that makes it more likely that these offences are reported or is this a genuine increase? My anecdotal impression is very much the latter but there may be other reasons.
Well, my lived experience is that the local Lidl now has a bouncer on the door, as does Sainsbury's.
The local corner shop has put up a glass wall for the checkout.
Something has changed.
I remember drink shops in particular having glass walls and metal bars 20 years ago. But I am not disputing there has been an increase. When people stop enforcing the law people take advantage. It is (wrongly) regarded as a victimless crime.
And its ridiculous it is like this. When I was a fiscal in Dundee 25 years ago we would get the Sheriff to go off the bench and we (prosecution and defence) would look at the videos. If the accused could be ID'd they pled. It they couldn't the case was dropped. The percentage where the CCTV was so poor that ID was not possible was high.
These days CCTV can give you an identification at least a couple of hundred yards away. It is incredibly clear. Catching these people, if we could be bothered, should be easy.
Obviously, some of the PB oldies have rose tinted glasses on, and remember the 80s as a time when you could leave your front door open, go on holiday for a fortnight, and the local kids would go in and vacuum your house for you and leave your kitchen immaculate.
Despite their obvious senility, it is clear that shoplifting has gotten significantly more prevalent since funding for the police and courts was slashed, because the likelihood of negative consequences for those who do is close to zero.
I would ask: whence came this absurd idea that shoplifting shall not be prosecuted?!
It seems to have emerged in the UK and the USA at roughly the same time
It's nothing to do with the US, it's the fact that the coalition (and specifically Kenneth Clarke, Nick Herbert and Damian Green) oversaw massive cuts to the policing and criminal justice budgets.
The consequence of this was that there simply are no local police most of the time because all the police stations have been closed, so the shop has to try and hang on to you for hours waiting for the police to come. And even if you are caught, the first available court date for a trial is two and a half years away. And the criminals know that if they turn up, at least one of the witnesses won't bother, so they'll walk away scot free.
This really isn't very complicated: fund the police and (just as importantly) fund the judicial system. There's no point in the police catching people, if the courts don't have the bandwidth to try them.
(Added to which legal aid rates are now so low, it is next to impossible to get even the most junior of barristers to turn up at Uxbridge Magistrates Court, and so when Delinquent X turns up for trial, he doesn't have representation, and therefore his trial gets delayed indefinitely.)
Possible counterpoint: 1% of people probably do 80% of shop thefts. You don't have to catch them every time. Once will do, if handled appropriately.
I read that as “handed appropriately” and thought you were going all medieval on us!
Local Co-op was almost out of fruit and vegetables thanks to the cyber-attack. It's one thing for there to be a shortage due to a bad harvest or panic buying in a pandemic, but this isn't either of those.
Lots of empty shelves at the M&S on Leeds City Railway Station.
All doors temporarily locked. Had to unlock them for me so I could get in
“Disruption by shoplifters, Sir”
But remember we are all imagining it, as @Eabhal assures us
Jeezo, this has really upset you.
FWIW, my local Scotmid regularly gets cleaned out by a group of 16-year olds. I'm not suggesting it's not happening, just that the sudden obsession with it is a bit odd.
The big spike happened in 2020 and I don't recall any conniptions about it then. It's similar to small boats to a lesser extent, with the giant leap happening in 2022.
I respect your lived experience, of course.
Lived experience is code for own facts.
This is actual EXPERIENCE.
We've both seen it over the last 48 hours. It's rife.
You're a Moron. That's my lived experience of you.
My lived experience from 8 years ago = constant shoplifting and getting spoken to by the police for energetically removing headtorches from a thief.
We never reported it.
That's my concern about these statistics. Has something happened that makes it more likely that these offences are reported or is this a genuine increase? My anecdotal impression is very much the latter but there may be other reasons.
Well, my lived experience is that the local Lidl now has a bouncer on the door, as does Sainsbury's.
The local corner shop has put up a glass wall for the checkout.
Something has changed.
I remember drink shops in particular having glass walls and metal bars 20 years ago. But I am not disputing there has been an increase. When people stop enforcing the law people take advantage. It is (wrongly) regarded as a victimless crime.
And its ridiculous it is like this. When I was a fiscal in Dundee 25 years ago we would get the Sheriff to go off the bench and we (prosecution and defence) would look at the videos. If the accused could be ID'd they pled. It they couldn't the case was dropped. The percentage where the CCTV was so poor that ID was not possible was high.
These days CCTV can give you an identification at least a couple of hundred yards away. It is incredibly clear. Catching these people, if we could be bothered, should be easy.
Obviously, some of the PB oldies have rose tinted glasses on, and remember the 80s as a time when you could leave your front door open, go on holiday for a fortnight, and the local kids would go in and vacuum your house for you and leave your kitchen immaculate.
Despite their obvious senility, it is clear that shoplifting has gotten significantly more prevalent since funding for the police and courts was slashed, because the likelihood of negative consequences for those who do is close to zero.
I would ask: whence came this absurd idea that shoplifting shall not be prosecuted?!
It seems to have emerged in the UK and the USA at roughly the same time
Probably when it was seen as more expense than it was worth.
At societal level, that's obviously silly- in many areas, we get as much crime as we are willing to collectively walk past- but a dessicated spreadsheet shagger would prioritise other crimes which allow more solved cases for less hassle and expense.
If you manage by KPI- and the UK has done little else since the Blair years, and it's a global trend- expect KPI to bite you on the bum.
And that's not necessarily a bad thing. Just look how good the stats are on physical violence, theft (primarily because burglaries have dropped off), and so on.
If you were to take a cold look at it, it's fraud and sexual assault that you would spend all the cash on. Both can be devastating to people in a way that shoplifting simply is not - the ROI there is unbeatable.
(but I do understand the broken window theory. I also think there is an intrinsic value in just walking around in a broadly crime free society).
Agreed- the principle is pretty sensible. Put the money where it will do most good first, and work down from there. It's a similar sort of idea to QALYs in medicine. The catch is that you have to get the "benefit" calculation spot-on, and there seems to be a reality check missing here.
The other problem is what happens if the money runs out before you get to the bottom of your list of crimes you would like to stop? Which is almost certainly the case at the moment. We want less shoplifting, less grafitti... does that want extend to paying more, or having less of something else, to achieve it? The reality is... probably not.
On a more serious note to my earlier postings about bolt cutters. What you get is what we have now which is private law. Get burglared you don't go to the police you go have a word with some people if you want your stuff back and some money changes hand....been there done that
All doors temporarily locked. Had to unlock them for me so I could get in
“Disruption by shoplifters, Sir”
But remember we are all imagining it, as @Eabhal assures us
Jeezo, this has really upset you.
FWIW, my local Scotmid regularly gets cleaned out by a group of 16-year olds. I'm not suggesting it's not happening, just that the sudden obsession with it is a bit odd.
The big spike happened in 2020 and I don't recall any conniptions about it then. It's similar to small boats to a lesser extent, with the giant leap happening in 2022.
I respect your lived experience, of course.
Lived experience is code for own facts.
This is actual EXPERIENCE.
We've both seen it over the last 48 hours. It's rife.
You're a Moron. That's my lived experience of you.
My lived experience from 8 years ago = constant shoplifting and getting spoken to by the police for energetically removing headtorches from a thief.
We never reported it.
That's my concern about these statistics. Has something happened that makes it more likely that these offences are reported or is this a genuine increase? My anecdotal impression is very much the latter but there may be other reasons.
Well, my lived experience is that the local Lidl now has a bouncer on the door, as does Sainsbury's.
The local corner shop has put up a glass wall for the checkout.
Something has changed.
I remember drink shops in particular having glass walls and metal bars 20 years ago. But I am not disputing there has been an increase. When people stop enforcing the law people take advantage. It is (wrongly) regarded as a victimless crime.
And its ridiculous it is like this. When I was a fiscal in Dundee 25 years ago we would get the Sheriff to go off the bench and we (prosecution and defence) would look at the videos. If the accused could be ID'd they pled. It they couldn't the case was dropped. The percentage where the CCTV was so poor that ID was not possible was high.
These days CCTV can give you an identification at least a couple of hundred yards away. It is incredibly clear. Catching these people, if we could be bothered, should be easy.
Obviously, some of the PB oldies have rose tinted glasses on, and remember the 80s as a time when you could leave your front door open, go on holiday for a fortnight, and the local kids would go in and vacuum your house for you and leave your kitchen immaculate.
Despite their obvious senility, it is clear that shoplifting has gotten significantly more prevalent since funding for the police and courts was slashed, because the likelihood of negative consequences for those who do is close to zero.
I would ask: whence came this absurd idea that shoplifting shall not be prosecuted?!
It seems to have emerged in the UK and the USA at roughly the same time
Probably when it was seen as more expense than it was worth.
At societal level, that's obviously silly- in many areas, we get as much crime as we are willing to collectively walk past- but a dessicated spreadsheet shagger would prioritise other crimes which allow more solved cases for less hassle and expense.
If you manage by KPI- and the UK has done little else since the Blair years, and it's a global trend- expect KPI to bite you on the bum.
And that's not necessarily a bad thing. Just look how good the stats are on physical violence, theft (primarily because burglaries have dropped off), and so on.
If you were to take a cold look at it, it's fraud and sexual assault that you would spend all the cash on. Both can be devastating to people in a way that shoplifting simply is not - the ROI there is unbeatable.
(but I do understand the broken window theory. I also think there is an intrinsic value in just walking around in a broadly crime free society).
Agreed- the principle is pretty sensible. Put the money where it will do most good first, and work down from there. It's a similar sort of idea to QALYs in medicine. The catch is that you have to get the "benefit" calculation spot-on, and there seems to be a reality check missing here.
The other problem is what happens if the money runs out before you get to the bottom of your list of crimes you would like to stop? Which is almost certainly the case at the moment. We want less shoplifting, less grafitti... does that want extend to paying more, or having less of something else, to achieve it? The reality is... probably not.
Medicine is a good analogy, because you almost always want to spend more on prevention, yet government usually does the opposite. In that case, prosecuting "gateway" crimes is better value.
But does becoming a shoplifter mean you are much more likely to become a rapist or murderer? I doubt it. I think 90% of that starts much earlier, probably <12 years old.
Local Co-op was almost out of fruit and vegetables thanks to the cyber-attack. It's one thing for there to be a shortage due to a bad harvest or panic buying in a pandemic, but this isn't either of those.
Lots of empty shelves at the M&S on Leeds City Railway Station.
All doors temporarily locked. Had to unlock them for me so I could get in
“Disruption by shoplifters, Sir”
But remember we are all imagining it, as @Eabhal assures us
Jeezo, this has really upset you.
FWIW, my local Scotmid regularly gets cleaned out by a group of 16-year olds. I'm not suggesting it's not happening, just that the sudden obsession with it is a bit odd.
The big spike happened in 2020 and I don't recall any conniptions about it then. It's similar to small boats to a lesser extent, with the giant leap happening in 2022.
I respect your lived experience, of course.
Lived experience is code for own facts.
This is actual EXPERIENCE.
We've both seen it over the last 48 hours. It's rife.
You're a Moron. That's my lived experience of you.
My lived experience from 8 years ago = constant shoplifting and getting spoken to by the police for energetically removing headtorches from a thief.
We never reported it.
That's my concern about these statistics. Has something happened that makes it more likely that these offences are reported or is this a genuine increase? My anecdotal impression is very much the latter but there may be other reasons.
Well, my lived experience is that the local Lidl now has a bouncer on the door, as does Sainsbury's.
The local corner shop has put up a glass wall for the checkout.
Something has changed.
My lived experience is that I've not witnessed anything like that in any stores around here, however my local Asda now requires a pound coin for its trolleys which is bloody annoying when I don't carry cash and don't use pound coins.
They don't have any staff on the checkouts most of the time, most of the self-checkout machines are card-only, but then they insist on a coin for the trolley.
Madness.
Doesn't have to be a £1 coin - there are tokens the same shape & size which are made for that purpose. They used to be quite common but I haven't seen one for ages (except my own).
A Euro coin works too. Or, as I have discovered, 25 Brazilian centavos (I lost my token somehow and was using this coin in a case of mistaken identity).
Local Co-op was almost out of fruit and vegetables thanks to the cyber-attack. It's one thing for there to be a shortage due to a bad harvest or panic buying in a pandemic, but this isn't either of those.
Lots of empty shelves at the M&S on Leeds City Railway Station.
Sadly lots of empty shelves in my pantry...
People are still rich enough to afford pantries? A whole room just for food?
All doors temporarily locked. Had to unlock them for me so I could get in
“Disruption by shoplifters, Sir”
But remember we are all imagining it, as @Eabhal assures us
Jeezo, this has really upset you.
FWIW, my local Scotmid regularly gets cleaned out by a group of 16-year olds. I'm not suggesting it's not happening, just that the sudden obsession with it is a bit odd.
The big spike happened in 2020 and I don't recall any conniptions about it then. It's similar to small boats to a lesser extent, with the giant leap happening in 2022.
I respect your lived experience, of course.
Lived experience is code for own facts.
This is actual EXPERIENCE.
We've both seen it over the last 48 hours. It's rife.
You're a Moron. That's my lived experience of you.
My lived experience from 8 years ago = constant shoplifting and getting spoken to by the police for energetically removing headtorches from a thief.
We never reported it.
That's my concern about these statistics. Has something happened that makes it more likely that these offences are reported or is this a genuine increase? My anecdotal impression is very much the latter but there may be other reasons.
Well, my lived experience is that the local Lidl now has a bouncer on the door, as does Sainsbury's.
The local corner shop has put up a glass wall for the checkout.
Something has changed.
I remember drink shops in particular having glass walls and metal bars 20 years ago. But I am not disputing there has been an increase. When people stop enforcing the law people take advantage. It is (wrongly) regarded as a victimless crime.
And its ridiculous it is like this. When I was a fiscal in Dundee 25 years ago we would get the Sheriff to go off the bench and we (prosecution and defence) would look at the videos. If the accused could be ID'd they pled. It they couldn't the case was dropped. The percentage where the CCTV was so poor that ID was not possible was high.
These days CCTV can give you an identification at least a couple of hundred yards away. It is incredibly clear. Catching these people, if we could be bothered, should be easy.
Obviously, some of the PB oldies have rose tinted glasses on, and remember the 80s as a time when you could leave your front door open, go on holiday for a fortnight, and the local kids would go in and vacuum your house for you and leave your kitchen immaculate.
Despite their obvious senility, it is clear that shoplifting has gotten significantly more prevalent since funding for the police and courts was slashed, because the likelihood of negative consequences for those who do is close to zero.
I would ask: whence came this absurd idea that shoplifting shall not be prosecuted?!
It seems to have emerged in the UK and the USA at roughly the same time
Probably when it was seen as more expense than it was worth.
At societal level, that's obviously silly- in many areas, we get as much crime as we are willing to collectively walk past- but a dessicated spreadsheet shagger would prioritise other crimes which allow more solved cases for less hassle and expense.
If you manage by KPI- and the UK has done little else since the Blair years, and it's a global trend- expect KPI to bite you on the bum.
And that's not necessarily a bad thing. Just look how good the stats are on physical violence, theft (primarily because burglaries have dropped off), and so on.
If you were to take a cold look at it, it's fraud and sexual assault that you would spend all the cash on. Both can be devastating to people in a way that shoplifting simply is not - the ROI there is unbeatable.
(but I do understand the broken window theory. I also think there is an intrinsic value in just walking around in a broadly crime free society).
Agreed- the principle is pretty sensible. Put the money where it will do most good first, and work down from there. It's a similar sort of idea to QALYs in medicine. The catch is that you have to get the "benefit" calculation spot-on, and there seems to be a reality check missing here.
The other problem is what happens if the money runs out before you get to the bottom of your list of crimes you would like to stop? Which is almost certainly the case at the moment. We want less shoplifting, less grafitti... does that want extend to paying more, or having less of something else, to achieve it? The reality is... probably not.
On a more serious note to my earlier postings about bolt cutters. What you get is what we have now which is private law. Get burglared you don't go to the police you go have a word with some people if you want your stuff back and some money changes hand....been there done that
Is it private law or just the birth of a new proto-State that may grow to replace the old one?
All doors temporarily locked. Had to unlock them for me so I could get in
“Disruption by shoplifters, Sir”
But remember we are all imagining it, as @Eabhal assures us
Jeezo, this has really upset you.
FWIW, my local Scotmid regularly gets cleaned out by a group of 16-year olds. I'm not suggesting it's not happening, just that the sudden obsession with it is a bit odd.
The big spike happened in 2020 and I don't recall any conniptions about it then. It's similar to small boats to a lesser extent, with the giant leap happening in 2022.
I respect your lived experience, of course.
Lived experience is code for own facts.
This is actual EXPERIENCE.
We've both seen it over the last 48 hours. It's rife.
You're a Moron. That's my lived experience of you.
My lived experience from 8 years ago = constant shoplifting and getting spoken to by the police for energetically removing headtorches from a thief.
We never reported it.
That's my concern about these statistics. Has something happened that makes it more likely that these offences are reported or is this a genuine increase? My anecdotal impression is very much the latter but there may be other reasons.
Well, my lived experience is that the local Lidl now has a bouncer on the door, as does Sainsbury's.
The local corner shop has put up a glass wall for the checkout.
Something has changed.
I remember drink shops in particular having glass walls and metal bars 20 years ago. But I am not disputing there has been an increase. When people stop enforcing the law people take advantage. It is (wrongly) regarded as a victimless crime.
And its ridiculous it is like this. When I was a fiscal in Dundee 25 years ago we would get the Sheriff to go off the bench and we (prosecution and defence) would look at the videos. If the accused could be ID'd they pled. It they couldn't the case was dropped. The percentage where the CCTV was so poor that ID was not possible was high.
These days CCTV can give you an identification at least a couple of hundred yards away. It is incredibly clear. Catching these people, if we could be bothered, should be easy.
Obviously, some of the PB oldies have rose tinted glasses on, and remember the 80s as a time when you could leave your front door open, go on holiday for a fortnight, and the local kids would go in and vacuum your house for you and leave your kitchen immaculate.
Despite their obvious senility, it is clear that shoplifting has gotten significantly more prevalent since funding for the police and courts was slashed, because the likelihood of negative consequences for those who do is close to zero.
I would ask: whence came this absurd idea that shoplifting shall not be prosecuted?!
It seems to have emerged in the UK and the USA at roughly the same time
Probably when it was seen as more expense than it was worth.
At societal level, that's obviously silly- in many areas, we get as much crime as we are willing to collectively walk past- but a dessicated spreadsheet shagger would prioritise other crimes which allow more solved cases for less hassle and expense.
If you manage by KPI- and the UK has done little else since the Blair years, and it's a global trend- expect KPI to bite you on the bum.
And that's not necessarily a bad thing. Just look how good the stats are on physical violence, theft (primarily because burglaries have dropped off), and so on.
If you were to take a cold look at it, it's fraud and sexual assault that you would spend all the cash on. Both can be devastating to people in a way that shoplifting simply is not - the ROI there is unbeatable.
(but I do understand the broken window theory. I also think there is an intrinsic value in just walking around in a broadly crime free society).
Agreed- the principle is pretty sensible. Put the money where it will do most good first, and work down from there. It's a similar sort of idea to QALYs in medicine. The catch is that you have to get the "benefit" calculation spot-on, and there seems to be a reality check missing here.
The other problem is what happens if the money runs out before you get to the bottom of your list of crimes you would like to stop? Which is almost certainly the case at the moment. We want less shoplifting, less grafitti... does that want extend to paying more, or having less of something else, to achieve it? The reality is... probably not.
On a more serious note to my earlier postings about bolt cutters. What you get is what we have now which is private law. Get burglared you don't go to the police you go have a word with some people if you want your stuff back and some money changes hand....been there done that
Is it private law or just the birth of a new proto-State that may grow to replace the old one?
Don't think they plan to form a government, just people who dont mind making some untaxed money to get your stuff back
I saw someone get arrested for shoplifting the other day. Police car appeared suddenly, blocking pavement and out popped two officers who grabbed the person, whilst leaving their companion alone. Seemed very slick.
Definitely my lived experience (not totally sure what the 'lived' bit adds there other than winding up some people) is that shoplifting seems more common as do security guards in shops... feel sorry for the retail workers.
Lived experience means experience. Sadly it's become a sociology catchphrase. Sociology catchphrases worming their way into activist discourse and thereby into general discourse is not a great development. They become magic, ungainsayable mantras.
You could, I suppose, contrast lived experience with vicarious experience. But that's already distinguished by 'vicarious'.
I'd say "lived" experience implies something direct and constant, and of a weighty matter, so it does add something if used correctly.
Eg for me:
My lived experience of Hampstead says RUK have no chance here. That works.
In my lived experience of Waitrose their tomatoes are overripe. That doesn't work. Not a weighty matter.
My lived experience of Bruges is it's a lovely little town. Doesn't work. Not constant. I've only been once for a short holiday.
I saw someone get arrested for shoplifting the other day. Police car appeared suddenly, blocking pavement and out popped two officers who grabbed the person, whilst leaving their companion alone. Seemed very slick.
Definitely my lived experience (not totally sure what the 'lived' bit adds there other than winding up some people) is that shoplifting seems more common as do security guards in shops... feel sorry for the retail workers.
Lived experience means experience. Sadly it's become a sociology catchphrase. Sociology catchphrases worming their way into activist discourse and thereby into general discourse is not a great development. They become magic, ungainsayable mantras.
You could, I suppose, contrast lived experience with vicarious experience. But that's already distinguished by 'vicarious'.
I'd say "lived" experience implies something direct and constant, and of a weighty matter, so it does add something if used correctly.
Eg for me:
My lived experience of Hampstead says that RUK have no chance here. That works.
My lived experience of Waitrose is that their tomatoes are overripe. That doesn't work. Not a weighty matter.
My lived experience of Bruges is it's a lovely little town. Doesn't work. Not constant. I've only been once for a short holiday.
I saw someone get arrested for shoplifting the other day. Police car appeared suddenly, blocking pavement and out popped two officers who grabbed the person, whilst leaving their companion alone. Seemed very slick.
Definitely my lived experience (not totally sure what the 'lived' bit adds there other than winding up some people) is that shoplifting seems more common as do security guards in shops... feel sorry for the retail workers.
Lived experience means experience. Sadly it's become a sociology catchphrase. Sociology catchphrases worming their way into activist discourse and thereby into general discourse is not a great development. They become magic, ungainsayable mantras.
You could, I suppose, contrast lived experience with vicarious experience. But that's already distinguished by 'vicarious'.
I'd say "lived" experience implies something direct and constant, and of a weighty matter, so it does add something if used correctly.
Eg for me:
My lived experience of Hampstead says that RUK have no chance here. That works.
My lived experience of Waitrose is that their tomatoes are overripe. That doesn't work. Not a weighty matter.
My lived experience of Bruges is it's a lovely little town. Doesn't work. Not constant. I've only been once for a short holiday.
But of those 3 items
The first is wrong the other two are true
I think Hampstead will have one of the lowest RUK scores in the UK. Certainly, it was something like 75:25 Remain:Leave.
All doors temporarily locked. Had to unlock them for me so I could get in
“Disruption by shoplifters, Sir”
But remember we are all imagining it, as @Eabhal assures us
Jeezo, this has really upset you.
FWIW, my local Scotmid regularly gets cleaned out by a group of 16-year olds. I'm not suggesting it's not happening, just that the sudden obsession with it is a bit odd.
The big spike happened in 2020 and I don't recall any conniptions about it then. It's similar to small boats to a lesser extent, with the giant leap happening in 2022.
I respect your lived experience, of course.
Lived experience is code for own facts.
This is actual EXPERIENCE.
We've both seen it over the last 48 hours. It's rife.
You're a Moron. That's my lived experience of you.
My lived experience from 8 years ago = constant shoplifting and getting spoken to by the police for energetically removing headtorches from a thief.
We never reported it.
That's my concern about these statistics. Has something happened that makes it more likely that these offences are reported or is this a genuine increase? My anecdotal impression is very much the latter but there may be other reasons.
Well, my lived experience is that the local Lidl now has a bouncer on the door, as does Sainsbury's.
The local corner shop has put up a glass wall for the checkout.
Something has changed.
I remember drink shops in particular having glass walls and metal bars 20 years ago. But I am not disputing there has been an increase. When people stop enforcing the law people take advantage. It is (wrongly) regarded as a victimless crime.
And its ridiculous it is like this. When I was a fiscal in Dundee 25 years ago we would get the Sheriff to go off the bench and we (prosecution and defence) would look at the videos. If the accused could be ID'd they pled. It they couldn't the case was dropped. The percentage where the CCTV was so poor that ID was not possible was high.
These days CCTV can give you an identification at least a couple of hundred yards away. It is incredibly clear. Catching these people, if we could be bothered, should be easy.
Obviously, some of the PB oldies have rose tinted glasses on, and remember the 80s as a time when you could leave your front door open, go on holiday for a fortnight, and the local kids would go in and vacuum your house for you and leave your kitchen immaculate.
Despite their obvious senility, it is clear that shoplifting has gotten significantly more prevalent since funding for the police and courts was slashed, because the likelihood of negative consequences for those who do is close to zero.
I would ask: whence came this absurd idea that shoplifting shall not be prosecuted?!
It seems to have emerged in the UK and the USA at roughly the same time
Probably when it was seen as more expense than it was worth.
At societal level, that's obviously silly- in many areas, we get as much crime as we are willing to collectively walk past- but a dessicated spreadsheet shagger would prioritise other crimes which allow more solved cases for less hassle and expense.
If you manage by KPI- and the UK has done little else since the Blair years, and it's a global trend- expect KPI to bite you on the bum.
And that's not necessarily a bad thing. Just look how good the stats are on physical violence, theft (primarily because burglaries have dropped off), and so on.
If you were to take a cold look at it, it's fraud and sexual assault that you would spend all the cash on. Both can be devastating to people in a way that shoplifting simply is not - the ROI there is unbeatable.
(but I do understand the broken window theory. I also think there is an intrinsic value in just walking around in a broadly crime free society).
Agreed- the principle is pretty sensible. Put the money where it will do most good first, and work down from there. It's a similar sort of idea to QALYs in medicine. The catch is that you have to get the "benefit" calculation spot-on, and there seems to be a reality check missing here.
The other problem is what happens if the money runs out before you get to the bottom of your list of crimes you would like to stop? Which is almost certainly the case at the moment. We want less shoplifting, less grafitti... does that want extend to paying more, or having less of something else, to achieve it? The reality is... probably not.
On a more serious note to my earlier postings about bolt cutters. What you get is what we have now which is private law. Get burglared you don't go to the police you go have a word with some people if you want your stuff back and some money changes hand....been there done that
Is it private law or just the birth of a new proto-State that may grow to replace the old one?
Don't think they plan to form a government, just people who dont mind making some untaxed money to get your stuff back
All doors temporarily locked. Had to unlock them for me so I could get in
“Disruption by shoplifters, Sir”
But remember we are all imagining it, as @Eabhal assures us
Jeezo, this has really upset you.
FWIW, my local Scotmid regularly gets cleaned out by a group of 16-year olds. I'm not suggesting it's not happening, just that the sudden obsession with it is a bit odd.
The big spike happened in 2020 and I don't recall any conniptions about it then. It's similar to small boats to a lesser extent, with the giant leap happening in 2022.
I respect your lived experience, of course.
Lived experience is code for own facts.
This is actual EXPERIENCE.
We've both seen it over the last 48 hours. It's rife.
You're a Moron. That's my lived experience of you.
My lived experience from 8 years ago = constant shoplifting and getting spoken to by the police for energetically removing headtorches from a thief.
We never reported it.
That's my concern about these statistics. Has something happened that makes it more likely that these offences are reported or is this a genuine increase? My anecdotal impression is very much the latter but there may be other reasons.
Well, my lived experience is that the local Lidl now has a bouncer on the door, as does Sainsbury's.
The local corner shop has put up a glass wall for the checkout.
Something has changed.
I remember drink shops in particular having glass walls and metal bars 20 years ago. But I am not disputing there has been an increase. When people stop enforcing the law people take advantage. It is (wrongly) regarded as a victimless crime.
And its ridiculous it is like this. When I was a fiscal in Dundee 25 years ago we would get the Sheriff to go off the bench and we (prosecution and defence) would look at the videos. If the accused could be ID'd they pled. It they couldn't the case was dropped. The percentage where the CCTV was so poor that ID was not possible was high.
These days CCTV can give you an identification at least a couple of hundred yards away. It is incredibly clear. Catching these people, if we could be bothered, should be easy.
Obviously, some of the PB oldies have rose tinted glasses on, and remember the 80s as a time when you could leave your front door open, go on holiday for a fortnight, and the local kids would go in and vacuum your house for you and leave your kitchen immaculate.
Despite their obvious senility, it is clear that shoplifting has gotten significantly more prevalent since funding for the police and courts was slashed, because the likelihood of negative consequences for those who do is close to zero.
I would ask: whence came this absurd idea that shoplifting shall not be prosecuted?!
It seems to have emerged in the UK and the USA at roughly the same time
It's nothing to do with the US, it's the fact that the coalition (and specifically Kenneth Clarke, Nick Herbert and Damian Green) oversaw massive cuts to the policing and criminal justice budgets.
The consequence of this was that there simply are no local police most of the time because all the police stations have been closed, so the shop has to try and hang on to you for hours waiting for the police to come. And even if you are caught, the first available court date for a trial is two and a half years away. And the criminals know that if they turn up, at least one of the witnesses won't bother, so they'll walk away scot free.
This really isn't very complicated: fund the police and (just as importantly) fund the judicial system. There's no point in the police catching people, if the courts don't have the bandwidth to try them.
(Added to which legal aid rates are now so low, it is next to impossible to get even the most junior of barristers to turn up at Uxbridge Magistrates Court, and so when Delinquent X turns up for trial, he doesn't have representation, and therefore his trial gets delayed indefinitely.)
Possible counterpoint: 1% of people probably do 80% of shop thefts. You don't have to catch them every time. Once will do, if handled appropriately.
It's the handled appropriately that is the big issue. Because how much of deterrent is a court date in 2028?
I saw someone get arrested for shoplifting the other day. Police car appeared suddenly, blocking pavement and out popped two officers who grabbed the person, whilst leaving their companion alone. Seemed very slick.
Definitely my lived experience (not totally sure what the 'lived' bit adds there other than winding up some people) is that shoplifting seems more common as do security guards in shops... feel sorry for the retail workers.
Lived experience means experience. Sadly it's become a sociology catchphrase. Sociology catchphrases worming their way into activist discourse and thereby into general discourse is not a great development. They become magic, ungainsayable mantras.
You could, I suppose, contrast lived experience with vicarious experience. But that's already distinguished by 'vicarious'.
I'd say "lived" experience implies something direct and constant, and of a weighty matter, so it does add something if used correctly.
Eg for me:
My lived experience of Hampstead says that RUK have no chance here. That works.
My lived experience of Waitrose is that their tomatoes are overripe. That doesn't work. Not a weighty matter.
My lived experience of Bruges is it's a lovely little town. Doesn't work. Not constant. I've only been once for a short holiday.
But of those 3 items
The first is wrong the other two are true
I think Hampstead will have one of the lowest RUK scores in the UK. Certainly, it was something like 75:25 Remain:Leave.
I saw someone get arrested for shoplifting the other day. Police car appeared suddenly, blocking pavement and out popped two officers who grabbed the person, whilst leaving their companion alone. Seemed very slick.
Definitely my lived experience (not totally sure what the 'lived' bit adds there other than winding up some people) is that shoplifting seems more common as do security guards in shops... feel sorry for the retail workers.
"Lived experience" is an important phrase.
It is intended to prevent ignorant people using their own opinions to belittle the experience of others. For example men lecturing women about dangers of sex crime, or able bodied lecturing disabled people about "I could get a wheelchair through there - why can't you" when they block a pavement, or assuming that a Guide Dog can walk ahead of a blind person rather than requiring a gap for side by side.
It means far more than a mere "my opinion".
I suppose you are right, in that experience of seeing disabled people is different from experience of being a disabled person.
Yes - it's like a focus group vs an average, and the importance of particular different experiences (especially minority experiences) about which assumptions are often just casually made.
The classic example for me was that I had been walking through wheelchair blocking barriers for decades and decades with a sideways shimmy and not a thought, and did not even perceive a problem until I had to push a wheelchair through one. Then I started noticing them everywhere.
I have one in my town which has been there for 60 years, where the "wheeling" diversion for mobility aids, prams etc is 700m rather than 20m down the path to the churchyard. It's in one of those housing estates which is laid out like a lung.
I saw someone get arrested for shoplifting the other day. Police car appeared suddenly, blocking pavement and out popped two officers who grabbed the person, whilst leaving their companion alone. Seemed very slick.
Definitely my lived experience (not totally sure what the 'lived' bit adds there other than winding up some people) is that shoplifting seems more common as do security guards in shops... feel sorry for the retail workers.
Lived experience means experience. Sadly it's become a sociology catchphrase. Sociology catchphrases worming their way into activist discourse and thereby into general discourse is not a great development. They become magic, ungainsayable mantras.
You could, I suppose, contrast lived experience with vicarious experience. But that's already distinguished by 'vicarious'.
I'd say "lived" experience implies something direct and constant, and of a weighty matter, so it does add something if used correctly.
Eg for me:
My lived experience of Hampstead says that RUK have no chance here. That works.
My lived experience of Waitrose is that their tomatoes are overripe. That doesn't work. Not a weighty matter.
My lived experience of Bruges is it's a lovely little town. Doesn't work. Not constant. I've only been once for a short holiday.
All doors temporarily locked. Had to unlock them for me so I could get in
“Disruption by shoplifters, Sir”
But remember we are all imagining it, as @Eabhal assures us
Jeezo, this has really upset you.
FWIW, my local Scotmid regularly gets cleaned out by a group of 16-year olds. I'm not suggesting it's not happening, just that the sudden obsession with it is a bit odd.
The big spike happened in 2020 and I don't recall any conniptions about it then. It's similar to small boats to a lesser extent, with the giant leap happening in 2022.
I respect your lived experience, of course.
Lived experience is code for own facts.
This is actual EXPERIENCE.
We've both seen it over the last 48 hours. It's rife.
You're a Moron. That's my lived experience of you.
My lived experience from 8 years ago = constant shoplifting and getting spoken to by the police for energetically removing headtorches from a thief.
We never reported it.
That's my concern about these statistics. Has something happened that makes it more likely that these offences are reported or is this a genuine increase? My anecdotal impression is very much the latter but there may be other reasons.
Well, my lived experience is that the local Lidl now has a bouncer on the door, as does Sainsbury's.
The local corner shop has put up a glass wall for the checkout.
Something has changed.
I remember drink shops in particular having glass walls and metal bars 20 years ago. But I am not disputing there has been an increase. When people stop enforcing the law people take advantage. It is (wrongly) regarded as a victimless crime.
And its ridiculous it is like this. When I was a fiscal in Dundee 25 years ago we would get the Sheriff to go off the bench and we (prosecution and defence) would look at the videos. If the accused could be ID'd they pled. It they couldn't the case was dropped. The percentage where the CCTV was so poor that ID was not possible was high.
These days CCTV can give you an identification at least a couple of hundred yards away. It is incredibly clear. Catching these people, if we could be bothered, should be easy.
Obviously, some of the PB oldies have rose tinted glasses on, and remember the 80s as a time when you could leave your front door open, go on holiday for a fortnight, and the local kids would go in and vacuum your house for you and leave your kitchen immaculate.
Despite their obvious senility, it is clear that shoplifting has gotten significantly more prevalent since funding for the police and courts was slashed, because the likelihood of negative consequences for those who do is close to zero.
I would ask: whence came this absurd idea that shoplifting shall not be prosecuted?!
It seems to have emerged in the UK and the USA at roughly the same time
Probably when it was seen as more expense than it was worth.
At societal level, that's obviously silly- in many areas, we get as much crime as we are willing to collectively walk past- but a dessicated spreadsheet shagger would prioritise other crimes which allow more solved cases for less hassle and expense.
If you manage by KPI- and the UK has done little else since the Blair years, and it's a global trend- expect KPI to bite you on the bum.
And that's not necessarily a bad thing. Just look how good the stats are on physical violence, theft (primarily because burglaries have dropped off), and so on.
If you were to take a cold look at it, it's fraud and sexual assault that you would spend all the cash on. Both can be devastating to people in a way that shoplifting simply is not - the ROI there is unbeatable.
(but I do understand the broken window theory. I also think there is an intrinsic value in just walking around in a broadly crime free society).
Agreed- the principle is pretty sensible. Put the money where it will do most good first, and work down from there. It's a similar sort of idea to QALYs in medicine. The catch is that you have to get the "benefit" calculation spot-on, and there seems to be a reality check missing here.
The other problem is what happens if the money runs out before you get to the bottom of your list of crimes you would like to stop? Which is almost certainly the case at the moment. We want less shoplifting, less grafitti... does that want extend to paying more, or having less of something else, to achieve it? The reality is... probably not.
On a more serious note to my earlier postings about bolt cutters. What you get is what we have now which is private law. Get burglared you don't go to the police you go have a word with some people if you want your stuff back and some money changes hand....been there done that
Is it private law or just the birth of a new proto-State that may grow to replace the old one?
Don't think they plan to form a government, just people who dont mind making some untaxed money to get your stuff back
Ah! A nascent security apparatus!
Not really as they are generally criminal themselves....in my case I really wanted the laptop back because it had lots of irreplacable photo's of my son. I know for a fact however as a group they had murdered, committed assaults, run guns and drugs etc
I saw someone get arrested for shoplifting the other day. Police car appeared suddenly, blocking pavement and out popped two officers who grabbed the person, whilst leaving their companion alone. Seemed very slick.
Definitely my lived experience (not totally sure what the 'lived' bit adds there other than winding up some people) is that shoplifting seems more common as do security guards in shops... feel sorry for the retail workers.
"Lived experience" is an important phrase.
It is intended to prevent ignorant people using their own opinions to belittle the experience of others. For example men lecturing women about dangers of sex crime, or able bodied lecturing disabled people about "I could get a wheelchair through there - why can't you" when they block a pavement, or assuming that a Guide Dog can walk ahead of a blind person rather than requiring a gap for side by side.
It means far more than a mere "my opinion".
I suppose you are right, in that experience of seeing disabled people is different from experience of being a disabled person.
Yes - it's like a focus group vs an average, and the importance of particular different experiences (especially minority experiences) about which assumptions are often just casually made.
The classic example for me was that I had been walking through wheelchair blocking barriers for decades and decades with a sideways shimmy and not a thought, and did not even perceive a problem until I had to push a wheelchair through one. Then I started noticing them everywhere.
I have one in my town which has been there for 60 years, where the "wheeling" diversion for mobility aids, prams etc is 700m rather than 20m down the path to the churchyard. It's in one of those housing estates which is laid out like a lung.
Course, if cyclists followed the law, the barriers would not have been installed
Comments
I have a friend who drove from Anchorage to the Miami Keys Key West, Florida. She spent almost as long getting from Anchorage to Seattle, as from Seattle to Florida.
Older chips or at least chips made with older fabrication technology are used in hostile environments as they survive better.
Though on the survivor bias front, my father in law has a boxed / unused ZX Spectrum somewhere...
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Marine_Highway
41 hours of driving from Anchorage to Seattle, 51 hours from Seattle to Key West.
That's insane.
I think about 50% of retail theft was staff when I was in the sector. We had bag searches. That ratio will have changed dramatically.
It's a bloody long way.
With some super inconvenient monster mountains, fjords and stuff in the way.
The local corner shop has put up a glass wall for the checkout.
Something has changed.
A *support* chip in a modern mobile phone is probably far more complex than the ZX Spectrum. Even a power control chip (*).
But perhaps the biggest reason for obsolescence is the Internet. If you connect a device to the Internet, then someone can infiltrate or hack it. Which means the Operating System and applications need to be kept updated to combat new and emerging threat vectors. This may be coped with by updating the OS if the OS is upgradeable, but some attacks use hardware exploits (e.g. Spectre/Meltdown), and these may require new hardware for proper fixes.
Then there is the ever-increasing need for 'better' computers: software that requires more processor power, more threads, and especially more memory. (In the latter case, often because of programmer laziness, but efficiency costs.)
Basically: your ZX Spectrum from 1986 and QL from 1984 cannot do the stuff you are asking your modern device to do.
(*) I bet few people on PB even know what one of those is...
Texas always seems so big
But you know you're in the largest state in the Union
When you're anchored down in Anchorage
They don't have any staff on the checkouts most of the time, most of the self-checkout machines are card-only, but then they insist on a coin for the trolley.
Madness.
I quite like @Eabhal - he is one of the saner of the PB Woke Liberal herd. However yesterday he denied there had been any serious increase in shoplifting. "It was like this when I worked in retail 10 years ago"
Now he is casually accepting that in fact it has risen ten-fold in those ten years, and yet pretending that his stance has not changed, and he hasn't been proved wrong
That is moronic. He's not a moron, but that is moronic
* 'cause the kids from my school would steal them
But smaller transistors are less resilient due to things like quantum tunneling (yes, that is really a thing) or even stray RF or voltage surges or drop-offs.
(All AIUI; the in-house expert is in bed...)
And its ridiculous it is like this. When I was a fiscal in Dundee 25 years ago we would get the Sheriff to go off the bench and we (prosecution and defence) would look at the videos. If the accused could be ID'd they pled. It they couldn't the case was dropped. The percentage where the CCTV was so poor that ID was not possible was high.
These days CCTV can give you an identification at least a couple of hundred yards away. It is incredibly clear. Catching these people, if we could be bothered, should be easy.
I think I might have an easy day tomorrow
Foix is gorgeous. Loads of history and culture. And seemingly lots of decent restaurants
Unfortunately I arrived a bit late to enjoy any of them. I did, though, find a fantastic kebab shop. I’ve just had the best lamb shawarma I’ve ever eaten - the lamb was pink and so tender
Now I need sleep..
Whilst we could (and did) employ someone to go round collecting them, much easier and cheaper and better use of manpower to not bother. After all, employing someone to collect shopping trolleys is the epitome of a low value-adding job.
God of economics, make my country more productive, but not just yet (and not like that)...
Vote by age breakdowns for this morning's MoreInCommon.
Has there been a significant increase? Yes. Is it new, recent, urgent - especially for the hyper partisan trying to imply all kinds of political implications? No.
The question is how the party of law and order allowed law and order collapse into such a state. An economy which crushes communities and drives petty crime? We’ve had that before, but with a justice system capable of policing, nicking and jailing. This time? Economic crisis, a visible lack of police, a notable inability to prosecute and petty criminals released from crush-loaded jails.
(I don't see this as a bad thing.)
One of my favourite songs of ALL TIME
Equally good is:
I kicked in his door at 5 am
I've come for the bike I told the repo man
My 920's gonna take me far today
You can travel for miles and never leave L.A.
Genuinely one of the greatest lyric music talents that is most neglected; I love her
I think Labour will be happy that they are primarily losing ground to the Greens in the youngest groups. But just imagine if the Greens had a decent leader.
And the Lib Dems are the new boomer party.
Despite their obvious senility, it is clear that shoplifting has gotten significantly more prevalent since funding for the police and courts was slashed, because the likelihood of negative consequences for those who do is close to zero.
This is absolutely not a hostile judgment. You mentioned being a bit blue, recently. This is discernible in your remarks. If you ever come to London send me a DM and I will tell you sensational gossip to cheer you up, I hope
They were on the hard drive of a Sun Sparcsation (pizza box) that he had rescued from a dumpster (this was in the US)
Sadly the backup battery in the Sun was dead, so on power up it couldn't remember how to mount the hard drive. PCs of the same era had a similar problem.
His solution was to serial into it from a Psion 5 and type the magic runes to coax the Sun into life
https://electoral-reform.org.uk/duvagers-law-more-guidelines-than-actual-rules/
(Whilst the young women are going Green?)
(Whilst the young women are going Green?)
Definitely my lived experience (not totally sure what the 'lived' bit adds there other than winding up some people) is that shoplifting seems more common as do security guards in shops... feel sorry for the retail workers.
What have I said that is wrong? The retail industry was banging on for several years about the crime epidemic. Assaults as well a shop lifting. The media not interested despite the trend getting worse.
So you’re right that it’s been getting much much worse. But you’re talking like there’s been sudden explosion in it. Which isn’t true - what has changed is that the media has latched onto it.
Either way, how do we fix it when there aren’t enough cops and the courts are clogged up and the jails are full? Suggests an out of the box solution which feels like a Reform play and one Labour will hand wring over
It seems to have emerged in the UK and the USA at roughly the same time
But everyone else is about 50 years behind me and doesn't understand I am a true pioneer
Nonetheless, you can't accuse me of whining and not offering a solution, I've given it. Combined with hi tech super surveillance making guilt undeniable, I believe this would work
It has got even worse since then. As I said, boiling frogs and now it has finally broken out from being industry news to actual news.
https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/18270700.shop-workers-subject-violent-attacks-not-taken-seriously-police-scotland/
At societal level, that's obviously silly- in many areas, we get as much crime as we are willing to collectively walk past- but a dessicated spreadsheet shagger would prioritise other crimes which allow more solved cases for less hassle and expense.
If you manage by KPI- and the UK has done little else since the Blair years, and it's a global trend- expect KPI to bite you on the bum.
@SpencerHakimian
·
2h
"We were losing a trillion dollars a year on trade. Now we're not losing anything, you know? That's just the way I look at it.” - Trump
It is INSANE that somebody this stupid managed to make it this far in life.
Only in America. 🇺🇸
https://x.com/SpencerHakimian/status/1920179417029972039
Well built, but a quite German ride when new - I had a test drive. Second hand prices seem to be from about 6k to a bit under 20k. New prices were 30k to 40k+ .
Hyundai have done similar, but I'm not sure in which time periods.
If you were to take a cold look at it, it's fraud and sexual assault that you would spend all the cash on. Both can be devastating to people in a way that shoplifting simply is not - the ROI there is unbeatable.
(but I do understand the broken window theory. I also think there is an intrinsic value in just walking around in a broadly crime free society).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8piwfzbM5WA
The consequence of this was that there simply are no local police most of the time because all the police stations have been closed, so the shop has to try and hang on to you for hours waiting for the police to come. And even if you are caught, the first available court date for a trial is two and a half years away. And the criminals know that if they turn up, at least one of the witnesses won't bother, so they'll walk away scot free.
This really isn't very complicated: fund the police and (just as importantly) fund the judicial system. There's no point in the police catching people, if the courts don't have the bandwidth to try them.
(Added to which legal aid rates are now so low, it is next to impossible to get even the most junior of barristers to turn up at Uxbridge Magistrates Court, and so when Delinquent X turns up for trial, he doesn't have representation, and therefore his trial gets delayed indefinitely.)
You could, I suppose, contrast lived experience with vicarious experience. But that's already distinguished by 'vicarious'.
It is intended to prevent ignorant people using their own opinions to belittle the experience of others. For example men lecturing women about dangers of sex crime, or able bodied lecturing disabled people about "I could get a wheelchair through there - why can't you?" when they thoughtlessly block a pavement with their vehicle, or assuming that a Guide Dog can walk ahead of a blind person rather than requiring a gap for side by side.
It means far more than a mere "my opinion".
There's a reason why we all have two ears and one mouth, to borrow a phrase from my gran.
I’d used a rather special chain. Judging by the fragments of bolt cutter blade and some blood, the would be third wasn’t skilled with bolt cutters or wearing protection.
The other problem is what happens if the money runs out before you get to the bottom of your list of crimes you would like to stop? Which is almost certainly the case at the moment. We want less shoplifting, less grafitti... does that want extend to paying more, or having less of something else, to achieve it? The reality is... probably not.
Most theft is to resell though?
Would probably discourage shoplifting though
But does becoming a shoplifter mean you are much more likely to become a rapist or murderer? I doubt it. I think 90% of that starts much earlier, probably <12 years old.
The world is a powder keg waiting to explode
The long peace is over: welcome to a new era of war, chaos and destruction
Allister Heath" (£)
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/05/07/long-peace-over-welcome-to-new-era-of-war-chaos-destruction/
Eg for me:
My lived experience of Hampstead says RUK have no chance here. That works.
In my lived experience of Waitrose their tomatoes are overripe. That doesn't work. Not a weighty matter.
My lived experience of Bruges is it's a lovely little town. Doesn't work. Not constant. I've only been once for a short holiday.
The first is wrong the other two are true
The classic example for me was that I had been walking through wheelchair blocking barriers for decades and decades with a sideways shimmy and not a thought, and did not even perceive a problem until I had to push a wheelchair through one. Then I started noticing them everywhere.
I have one in my town which has been there for 60 years, where the "wheeling" diversion for mobility aids, prams etc is 700m rather than 20m down the path to the churchyard. It's in one of those housing estates which is laid out like a lung.