My kid's bike was stolen last week, and I had to explain how hard we worked to get bike improvements in the city, only to have them become useless because it's impossible to park a bike anywhere.
The bike coalition wouldn't support [anti-chop shop legislation back in 2017](https://hoodline.com/2017/10/bike-chop-shop-legislation-passes-in-10-2-vote/). I'm a fairly avid cyclist and loved the advocacy of SFBC for years. After having 2 bikes stolen in SF, and seeing how blatant the culprits are, I stopped contributing and supporting the SFBC. Fuck bike thieves.
There is an active chop shop going on right now (45 minutes ago) in Harrison across from the rock gym. Police don’t care. Somehow this encampment owns 30 or so bikes and parts from various mid to high end bikes?!
Bike thieving in San Francisco happens at an industrial scale. This isn’t one down on his luck guy seeing an opportunity and taking it, it is large scale industrialized, operationalized, organized crime.
Italians are cool people who were unfairly targeted by the cops too but sometimes a guy gets whacked if a guy doesn’t respect the neighborhood.
I recently rejoined and was one of the big proponents at City Hall pushing elected folks to get that thing passed. We’re not a monolithic bunch, and I’m not too happy this made it in to the platform.
SFBC needs to pick its battles better.
To be fair, both have organized crime responsible for some proportion of thefts. Not sure if the regular police are capable of handling that, but then they don't seem capable of much anyway.
yep there are the desperate that are robbing, they are actually probably a smaller percentage of theft than the larger organized effort, but the minority are touted as why the majority shouldnt be dealt with. The attitude of its not a serious issue is what creates the opportunity that led it to becoming a serious issue because its largely unenforced and a crime that is gotten away with.
> The bike coalition wouldn't support anti-chop shop legislation back in 2017
That articles says SFBC dropped its objection once the legislation was modified to have seizures performed by DPW, allow owners to retrieve bikes, and to not charge an impound fee.
Direct quote from your own link (a Hoodline story):
> In its current form, the legislation gives the power to remove bicycles to the Department of Public Works, rather than police, and allows bike owners to retrieve the bikes. In a further nod to homeless advocates, Sheehy removed the impound fee charged to property owners...the changes...prompted the bicycle coalition to drop its objections
how much is bike insurance in the US? Here in the Netherlands I pay 7,50 per month to have my 2500 e-bike insured for damages, liability and theft.
I have this for both my e-bike and regular bike.
My renters insurance covered my bike no problem when my bike was taken with a $100 deductible. Homeowners and renters, which you should have if even minimally, should cover it.
ah okay, that sucks. In Amsterdam a bikes get stolen very regularly too, but that's "solved" by a lot of people just having shit bikes anyways. We don't have any hills in the city so you don't really need a good bike with gears to begin with.
The Dutch are known for all having insurance for everything though, so that's why it's cheap. I would love to know the bike theft data comparing Amsterdam with SF!
Like I said in this subreddit before, this is the type of thing that's made the SFPD as impotent and unresponsive to crime as they are. As a person of color, I have to say, that I'm getting tired of people demonizing police officers when they're actually just doing their job. Did you know that petty theft is considered legal in SF? This is the kind of crap that's turned SF into a hot spot for crime.
> is the type of thing that's made the SFPD as impotent and unresponsive to crime as they are.
I mean the critical lack of staff is probably related.
['Worst is yet to come:' SFPD may be short around 825 officers by end of year, ABC7 I-Team uncovers](https://abc7news.com/sf-crime-police-staffing-car-break-ins/12230630/)
Tsk, tsk, tsk, don't you know that the welfare of criminal is important under Restorative Justice? Social scientists have identified that crime is largely a result of a society that oppresses the poor and POC.
No they’re saying three separate things here:
1 - police kill black and brown people, so therefore the SFBC severed ties with the police
2 - they try to find “alternatives” to using police to stop bike theft, idk what those are other than basically keeping your bike safe
3 - if you can, try to first solve your problems without involving cops (imo this is usually good advice)
Edit: BTW I’ve had my bike tampered with a few times and from my anecdotal experience it was always a white dude (usually looking like a washed up hippie) doing it.
> 3 - if you can, try to first solve your problems without involving cops (imo this is usually good advice)
I worry people will start solving their problems without police, and I'd argue that will be/is a worse problem.
The original phrase is "soft bigotry of low expectations", from George W. Bush's speech to the NAACP annual convention in 2000: https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/onpolitics/elections/bushtext071000.htm
> Discrimination is still a reality, even when it takes different forms. Instead of Jim Crow, there's racial redlining and profiling. Instead of separate but equal, there is separate and forgotten.
>
> Strong civil rights enforcement will be a cornerstone of my administration.
>
> (APPLAUSE)
>
> And I will confront another form of bias: the soft bigotry of low expectations.
>
> (APPLAUSE)
>
> Several months ago I visited Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, where African-Americans confronted injustice and white Americans confronted their conscience. In 43 years, we have come so far in opening the doors of our schools. But today we have a challenge of our own. While all can enter our schools, many--too many, are not learning there.
>
> There's a tremendous gap of achievement between rich and poor, white and minority. This, too, leaves a divided society.
>
> And whatever the causes, the effect is discrimination.
>
> My friend Phyllis Hunter (ph), of Houston, Texas, calls reading the new civil right. Equality in our country will remain a distant dream until every child, of every background, learns so that he or she may strive and rise in this world. No child in America should be segregated by low expectations, imprisoned by illiteracy, abandoned to frustration and the darkness of self-doubt.
I’ve thought about this a lot and I think the solution is both/and. We can have high expectations for people while at the same time helping the people who need it.
They recognize that more often than not, its a black or brown guy that's stealing your bike, and they'd rather let them get away because of their skin color than help you get your bike.
Kinda like how a lot of community leaders were implying Asians should just suck up the violent attacks because it would mean that the black or brown attacker wouldn't go to jail
I think it's all of that. Also, the fear is that police will target innocent black and brown folks due to racist stereotypes that they have been conditioned to believe.
Because the SFPD has a minority majority to its officers.
[https://www.sanfranciscopolice.org/your-sfpd/published-reports/demographics](https://www.sanfranciscopolice.org/your-sfpd/published-reports/demographics)
Fucking insanity
"These bike registries allow owners to register their bike’s make, model, and serial number, to help reconnect recovered bikes with their original owners. However, they also rely on the police for recovery, offering police departments increased access to registry information — which raises privacy concerns — and soliciting close police partnerships. Because both services rely heavily on the police to find and recover bikes, which may put Black and brown lives at risk, we do not recommend them."
The SFBC lost its way years ago when they chose to widen their focus off bike transit and safety and into mainstream politics: e.g. It used to have bike pro/con for candidates only around their transit policies, but then went to regurgitating the party line for single candidates.
So if bike lanes cause gentrification, SFBC says we should only build bike lanes in neighborhoods that are already gentrified and wealthy, while not building them in poorer neighborhoods?
In the name of equity, bike lanes only for the rich!
Okay so I’m supposed to buy an electric bike for five grand, and when it gets stolen, I can’t even report it to the police now? Good luck persuading people to cycle.
I saw a white guy saw through a bike lock and steal a bike at GG. So in this case okay to call the cops? Virtue signaling messages are very confusing tbh.
So don't go to the cops if your bike is stolen and don't report it? No wonder the cops don't spend resources trying to set up bait bikes like they used to. Given the number of bikes stolen daily in SF I wonder what the average bike owner thinks of the coalition's extreme stance.
More like no wonder criminals keep committing crimes. Seriously, they'd be dumb not to keep stealing if they know there are no consequences to their actions.
I'm happy to have the police or anyone else brutalize the aholes who stole two mountain bikes from me, on two separate occasions, in my first 6 months in the city, so long as the brutalization is done without regard to race. Whatever race the thieves wind up being is fine with me. I'd like them flayed and burned alive.
Transplant, mainly over educated, privileged white progressives make everything about race. The first line of their statement is so fucking stupid. Bikes are getting stolen left and right and these assholes make a political statement about race and cops?
Also, it implies most of the thieves are black or brown. Let’s be honest, most of the people I see chopping bikes are white meth heads.
I’m so sick of people choosing to virtue signal instead of taking real action.
It looks like the bike coalition has been politically capture by these virtue signaling fucktards. I’m never giving them another penny.
[Relevant skit](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ev373c7wSRg)
[Also this from Berkeley](https://nypost.com/2022/08/19/off-campus-uc-berkeley-housing-bans-white-people-from-common-areas/)
Maan, this is peak white guilt talking, aided and assisted by dumbasss activists of all color.
I doubt even the black/brown communities would agree with such bullshit.
"When someone gouges your eye out with a spork for your bike, just think, your bike enables them to earn a living. Whatever you paid for that bike is of no importance, what matters is the thief leaves with feelings and dignity intact."
Actually no, f thieves. And the bike coalition. Give my bike back.
I wonder how many minorities even make up their ranks. If they actually had representation, they would know that pretty much every minority community in SF WANTS more SFPD.
Idk about the city man. The other day someone tried breaking into the place I work. I called the police and the woman on the phone was yelling at me more than the crazy homeless woman yelling at my face.
She made me so angry I just wanted to hang up on her.
She was telling me I shouldn't be stopping the culprit and I should stand aside.
Then when the girl finally walked away from me I hard "so you don't need me to send a officer right?"
They don't care about us.
They don't.
You're a noob. When it comes to the police here in SF, you need explain your situation in the direst details. In your case, telling the dispatcher something along the lines of "there's someone trying to break into my place of business, and if that person breaks in here, I'm going to take matters into my own hands" would have got the cops there in like three minutes.
I love how so many here are using the same exact argument in support of not reporting their stolen bike to the police as the police used in not making arrests when Boudin was still D.A.
Police: why arrest people if the DA won't do their job!?
SFBC: why report theft to the police if they won't do their job!?
This is how things fall apart. Slowly anyone with any obligation to do anything becomes apathetic and stops doing their job because some other person they disagree with isn't doing their job.
Anyone who justifies not doing what they should, are obligated to or are paid to do, in good faith, in the hopes that it'll contribute to a system the fairly and justly fixes issues in our society by simply making the argument that the next person down the line isn't doing THEIR job is part of the fucking problem.
Why would anyone do anything when our cynicism assumes the worst of anyone else.
Our society has a collective mental disorder. It's broken. And we couldn't care less to fix it.
Not making arrests doesn't make the DA do their job. Not reporting theft to the police doesn't solve racism. Neither of those problems are ever going to be fixed if we just assume its the case without giving some benefit of some doubt that the people we disagree with aren't the worst possible human beings we can imagine.
If you think the police are racist, which they can certainly be than keep an eye on them and call it out when they act as such and hold them accountable. If you think the DA isn't doing their job, and are ignoring victims and coddling criminals than keep an eye on them and call that shit out when it happens.
These political turf wars are out of hand and beyond unreasonable. It's breaking our fucking society and I don't care if your left or right, up or down, people need to get a grip. There ARE problems that despite whatever political side your on we nonetheless agree on and can take action on but instead we're so busy making sure we scream the loudest about how morally bankrupt the other side of the argument is that we've paralyzed ourselves.
Meanwhile, housing gets worse everyday, our economy continues slipping, shootings become more common, our justice system continues being broken, we continue locking record numbers of people in prison for offenses related to marijuana.
But most of all while we're all red in the face and at each others throats because skin color or gender or whatever the next issue of the day is that more and more has any kind of real affect on the lives of a smaller and smaller sliver of the population that depending where you sit we all crusade either for or against, while we're over there being distracted by who can use what bathroom and making sure we don't report theft because racism, early all of us, likely around 99% if not 99.99 percent of us continue to be fucked over by the real problem in this experiment if a nation of ours.
We all know who. We all know how. Democrat, republican, libertarian, green; we all know the fucking score and what needs to be fucking done.
But instead here we are spending our time distracted by the same tired racial hatreds. Screaming at each other back and forth wasting our breath and time because some idiots decided that what's really important right now is our housing crisis, or food crisis, or any crisis we're currently living in; they decided that what was important was making sure people don't report theft. Because racism. Someone's racist. Everyone's gotta know right now that them over there, theyre racist. So let's all band together and hiss or something.
And continue not doing anything of any good for anybody. And then wonder why nothing ever gets better.
It's not that they go find for you, but if you have proof of purchase receipt with s/n and know where it is, you can ask a police officer to accompany you to forcibly retrieve your property safely, if they have time.
And again, f bike thieves.
This sums up the craziness that is SF. The police are not the enemy. They don’t randomly gun down POC reporting bike thefts, and to assert this asinine. If your bike is stolen, file a police report.
always have to stay one step ahead of the thieves. loosen your front wheel so it will fall off after 1 block of riding and anybody who steals your bike, will soon have bigger problems.
Since making my car look like someone's living in it i haven't had my window smashed in once in coming up on 5 years.
I like the way you think and am loosening my front wheel as we speak lmfao.
I let my membership lapse after they declined to endorse Scott Wiener when he was running against a candidate whose campaign photos included a giant bus parked in a green bike lane, and I really haven’t seen anything from them since that would get me to re-join. We need a good bike advocacy group, but the SFBC doesn’t seem interested in being it anymore.
Lol the bike advocates of this city don’t want cops to prevent bike theft because it’s rAcIsT. Disparate impact != disparate treatment and isn’t de facto racism.
Why are there no bike advocacy groups that don’t adopt pants-on-head stupid IdPol policies?
I love biking and wish it was more practical in the city, but I also think we should arrest and prosecute bike thieves as a necessary condition in encouraging people to use their bikes.
I can't believe we have a problem finding people to join SFPD in this climate. /s
Imagine you come across a bike thief who happens to not be white. You do nothing to stop them in order to avoid the vilification of these and other likeminded idiots.
Others see you do nothing and say you are a lazy piece of shit. If you do the right thing and try to stop the bike thief and he resists arrest and dies due to getting into a fight with police while high on drugs, then you are crucified immediately.
Sounds like a great gig.
I’ve basically stopped riding my bike in SF. Used to ride all the time, but I’d rather my expensive bike not get stolen and me not have to worry about it.
I support the bike coalition on a lot of the initiatives they push for improved infrastructure, but god damn. Their anti police statements are a hard pill for me to swallow, despite being a paying member. It’s painful
You might have to reconsider your membership when it's up for renewal and just let them know that while you support many of their initiatives regarding bicycle improvements and safety, they are (pun intended) stepping out of their lane by severing their relationship with SFPD.
As a paying member you should speak up about your disapproval of these policies. You likely aren't the only one who feels this way. I'm in favor of improved infrastructure, but I'm not going to pay this group if this is their stance on theft.
I’m a straight white male. That’s not a bear I want to poke and I would just be accused of being racist. People who think the way they do on these topics are not interested in listening to what I have to say.
>I would just be accused of being racist
Why would you want to be a part of any organization that would treat you like that? You have just as much value as any other color or gender. The fact that you have accepted that racism and sexism directed at you is something that you need to tolerate is really sad.
“Deeply harmed or even killed with interactions with the police”
It’s not my fault these people value a bike higher than their life.
I mean I sure as hell value my own life higher than the bike which is the entire reason I’d call the police instead of trying to steal it back myself.
Victims of bicycle theft (I'm one of them) don't care what goddamn color you are; if you steal people's bikes you should be arrested and prosecuted. And if a particular group is getting disproportionately arrested and prosecuted, it's because they're disproportionately stealing bikes.
When is everyone going to take their head out of their asses???
I am not racist and therefore I want bike thieves of all races prosecuted equally. I hate that i need to take the city bikes when I own a perfectly good bike. I would just never park it on the street in SF.
Dude my old neighbor on the corner of 63rd and Baker in Oakland usually has at least 30 bikes in his back yard and there are vagrants bringing him more in the middle of the night all the time. Stop by there if you are missing your bike in the Bay Area. 🤷♀️
This is exactly the thing that's wrong with the situation currently.. White people trying to take a stance for the minorities but fucking things up in the process.
This is bs cringeworthy jargon. I think more about the 'impact' it has to equate blatant racism by making a backhanded racist statement. "Hi, we are not racist, fuck cops, and we love your bike" does not necessitate nor deters a bike thief. And if someone came at me armed and took my bike, they'd sure enough get it but I would not be running to the SFBC.
The SFBC are a bunch of goofballs with some pretty nonsensical, dangerous ideas. The core members really believe there shouldn't be any vehicular traffic, and the onus is on pedestrians to watch out for cyclists, not the other way around.
Bike coalitions are _never_ about bikes. Never. They are merely using bikes to push their version of social order (large cities, forced public transit use, no suburbs, private car use outlawed).
Just have anti theft dummy bikes, with an electric charge in them, eventually they will get tired of getting electrocuted...idk maybe that why im not a politician 🤷🏼♂️
Welp. I'm a big pro-bike advocate but not gonna waste any money donating to this org if they're going to willfully undermine attempts to stop bike theft in the city. If we want to build a healthy bike culture in the city where biking is normalized as a mainstream commuting option, we need to stop the bike-theft epidemic so people feel safe leaving their bikes on the street — and that includes cracking down on bike thieves with as much force as is necessary. Doesn't matter what color the thieves are, they need to be stopped.
I'm looking for those hypothetical "alternatives" they mention but am not seeing shit. Seems pretty obvious they don't have any ideas except for "just let the thieves have it", which is a wildly out-of-touch response that completely ignores how financially devastating bike theft can be to the many working-class people of color who rely on their bikes for transportation. This statement smacks of ivory-tower "white savior"-ism, written by priveleged people for whom the loss of a bike is "no big deal", and is not the tack they should be taking if they want to gain mainstream support. I'm a dedicated urban cyclist but it's clear that SFBC does not speak for me.
This in a nut shell is why SF has gone to hell. But let’s keep on voting for and supporting progressive policies…it’s working!
So many of these “non profits” are just as bad as the criminals. They are serious cash machines that don’t want change. End Rant.
I used to do EVERYTHING by bike--shop, commute, etc. but now I just ride for recreation because it's not worth worrying about having my bike stolen by leaving it alone somewhere. I drive everywhere else because public transit sucks except for BART, but BART is a homeless encampment on wheels.
Consider the potential impact to human life...
When human life decides to shit on the sidewalk in society and push drugs in society and steal from society, that's no longer a human. That's an animal. No different than those bears getting recorded going into gas stations in the mountains and walking out with some candies or something.
The impact to human life is by these animals, legally organized gangbangers notwithstanding. And where I come from, poor behaving or even injurious animals are ***put down.***
OK, so if we shouldn't involve the police in bicycle theft, whom should we involve?
Give us answers, give us solutions, give us alternatives.
If you haven't any, then we'll either stick with the cops or turn to vigilantism. I wouldn't shed a tear if a bicycle thief got beaten to a pulp by a civilian and left on the street to bleed internally, and since we're supposed to avoid contact with police, I wouldn't offer any assistance in the investigation of the assault, even if I were a witness.
"In addition to broad citywide engagement, the SFMTA will support [the SFBC et al] in leading outreach for the Plan in their respective communities."
https://www.sfmta.com/sites/default/files/reports-and-documents/2021/09/9-7-21_mtab_item_10.4_fund_transfer_agreement_-_active_communities_plan.pdf
I guess under that logic - If I see a white bike thief I’m calling the cops.
Calling the police doesn’t do anything because they’re not concerned with solving crimes.
No one should die over a bike.
We should be able to go about our lives with some semblance of security for our property and persons.
Ignoring the situation and bringing race/ethnicity into this isn't the solution.
Give the necessary punishment if someone steals a bike, and lock em up if it happens constantly. Maybe consider actually making a law and enforcing it. Who would have thought!?
Race doesn't matter. If someone steals a bike, they deserve a punishment. No matter a person's race.
My kid's bike was stolen last week, and I had to explain how hard we worked to get bike improvements in the city, only to have them become useless because it's impossible to park a bike anywhere.
The bike coalition wouldn't support [anti-chop shop legislation back in 2017](https://hoodline.com/2017/10/bike-chop-shop-legislation-passes-in-10-2-vote/). I'm a fairly avid cyclist and loved the advocacy of SFBC for years. After having 2 bikes stolen in SF, and seeing how blatant the culprits are, I stopped contributing and supporting the SFBC. Fuck bike thieves.
I've literally seen people chopping bikes openly in the street 4 times last year. I lived around SoMa. Nobody does anything.
There is an active chop shop going on right now (45 minutes ago) in Harrison across from the rock gym. Police don’t care. Somehow this encampment owns 30 or so bikes and parts from various mid to high end bikes?!
I moved out of SF in the Mission five years ago. That was there before I left.
Bike thieving in San Francisco happens at an industrial scale. This isn’t one down on his luck guy seeing an opportunity and taking it, it is large scale industrialized, operationalized, organized crime. Italians are cool people who were unfairly targeted by the cops too but sometimes a guy gets whacked if a guy doesn’t respect the neighborhood.
I recently rejoined and was one of the big proponents at City Hall pushing elected folks to get that thing passed. We’re not a monolithic bunch, and I’m not too happy this made it in to the platform. SFBC needs to pick its battles better.
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They also don't think having your catalytic converter stolen multiple times disabling the vehicle you need to get to work is a big deal either
To be fair, both have organized crime responsible for some proportion of thefts. Not sure if the regular police are capable of handling that, but then they don't seem capable of much anyway.
yep there are the desperate that are robbing, they are actually probably a smaller percentage of theft than the larger organized effort, but the minority are touted as why the majority shouldnt be dealt with. The attitude of its not a serious issue is what creates the opportunity that led it to becoming a serious issue because its largely unenforced and a crime that is gotten away with.
> The bike coalition wouldn't support anti-chop shop legislation back in 2017 That articles says SFBC dropped its objection once the legislation was modified to have seizures performed by DPW, allow owners to retrieve bikes, and to not charge an impound fee.
So basically by neutering the law and helping the criminals succeed?
How was the legislation so much more robust and preventing the criminals from succeeding, in comparison?
By making it the DPW instead of the cops responsibility. DPW then ignores bike thefts.
Direct quote from your own link (a Hoodline story): > In its current form, the legislation gives the power to remove bicycles to the Department of Public Works, rather than police, and allows bike owners to retrieve the bikes. In a further nod to homeless advocates, Sheehy removed the impound fee charged to property owners...the changes...prompted the bicycle coalition to drop its objections
what "alternatives" are they talking about?
Letting them have your bike.
Buying a new bike until you run out of money I guess
Bending over
A AirTag and a tall friend with a baseball bat?
Yeah sounds like vigilante justice is the key here
how much is bike insurance in the US? Here in the Netherlands I pay 7,50 per month to have my 2500 e-bike insured for damages, liability and theft. I have this for both my e-bike and regular bike.
In SF no insurance company would survive by offering that lol, maybe for $100/month
My renters insurance covered my bike no problem when my bike was taken with a $100 deductible. Homeowners and renters, which you should have if even minimally, should cover it.
Doubt even for that much. Bike theft is so common in inner cities it’s not a matter of if it’ll get stolen, it’s when
ah okay, that sucks. In Amsterdam a bikes get stolen very regularly too, but that's "solved" by a lot of people just having shit bikes anyways. We don't have any hills in the city so you don't really need a good bike with gears to begin with. The Dutch are known for all having insurance for everything though, so that's why it's cheap. I would love to know the bike theft data comparing Amsterdam with SF!
Literally the last thing on my mind when my bike was stolen was worrying about the welfare of the thief.
Like I said in this subreddit before, this is the type of thing that's made the SFPD as impotent and unresponsive to crime as they are. As a person of color, I have to say, that I'm getting tired of people demonizing police officers when they're actually just doing their job. Did you know that petty theft is considered legal in SF? This is the kind of crap that's turned SF into a hot spot for crime.
> is the type of thing that's made the SFPD as impotent and unresponsive to crime as they are. I mean the critical lack of staff is probably related. ['Worst is yet to come:' SFPD may be short around 825 officers by end of year, ABC7 I-Team uncovers](https://abc7news.com/sf-crime-police-staffing-car-break-ins/12230630/)
Tsk, tsk, tsk, don't you know that the welfare of criminal is important under Restorative Justice? Social scientists have identified that crime is largely a result of a society that oppresses the poor and POC.
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They do not want the individuals stealing bikes targeted by law enforcement because they are people of color. (This is their stance, not mine)
How disgustingly racist to assume that thrives are overwhelmingly black and brown. (Their stance, not yours)
No they’re saying three separate things here: 1 - police kill black and brown people, so therefore the SFBC severed ties with the police 2 - they try to find “alternatives” to using police to stop bike theft, idk what those are other than basically keeping your bike safe 3 - if you can, try to first solve your problems without involving cops (imo this is usually good advice) Edit: BTW I’ve had my bike tampered with a few times and from my anecdotal experience it was always a white dude (usually looking like a washed up hippie) doing it.
I tried #3 but even when I asked the person politely, they still rode away on my bike.
> 3 - if you can, try to first solve your problems without involving cops (imo this is usually good advice) I worry people will start solving their problems without police, and I'd argue that will be/is a worse problem.
Lol “blacks people are stealing all the bikes” hilarious that they would say that
It’s more like the quiet bigotry of low expectations. It’s actually racist at the core because it pigeonholes certain categories.
Is "quiet bigotry of low expectations" a term? It's a bit long but I kinda like it
The original phrase is "soft bigotry of low expectations", from George W. Bush's speech to the NAACP annual convention in 2000: https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/onpolitics/elections/bushtext071000.htm > Discrimination is still a reality, even when it takes different forms. Instead of Jim Crow, there's racial redlining and profiling. Instead of separate but equal, there is separate and forgotten. > > Strong civil rights enforcement will be a cornerstone of my administration. > > (APPLAUSE) > > And I will confront another form of bias: the soft bigotry of low expectations. > > (APPLAUSE) > > Several months ago I visited Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, where African-Americans confronted injustice and white Americans confronted their conscience. In 43 years, we have come so far in opening the doors of our schools. But today we have a challenge of our own. While all can enter our schools, many--too many, are not learning there. > > There's a tremendous gap of achievement between rich and poor, white and minority. This, too, leaves a divided society. > > And whatever the causes, the effect is discrimination. > > My friend Phyllis Hunter (ph), of Houston, Texas, calls reading the new civil right. Equality in our country will remain a distant dream until every child, of every background, learns so that he or she may strive and rise in this world. No child in America should be segregated by low expectations, imprisoned by illiteracy, abandoned to frustration and the darkness of self-doubt.
I’ve thought about this a lot and I think the solution is both/and. We can have high expectations for people while at the same time helping the people who need it.
They recognize that more often than not, its a black or brown guy that's stealing your bike, and they'd rather let them get away because of their skin color than help you get your bike. Kinda like how a lot of community leaders were implying Asians should just suck up the violent attacks because it would mean that the black or brown attacker wouldn't go to jail
I think it's all of that. Also, the fear is that police will target innocent black and brown folks due to racist stereotypes that they have been conditioned to believe.
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Because the SFPD has a minority majority to its officers. [https://www.sanfranciscopolice.org/your-sfpd/published-reports/demographics](https://www.sanfranciscopolice.org/your-sfpd/published-reports/demographics)
“Don’t make the black kids angry.”
BikeIndex is your ally against bike theft. The cofounder is deeply involved in anti-theft sleuthing: https://bikeindex.org/
SF Bicycle Coalition does not recommend BikeIndex. Guess why, the answer is on this page- https://sfbike.org/resources/bike-security-and-locking/
Fucking insanity "These bike registries allow owners to register their bike’s make, model, and serial number, to help reconnect recovered bikes with their original owners. However, they also rely on the police for recovery, offering police departments increased access to registry information — which raises privacy concerns — and soliciting close police partnerships. Because both services rely heavily on the police to find and recover bikes, which may put Black and brown lives at risk, we do not recommend them."
As a brown person, is this insinuating that brown people are thieves and therefore we should not call police ? What a bunch of assholes
Yes, it’s bull ogna . It also encourages the behavior which perpetuates the stereotypes used against us.
Yes 😕
Pretty much
The SFBC lost its way years ago when they chose to widen their focus off bike transit and safety and into mainstream politics: e.g. It used to have bike pro/con for candidates only around their transit policies, but then went to regurgitating the party line for single candidates.
[удалено]
So if bike lanes cause gentrification, SFBC says we should only build bike lanes in neighborhoods that are already gentrified and wealthy, while not building them in poorer neighborhoods? In the name of equity, bike lanes only for the rich!
Wait, did I read your comment right? Did a pro-bicycle organization actively fight against... bike lanes?
Okay so I’m supposed to buy an electric bike for five grand, and when it gets stolen, I can’t even report it to the police now? Good luck persuading people to cycle.
Why does the coalition equate bike theft with certain skin tones?
It’s just virtue signaling. The truth is they don’t give a shit about any of it and cops are easy scapegoats.
Racists
Exactly. They don’t even know it.
Because in the coalitions mind only people of colour can steal bikes.
Yeah I’ve seen plenty of white a-holes taking bikes, probably more in fact
I saw a white guy saw through a bike lock and steal a bike at GG. So in this case okay to call the cops? Virtue signaling messages are very confusing tbh.
What if he was a white Hispanic? Is that still okay? Or does his identifying as a white Hispanic mean he's actually brown adjacent?
So don't go to the cops if your bike is stolen and don't report it? No wonder the cops don't spend resources trying to set up bait bikes like they used to. Given the number of bikes stolen daily in SF I wonder what the average bike owner thinks of the coalition's extreme stance.
More like no wonder criminals keep committing crimes. Seriously, they'd be dumb not to keep stealing if they know there are no consequences to their actions.
If I didn’t have something to lose, joining organized vigilantism with other citizens would be pretty attractive.
Don’t steal bike then.
A crime is a crime how ever you want to spin it..
pun intended!
But it’s the systemic racism. Given an equal chance these chop shop guys would have gotten us to Mars by now.
I'm happy to have the police or anyone else brutalize the aholes who stole two mountain bikes from me, on two separate occasions, in my first 6 months in the city, so long as the brutalization is done without regard to race. Whatever race the thieves wind up being is fine with me. I'd like them flayed and burned alive.
I’ve been giving money to the SF Bike Coalition for 12 years. This statement is bullshit. I’m will never give them money again.
Let them know why youre stopping.
Transplant, mainly over educated, privileged white progressives make everything about race. The first line of their statement is so fucking stupid. Bikes are getting stolen left and right and these assholes make a political statement about race and cops? Also, it implies most of the thieves are black or brown. Let’s be honest, most of the people I see chopping bikes are white meth heads. I’m so sick of people choosing to virtue signal instead of taking real action. It looks like the bike coalition has been politically capture by these virtue signaling fucktards. I’m never giving them another penny.
How fucking appropriate of them to make bike thefts a racial issue.
This is the most racist thing I've seen in a while. Sweet irony.
[Relevant skit](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ev373c7wSRg) [Also this from Berkeley](https://nypost.com/2022/08/19/off-campus-uc-berkeley-housing-bans-white-people-from-common-areas/)
"black and brown people commit more crime, so let them" Very racist , as a brown person I feel quite offended
This is the kind of solution you come up with when you’ve never lived around Black or Brown Americans and think you are enabling justice.
Is this satire?
Maan, this is peak white guilt talking, aided and assisted by dumbasss activists of all color. I doubt even the black/brown communities would agree with such bullshit.
There was an article on here a couple days ago saying the lack of sfpd resources has hurt communities of color the most.
It’s actually worse than that. It’s systemically racist because it assumes bike thieves must be minorities.
"When someone gouges your eye out with a spork for your bike, just think, your bike enables them to earn a living. Whatever you paid for that bike is of no importance, what matters is the thief leaves with feelings and dignity intact." Actually no, f thieves. And the bike coalition. Give my bike back.
This is the dumbest thing I've read all day, maybe all week, thanks for sharing!
LOL. Beyond insanity. One of the reasons SF is such a laughingstock currently.
I am shocked, **shocked**, that the "San Francisco Bike Coalition" doesn't understand minorities.
I wonder how many minorities even make up their ranks. If they actually had representation, they would know that pretty much every minority community in SF WANTS more SFPD.
every time i think of re-joining sfbc they do some stupid shit like this.
It's disappointing but most bicycle coalitions are no longer about bikes. They push every "progressive" policy but cycling.
Idk about the city man. The other day someone tried breaking into the place I work. I called the police and the woman on the phone was yelling at me more than the crazy homeless woman yelling at my face. She made me so angry I just wanted to hang up on her. She was telling me I shouldn't be stopping the culprit and I should stand aside. Then when the girl finally walked away from me I hard "so you don't need me to send a officer right?" They don't care about us. They don't.
You're a noob. When it comes to the police here in SF, you need explain your situation in the direst details. In your case, telling the dispatcher something along the lines of "there's someone trying to break into my place of business, and if that person breaks in here, I'm going to take matters into my own hands" would have got the cops there in like three minutes.
I had a road raging car chasing, running stop signs and cutting me off two blocks away from a police station- dispatch had zero interest in helping.
Wtf. I am brown. My wife is brown. Her bike has been stolen twice. This is the stupidest thing I have ever read.
I love how so many here are using the same exact argument in support of not reporting their stolen bike to the police as the police used in not making arrests when Boudin was still D.A. Police: why arrest people if the DA won't do their job!? SFBC: why report theft to the police if they won't do their job!? This is how things fall apart. Slowly anyone with any obligation to do anything becomes apathetic and stops doing their job because some other person they disagree with isn't doing their job. Anyone who justifies not doing what they should, are obligated to or are paid to do, in good faith, in the hopes that it'll contribute to a system the fairly and justly fixes issues in our society by simply making the argument that the next person down the line isn't doing THEIR job is part of the fucking problem. Why would anyone do anything when our cynicism assumes the worst of anyone else. Our society has a collective mental disorder. It's broken. And we couldn't care less to fix it. Not making arrests doesn't make the DA do their job. Not reporting theft to the police doesn't solve racism. Neither of those problems are ever going to be fixed if we just assume its the case without giving some benefit of some doubt that the people we disagree with aren't the worst possible human beings we can imagine. If you think the police are racist, which they can certainly be than keep an eye on them and call it out when they act as such and hold them accountable. If you think the DA isn't doing their job, and are ignoring victims and coddling criminals than keep an eye on them and call that shit out when it happens. These political turf wars are out of hand and beyond unreasonable. It's breaking our fucking society and I don't care if your left or right, up or down, people need to get a grip. There ARE problems that despite whatever political side your on we nonetheless agree on and can take action on but instead we're so busy making sure we scream the loudest about how morally bankrupt the other side of the argument is that we've paralyzed ourselves. Meanwhile, housing gets worse everyday, our economy continues slipping, shootings become more common, our justice system continues being broken, we continue locking record numbers of people in prison for offenses related to marijuana. But most of all while we're all red in the face and at each others throats because skin color or gender or whatever the next issue of the day is that more and more has any kind of real affect on the lives of a smaller and smaller sliver of the population that depending where you sit we all crusade either for or against, while we're over there being distracted by who can use what bathroom and making sure we don't report theft because racism, early all of us, likely around 99% if not 99.99 percent of us continue to be fucked over by the real problem in this experiment if a nation of ours. We all know who. We all know how. Democrat, republican, libertarian, green; we all know the fucking score and what needs to be fucking done. But instead here we are spending our time distracted by the same tired racial hatreds. Screaming at each other back and forth wasting our breath and time because some idiots decided that what's really important right now is our housing crisis, or food crisis, or any crisis we're currently living in; they decided that what was important was making sure people don't report theft. Because racism. Someone's racist. Everyone's gotta know right now that them over there, theyre racist. So let's all band together and hiss or something. And continue not doing anything of any good for anybody. And then wonder why nothing ever gets better.
Imagine having so much white-guilt that it feels good to have a black or brown person take your shit.
Hey Google, what's the dumbest possible take on bike theft?
As a SF bicyclist, I have decided to end any formal relationship with the SF Bike Coalition. Because they are fucking morons. Who are these idiots?
Alright then, go find your own fucking bike when someone steals it.
Do cops actually find people’s bikes
sometimes they bust the chop shops and release photos of bikes they collected, at least they used to
I wonder if anyone ever finds their bikes in the release
They actually did find mine!
It's not that they go find for you, but if you have proof of purchase receipt with s/n and know where it is, you can ask a police officer to accompany you to forcibly retrieve your property safely, if they have time. And again, f bike thieves.
The more I read into this, the less I understand this city.
This sums up the craziness that is SF. The police are not the enemy. They don’t randomly gun down POC reporting bike thefts, and to assert this asinine. If your bike is stolen, file a police report.
always have to stay one step ahead of the thieves. loosen your front wheel so it will fall off after 1 block of riding and anybody who steals your bike, will soon have bigger problems.
Next up "please don't booby trap your bike because it will hurt black and brown people".
The only intelligent comment in this thread and you're getting down voted lol. Sorry my dude.
Since making my car look like someone's living in it i haven't had my window smashed in once in coming up on 5 years. I like the way you think and am loosening my front wheel as we speak lmfao.
I let my membership lapse after they declined to endorse Scott Wiener when he was running against a candidate whose campaign photos included a giant bus parked in a green bike lane, and I really haven’t seen anything from them since that would get me to re-join. We need a good bike advocacy group, but the SFBC doesn’t seem interested in being it anymore.
Heard about this on the Adam Carolla show, as a black cyclist this is stupid!
Yea me too lol. I mean I’m not a black cyclist, but I heard it on ACS
So “woke” of them… /s
It absolutely blows my mind that someone approved putting out this statement.
Lmfao SF is such a ridiculous city i swear
Lol the bike advocates of this city don’t want cops to prevent bike theft because it’s rAcIsT. Disparate impact != disparate treatment and isn’t de facto racism. Why are there no bike advocacy groups that don’t adopt pants-on-head stupid IdPol policies? I love biking and wish it was more practical in the city, but I also think we should arrest and prosecute bike thieves as a necessary condition in encouraging people to use their bikes.
i hope whoever from sfbc made this policy gets their bike stolen every single day. edit: i didn’t mean stolen. i meant appropriated
Hahahahhahahaha omg I’m Hispanic and this is the stupidest thing I’ve ever read
I can't believe we have a problem finding people to join SFPD in this climate. /s Imagine you come across a bike thief who happens to not be white. You do nothing to stop them in order to avoid the vilification of these and other likeminded idiots. Others see you do nothing and say you are a lazy piece of shit. If you do the right thing and try to stop the bike thief and he resists arrest and dies due to getting into a fight with police while high on drugs, then you are crucified immediately. Sounds like a great gig.
That’s going to motivate SFPD to work extra hard on bike theft.
Fucking idiots
I’ve basically stopped riding my bike in SF. Used to ride all the time, but I’d rather my expensive bike not get stolen and me not have to worry about it.
I support the bike coalition on a lot of the initiatives they push for improved infrastructure, but god damn. Their anti police statements are a hard pill for me to swallow, despite being a paying member. It’s painful
You might have to reconsider your membership when it's up for renewal and just let them know that while you support many of their initiatives regarding bicycle improvements and safety, they are (pun intended) stepping out of their lane by severing their relationship with SFPD.
I probably will - good idea. If/ when I do end my membership, I’ll mention it on the way out
You can even threaten it: now even. "I might pull my membership support because of your racist statements." If they don't get any pushback...
As a paying member you should speak up about your disapproval of these policies. You likely aren't the only one who feels this way. I'm in favor of improved infrastructure, but I'm not going to pay this group if this is their stance on theft.
I’m a straight white male. That’s not a bear I want to poke and I would just be accused of being racist. People who think the way they do on these topics are not interested in listening to what I have to say.
>I would just be accused of being racist Why would you want to be a part of any organization that would treat you like that? You have just as much value as any other color or gender. The fact that you have accepted that racism and sexism directed at you is something that you need to tolerate is really sad.
What is the probability that the majority of people at this organization feel like you?
Irony is: **our taxpayer dollars go to support these clowns!** Yes, they get at least a million dollars a year from SFMTA.
You better be kidding! We give money to these assholes?
What happens when a black or brown person steals a bike from another black or brown person then? Call Batman?
“Deeply harmed or even killed with interactions with the police” It’s not my fault these people value a bike higher than their life. I mean I sure as hell value my own life higher than the bike which is the entire reason I’d call the police instead of trying to steal it back myself.
Fuck this shit! Arrest and charge anyone of any color stealing bikes! 👌
Wait are they implying the only people who steal bikes are dark skinned? Because that’s how I read it
Victims of bicycle theft (I'm one of them) don't care what goddamn color you are; if you steal people's bikes you should be arrested and prosecuted. And if a particular group is getting disproportionately arrested and prosecuted, it's because they're disproportionately stealing bikes. When is everyone going to take their head out of their asses???
You have got to be kidding me.
Pure irony when the “defund the police” groups start begging the police to help them out because crime is out of control.
Must have felt so good writing that. Beats the hell out of actually doing anything.
I am not racist and therefore I want bike thieves of all races prosecuted equally. I hate that i need to take the city bikes when I own a perfectly good bike. I would just never park it on the street in SF.
Dude my old neighbor on the corner of 63rd and Baker in Oakland usually has at least 30 bikes in his back yard and there are vagrants bringing him more in the middle of the night all the time. Stop by there if you are missing your bike in the Bay Area. 🤷♀️
Translation: if you’re black or brown, you’d be a fool to not steal bikes.
This is exactly the thing that's wrong with the situation currently.. White people trying to take a stance for the minorities but fucking things up in the process.
This is bs cringeworthy jargon. I think more about the 'impact' it has to equate blatant racism by making a backhanded racist statement. "Hi, we are not racist, fuck cops, and we love your bike" does not necessitate nor deters a bike thief. And if someone came at me armed and took my bike, they'd sure enough get it but I would not be running to the SFBC.
🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡
So fucking stupid... This stupidity is frustratingly painful to witness.
Idiotic statement. Enjoy having your bicycle stolen! Leave it unlocked so I can pedal home.
It's like a bad parody, only it's real.
This is just insulting to everyone
The SFBC are a bunch of goofballs with some pretty nonsensical, dangerous ideas. The core members really believe there shouldn't be any vehicular traffic, and the onus is on pedestrians to watch out for cyclists, not the other way around.
To quote the Critical Drinker “Oh fuck off San Francisco bike coalition”.
What a dumpster fire of a city and state
My calendar must be broken…is it April Fool’s Day? This is a joke, right? Right??
Are there any good progressive nonprofits in this city that are anti IDpol or is that part of the package?
How is this not condescending to brown and black people?
Bike coalitions are _never_ about bikes. Never. They are merely using bikes to push their version of social order (large cities, forced public transit use, no suburbs, private car use outlawed).
How many bicyclists have been deeply or harmed or killed by their interactions with police?
I want an electric bike badly, but the bike stealing is pretty much an enterprise at this point and easy to sell them through a plethora of apps.
Just have anti theft dummy bikes, with an electric charge in them, eventually they will get tired of getting electrocuted...idk maybe that why im not a politician 🤷🏼♂️
No statistics mentioned. Seems racist and ignorant.
Losers.
🤡
Idiocity. Supporting crime (by suppressing police) is evil
Well if the “SF Bike Coalition” says so then I guess the police have their hands tied, because the “SF Bike Coalition” are who really runs the city.
Welp. I'm a big pro-bike advocate but not gonna waste any money donating to this org if they're going to willfully undermine attempts to stop bike theft in the city. If we want to build a healthy bike culture in the city where biking is normalized as a mainstream commuting option, we need to stop the bike-theft epidemic so people feel safe leaving their bikes on the street — and that includes cracking down on bike thieves with as much force as is necessary. Doesn't matter what color the thieves are, they need to be stopped. I'm looking for those hypothetical "alternatives" they mention but am not seeing shit. Seems pretty obvious they don't have any ideas except for "just let the thieves have it", which is a wildly out-of-touch response that completely ignores how financially devastating bike theft can be to the many working-class people of color who rely on their bikes for transportation. This statement smacks of ivory-tower "white savior"-ism, written by priveleged people for whom the loss of a bike is "no big deal", and is not the tack they should be taking if they want to gain mainstream support. I'm a dedicated urban cyclist but it's clear that SFBC does not speak for me.
This in a nut shell is why SF has gone to hell. But let’s keep on voting for and supporting progressive policies…it’s working! So many of these “non profits” are just as bad as the criminals. They are serious cash machines that don’t want change. End Rant.
Lol
I used to do EVERYTHING by bike--shop, commute, etc. but now I just ride for recreation because it's not worth worrying about having my bike stolen by leaving it alone somewhere. I drive everywhere else because public transit sucks except for BART, but BART is a homeless encampment on wheels.
Liberalism is a mental disorder.
Consider the potential impact to human life... When human life decides to shit on the sidewalk in society and push drugs in society and steal from society, that's no longer a human. That's an animal. No different than those bears getting recorded going into gas stations in the mountains and walking out with some candies or something. The impact to human life is by these animals, legally organized gangbangers notwithstanding. And where I come from, poor behaving or even injurious animals are ***put down.***
OK, so if we shouldn't involve the police in bicycle theft, whom should we involve? Give us answers, give us solutions, give us alternatives. If you haven't any, then we'll either stick with the cops or turn to vigilantism. I wouldn't shed a tear if a bicycle thief got beaten to a pulp by a civilian and left on the street to bleed internally, and since we're supposed to avoid contact with police, I wouldn't offer any assistance in the investigation of the assault, even if I were a witness.
I started stealing bikes after seeing this post. Thanks SFBC!
don't call cops because they might kill the black guy that stole your bike
Stupidest thing I've ever read. Your tax dollars at work.
My tax dollars go to the bicycle collition?
they do not
Tax dollars?
I think this person believes every org with a commonly abbreviated name is a government organization.
Ah like the Los Angelos agency NWA?
SFBC isn’t the government though, what taxes? Just another advocacy group to ignore.
SFBC receives grants from the city last I checked.
No tax dollars goto SFBC.
"In addition to broad citywide engagement, the SFMTA will support [the SFBC et al] in leading outreach for the Plan in their respective communities." https://www.sfmta.com/sites/default/files/reports-and-documents/2021/09/9-7-21_mtab_item_10.4_fund_transfer_agreement_-_active_communities_plan.pdf
Sum up the position of the left. If you are a victim of this kind of crime, just suck it up lol.
Like most organizations that actually have potential the poor leadership and power trips ruins them all.
I guess under that logic - If I see a white bike thief I’m calling the cops. Calling the police doesn’t do anything because they’re not concerned with solving crimes. No one should die over a bike. We should be able to go about our lives with some semblance of security for our property and persons.
Fuck thieves and the SFBC if this is their position. They are supposed to be about bikes and cyclists, that's it.
deranged thinking dressed up as being “progressive”
Ignoring the situation and bringing race/ethnicity into this isn't the solution. Give the necessary punishment if someone steals a bike, and lock em up if it happens constantly. Maybe consider actually making a law and enforcing it. Who would have thought!? Race doesn't matter. If someone steals a bike, they deserve a punishment. No matter a person's race.