11mo ago

Our car was stolen out of our driveway in Burlington. We knew where it was. Nothing was done. This is how institutions crumble

www.therecord.com Our car was stolen out of our driveway in Burlington. We knew where it was. Nothing was done. This is how institutions crumble

My car was stolen from my driveway. Police took a report and politicians talk. Why is this the norm?

33 comments

Cuz cops aren't here to help people, they're here to defend the wealthy's assests...
People have been learning this lesson for decades, it's just most people never have to interact with police outside a rare traffic ticket.
- Yep - not u common in my shitass city these days for a couple cops to be posted at the doors of safeway, walmart, etc. full time. Me getting mugged by 5 tweakers in broad daylight? 8 hour response time. Homeless dude stealing bread to survive? Immediately arrested.
  Meanwhile the police force complains that they need more money because they don't have enough resources to do their jobs... full 1/3rd of our civic budget already. Totally fucking useless, unless you're a big brand.
  
  A lot of the time they're paid overtime rates by the company and not being paid by the city.
  They're private security but still wear cop uniforms, drive cop cars, and often sit in their cars burning gas we pay for with taxes.
  Businesses are fine paying it, because it's better than paying taxes for real policing and having to wait.
  It's moving to full on privatized policing, gated communities do the same shit rather than pay taxes.
  When this stuff happens, it never ends well for anyone, but often eventually results in sociatial progress once the ashes settle.
- The police exist to maintain the state's "monopoly on violence". Their core function is to do violence against members of a state on behalf of that state; the police are the only people with the power to wield that violence. Everything else the police do is just PR and authority creep.
  They should be stripped down to their minimum function of hurting people. People SHOULD be afraid when they see the police. People SHOULD think that nothing good can come to them from interacting with the police. All other functions should be moved to people without the power of violence.
  It's clear that some police are with me on this idea. The rest can be retrained as social workers so they can do the rest of the job we currently use police for.
- They're also not smart. The amount of work that goes into tracking target vehicles, syncing fake keyfobs, loading them into sea containers, and sending them on an international shipment to an overseas client in incredibe. This isn't being done by idiots. I can't imagine someone who got C's in highschool figuring out how it works or finding a way to stop it.

The circle remains unbroken: Police react with minimal investigation, numbers are logged. The insurance pays out and premiums are increased. There are ample thieves and buyers. The ports collect cargo fees, and many containers are unchecked when the vehicles are shipped away. The auto company makes and sells another vehicle. The politicians react. Some excuse the criminals and others excoriate the accused. They react and raise taxes.
This is the effect of crumbling institutions not the cause of it, although it reinforces the feedback loop. Keep shrinking the state by putting more of its functions into entities only responsible to their major shareholders and watch it get worse. It's been the program since the modern resurgence of market fundamentalism (neoliberalism).

Headline blame shifting again. THE POLICE did nothing.
- except end up in the Rock&Roll Hall of Fame!

Something similar happend to me in Connecticut. Some underaged kid driving her father's SUV backed into my car in a parking lot. She got out, apologized. I took a picture of her, the car and the license plate. She apologized to me and called her father who told her to get back in and drive home. It took the police 6 hours to respond, finally around 2am. They took the details and looked up the vehicle which had expired insurance. They went to the owners house, found the vehicle and knocked on the door. When no one answered (at 3am) they gave up, closed the case and told me to take it up with my insurance because they were understaffed. My insurance company tried using them for 6 months but eventually gave up as well as the police basically refused to help with anything other then the report.

Our car got stolen from out driveway in Waterdown. When we called the police they said:
Why are you calling us, call your insurance company
The neighbour's CRV was stolen 24hrs later. Police don't prevent crime they only punish those that police suspect of being a criminal (or people they just don't like). Cut their funding and put it into education, healthcare or transit.
- I work on a construction site. We have cameras everywhere. One night a bunch of guys came with a company truck and started loading up copper pipes and going through job boxes looking for tools. The police were called and they said they weren't going to come out because the guys might have weapons.
  
  Cut their funding and put it into education, healthcare or transit.
  Police are not heroes, they are thugs to keep the proles in place.

I fully support citizens stepping in to fight crime if they are willing and able.
If you knew where your stolen property was, you should have automatic legal protection for whatever it takes to get it back.
It's crazy to have a taxpayer funded criminal and legal system that isn't working for them.
- I 100% agree with this, but instead we have rulings like Khill.
  Despite the government and courts discouraging it, I hope more citizens take matters into their own hands in ways that increase the actual risk to car thieves. Perhaps the government will start taking it seriously after that.

Elected officials must take decisive action. We need stronger deterrents, enhanced enforcement resources and a clear, co-ordinated strategy. Stop reacting, please. We need a response.
Jessica doesn't know what we need. Jessica is scared and Wants Someone To Do Something. "Stronger deterrents" never work, have never worked, and we KNOW they won't work. We are already paying more for law enforcement than we can reasonably afford.
I dunno, this is fishy.

The people stalking our neighbourhoods preying on people’s success
Interesting phrase there. Whole piece was definitely overblown, but this kinda gives away the game.

Hypothetically, lets say i want my car stolen. Where should one leave it?
- Canadian cops state, leave your keys by your front door to give thieves an easier time stealing your car! Help the little man!
- Unattended & engine running in a bad town, bad part of town.

Sounds like politically induced fud. Gonna skip the article.
But if I lived somewhere that had this problem I’d be wiring-in a kill switch somewhere. No punk is gonna take the time to track it down especially if well concealed.
- Not even that, just pull a critical fuse or two.
  
  But that usually requires digging around taking stuff out and putting it back in either under the hood or down by your ankles. Inconvenient in the dark or bad weather. Can flip a concealed kill switch on/off in a second from inside.

Aww, this is so adorable 🥰

Defend your stuff with a gun, and watch how fast police respond.
Pathetic. If I had to start over, I'd go into petty theft as well, knowing how poorly it's policed.
- My buddy in Texas found a way to get an immediate police response when his car was stolen.
  He had an AirTag under the seat, so he knew exactly where it was after it was stolen. He called police, and got the runaround. They’re too busy to respond, they’ll send an officer out to take a report when they have a chance, etc…
  Then he mentioned his handgun was under the drivers seat. Police were on-site in less than 3 minutes, with multiple cruisers and guns drawn.

33 comments