No matter how careful you are....

[wurly]

....someone is out to get you......

Hi everyone
I thought you all might like to hear what happened to a work colleague of mine yesterday.
He normally drives but because of the snow, he couldn't get his car out of the drive, so he decided to cycle.
On leaving work at around 3.30pm he took a path and cycle route that avoids the town centre. It takes you around the back of a cinema and bowlplex. On the right hand side there is a sloping field where folks like to do a bit of walking.

As he approched that area he heard a bang and felt something had hit him hard on the leg. He got off his bike and looked down and felt pain from his knee. Realising he had been shot with an airifle he then went back a short distance and saw a high powered rifle with telescopic sights being put away in a bag by a couple of blokes (i say blokes because we have no idea how old or young they may have been). He thought better of challenging them, but instead shouted 'what the **** do thing think you are playing at'. Got back on the bike and went home phoned the police immediately.

To cut a long story a bit short, the police are handling the case now, but my workmate has a nice pellet shaped gash on his knee. The pellet went through some leggings and pierced his jeans. I can help thinking what damage could have happened had he been hit in the face. Also it makes me wonder if these scrotes had been taking pop shots at other folk in the area?

Man shot in Yeovil (From Yeovil Express)

 

[Synthman]

I've had this concern before as occasionally I have to ride through paths where there's plenty of good sniping positions, or go through notorious housing estates.

But anyway, that's a terrible thing to happen, I hope those people responsible get punished, but have little faith in the police and CPS to do that.

 

[fishzx7r]

Sorry to read about your friends mishap with these two yob's, that's all they deserve to be called, although I could call them much worse,

I am a e-bike rider and also a responsible airgunner, I use my gun on two local farms with the farmers permission, to control rabbit and other virmin,

these two morons are what is getting the like's of me and thousands of other responsible airgunners a bad name,

I only hope they get caught and punished for their crime,

Rob

 

[tillson]

It's highly likely that the people who shot your colleague have come to the attention of the justice system prior to this incident. If they have, it's even more likely that they will have been treated with a level courtesy and leniency which they thoroughly don't deserve. To the mind of this kind of filth, societies benevolence is interpreted as an endorsement of their behaviour. Because their experience at the hands of the justice system didn't cause them pain, they think it's ok to continue offending.

You have to remember that we aren't dealing with normal human beings here. These people are a foul corruption, in possession of only four emotions, hunger, pain, a need to reproduce and a desire to hurt others. The only way in which they can be stopped is by putting them in a place where they are not physically able to inflict themselves on other people. If the emphasis within the prison system was changed from one of rehabilitation, (which is ridiculous and clearly doesn't work) to one of long term storage. Then we might start to make some progress. There is no reason why the current prison capacity could not be increased 10 fold without building any new prisons. If the mentally ill, such as members of The Howard League objected, we could put them in prison too!

When you hear and experience the kind of wrong doings posted by the OP, it can make you want to react in the way I have described above. The Daily Mail way.

In reality, all that we can do is to try our best to find the people responsible, treat them in a way in which we would want to be treated ourselves and hope that they mend their ways. Sometimes it works, other times it doesn't. But we should try.

 

[allen-uk]

Tillson: no, it's not just you right-wing loonies who think in those terms. There are in fact many on the 'hard' left who see the current system of policing and punishment as leaning far too much in favour of the offenders (me included, i.e. as a leftie, not an offender).

But you really can't preach the rest of your nonsense, and I would have expected more from a man of your age and experience.

Without The Howard League for Penal Reform and the many other brave souls over the past centuries, we would still have flogging, burning of women/hanging of men for forgery, slavery, child-labour, branding, transportation... you name it (every crime against humanity, that is), and 'we', the loony left, have fought against it and mostly won.

As for the young gits with the air-rifles, yes the police should have the power to find them, take them round the back, etc., and the courts should be able to sentence them to some meaningful community labour (fixing pot-holes, maybe). But be careful how much power you give to The Authorities. On previous occasions in the past century, they've been given an inch, and taken away more than a few liberties.


Allen.

 

[Alex728]

in reality these incidents are rare compared to the amount of air weapons in circulation, and cops do not sit on their backsides - its just that many folk to shy away from bad news and don't read the crime stories all the way through "from report to Court" - and don't notice things such as armed response vehicles as well as local bobbies in their streets. I once wanted to be a crime reporter so keep a close watch on the crime in the South and East of the UK.

BTW here in Suffolk if someone so much as waves a BB gun around there are armed units on scene, they also tend to be on standby for all domestics in the rural areas since the incidents up North...

Dealing with people holding dangerous weapons in an "anti-police" area isn't that easy as youth often have a "don't grass" culture. It requires the combined work of CID, Safer Neighbourhood Teams and the Firearms Unit, as well as covert monitoring of places like Facebook, Bebo etc.

For obvious reasons not all the methods used are reported to the Press, especially as the cops themselves don't want to create not just fear but escalate an arms race, as people sometimes feel they can "do a better job" and want to take matters into their own hands.

Yes there are some psychos around, but they would still be there if you brought back hanging, the birch etc, Actually they have all these things in my parents country (Malaysia) and their violent crime is worse in poorer areas as the crims know the stakes are higher.

But these psychos aren't as common as people think, its just that one can do a lot of damage and often bullies others into following him, but deep down they are hated. So the only option to the cops is to try and get his "mates" to dob the gunman in.

Often these yobs are bullies, who are involved in other stuff like animal cruelty, domestic violence, wanton property damage, starting fights in licensed premises/on the night time economy.

In doing these things they make enemies, and even crims have boundaries - for instance they might think its OK to beat someone who ripped them off for drugs money, but shooting a cyclist is "going too far". So places like Crimestoppers do a good job picking up the bits of evidence from folk who would not normally talk to the cops. It might all seem like "softly softly" stuff compared to "Life on Mars" days older people remember, but it still results in the worst people being caught.

 

[Straylight]

BTW here in Suffolk if someone so much as waves a BB gun around there are armed units on scene, they also tend to be on standby for all domestics in the rural areas since the incidents up North...

Yes, but you're talking about an area where the other night a colleague of mine was stopped in her car because the police thought it 'noteworthy' that she was driving after midnight! She's from London and thought the whole thing hilarious.

But what you say is true with regard to the isolated nature of such incidents, and they're not a symptom of any recent 'broken society' the same thing happened to me in Hitchin 30 years ago, when I was riding my cousin's bike in a park (aged 8).

 

[Alex728]

Yes, but you're talking about an area where the other night a colleague of mine was stopped in her car because the police thought it 'noteworthy' that she was driving after midnight! She's from London and thought the whole thing hilarious.

Its not just "Sleepy Suffolk" - a lot of the drugs taken in the area come in via drivers coming from London and are brought into the rural villages this way, using cars and people which go against popular stereotypes of what a drug trafficker "should" look like. Or the other way round - a shipment brought in from the coastal areas destined for the M25 region - with a "social visit" being the cover for the courier driver. Quite often its women from their late 20s-50s (sometimes older!) with connections to London/SE England (one such woman was busted in Ipswich recently in connection with a big coke deal).

Its even possible the ANPR flagged up her numberplate as "out of area" so they thought it worth a random check.

the "quiet" nature of this region hides all sorts of rum business...

At least it means anyone willing to use a long gun in anger here is extremely unlikely to bother with firing upon a cyclist they have never met before (they would instead have an actual target in mind) - all the firearms incidents I remember since moving here (only two shootings) have been linked to the urban music/drugs culture in town and are amongst those who drive flash motor cars rather than ride bikes...

 

[allen-uk]

I think the point is this:

Most of us here being civilised people see the overall problem as twofold.

One: to have a large enough, disciplined police force that is able to jump on antisocial behaviour immediately, backed up by a court system that will make punishments effective.

Two: to have effective social control over both the police and judiciary so that human rights are not impinged by their activity.

It is a fine balance to achieve, not helped by the regular swings to the lunatic right or left.

A

 

[Alex728]

One: to have a large enough, disciplined police force that is able to jump on antisocial behaviour immediately, backed up by a court system that will make punishments effective.

Two: to have effective social control over both the police and judiciary so that human rights are not impinged by their activity.

by and large they achieve this here... for instance despite being a young Asian lad riding a fast e-bike with panniers at all hours of the day and night, I'm not subjected to unwanted attention from the Police (I suspect though they can see me on CCTV for much of my journey and know that its just my journey to and from work, and occasionally the pub - (which is not exactly a hotbed of Islamic activity )

But people (particularly younger folk) complain that this area is "boring", especially as nightlife has been restricted since the shootings and the prostitute murders because all were found linked to the drugs/music/nightlife culture.

Kudos to both the cops and Straylights friend for not needlessly escalating the situation with the random stop check, but I know loads of people who would have bleated about "human rights" in this situation....

 

[tillson]

But you really can't preach the rest of your nonsense, and I would have expected more from a man of your age and experience.

I agree with you allen-uk, a lot of what I wrote was deliberate nonsense, but I did temper my words, a bit, at the end.

 

[Old Timer]

When I was young a copper smacked you one around the ear if you stepped out of line and if you went home crying to your dad he gave you one around the other ear taught me at a very young age to tow the line.

Just recently took one of our old cats in for an xray( 17 years old) and apart from other things they picked up on a air gun pellet in his abdomen. Poor little bugger, not sure how long that had been inbedded but not very nice for him.
Good job I don`t know who did it or I might be up on a charge for GBH.

Dave

 

[allen-uk]

Tillson: just re-read your message about which I had ranted; abject apologies, I missed the irony (always a danger on the interweb, and when reading too fast).

Dave: if you find the buggers who shot your cat, let me have ten minutes with them, too.


Allen.

 

[NRG]

A friend of mine thought his cat had been bitten by a dog but when x-rayed found it had been shot. The pellet couldn't be removed but the cat was OK and recovered....

 

[wurly]

Interesting comments.
My thoughts are, that it was a couple of youths, one with the gun and 'egged on' by the other to take a pop shot at the tyres but missed.
They had probably been mis-using the gun all afternoon, so goodness knows where pellets may have been fired.
I have never liked firearms and i see no need for people to have them unless a specific requirement (pest control etc). Having said that as a youth myself i owned a air pistol and i will state that i did mis-use it (not shooting cats/dogs or amimals though).It was confiscated by my father.
Are kids are worse these days, i doubt it very much. But one thing is sure, we did fear the Police and Authorities. It seems that is not the case anymore.
I'll see him tomorrow and find out the latest.

 

[allen-uk]

What happened to Synthman's post about shoving air-rifles up offenders' rectums (recta?) etc.? Who censored you, Synthman?

A

 

[Synthman]

Nobody censored me mate. I deleted the post myself as I felt maybe it wasn't appropriate.