Bike Shed entrepreneur and We Ride London activist Anthony ‘Dutch’ Van Someren has upped the ante in his outspoken campaign against motorcycle crime, calling for a serious clampdown on a "vile epidemic" that is "incubating criminals".
He writes on Facebook:
While the London press and public stress about #MopedCrime, acid attacks and mobile-phone snatching, and the police bosses make excuses about "the dangers to the public" over high-speed chases, we/they have inadvertently created a culture that is incubating criminals; young teenage would-be thugs practising being bad-boys, safe in the knowledge that their 'low-level' crime will go unchallenged and unpunished. We are literally breeding criminals and this will not stop without a serious clampdown. Now.
The additional nail in the coffin for the bike community is that insurance companies are slowly pulling-out of London, as they can't afford to underwrite the cost of this mass theft culture - leaving would-be London bike owners with unaffordable insurance bills that will ultimately result in fewer people being able to own or ride a bike in the capital city.
Not only will this rob us of our transport, our freedom, and our motorcycle culture, it's also going to kill the UK motorcycle industry, because new bike sales in London are taking a massive dive, as people can't justify the rising costs and don't want their bikes stolen, especially knowing they won't be investigated or recovered - while the blight on the victim's insurance record will make them uninsurable in the future, even if they do get their bike back. Bike theft is not a "victimless crime". We are ALL victims in the end and we all pay the price for it going on unchallenged.
If we do not halt this vile epidemic of bike theft and moped crime, we'll all end-up without bikes.
So, if you live in this great city and you value your freedom to ride a bike, then f***ing do something about it. Write to your MP, the mayor and demand that we create a zero tolerance policy to moped crime, and demand that ALL Police have the power to chase ALL moped thieves and those on stolen bikes, regardless of the risk to the offenders or the public. All you need to know is at www.WeRideLondon.com. Go there and Please do something before it's all too late. Time to get militant.
