So why don't we call the police?

[Fragony]

Or the cliniclowns?

Well this guy can tell you. As you know the PS3 has hit europe, at midnight the shops opened and people were lining up to grab there nice and shiny playstation. It is not unusual that these things atract those that like shiny but hate paying for it, it is just a matter of waiting untill a suffiently weak specimen leaves the store, hit him on the head and run of. Well and that happened. Poor guy stumbles into the shop, bleeding and all that, and what does a good shopkeeper do? Call the police of course! Not only that, he felt sorry for the guy and gave him a new ps3.

Ok, guess what happens next.

1) police catches the guy after a heroic chase
2) police catches fever and is even more useless then they ussualy are
3) police fines shopkeeper because he didn't ask permision to open shop at 12

Any dutchman will know the correct answer, how about you

[CountArach]

Oh God... Assuming it is number 3... That is just aweful...

Fight the establishment!

[Fragony]

Congrats

I heard some countries have a policeforce, here we have dissobedience-tax. I can rape an entire boychoir and win a two week holiday at the state-resorts, but never eat a croissant in the train if you know what's good for you

[BDC]

Congrats

I heard some countries have a policeforce, here we have dissobedience-tax. I can rape an entire boychoir and win a two week holiday at the state-resorts, but never eat a croissant in the train if you know what's good for you

Damn right too. Those crumbs are hard to clean up, but the choir will be fine after mere decades of councilling.

[CountArach]

I heard some countries have a policeforce, here we have dissobedience-tax. I can rape an entire boychoir and win a two week holiday at the state-resorts, but never eat a croissant in the train if you know what's good for you

*adds to list of things to do*

The croissant you sick minded people...

[Geoffrey S]

Word. Also, never fart when being searched.

[Cronos Impera]

Disobedience-tax? What is that?

[Kralizec]

Any but the most clueless of shop-owners know that there's pretty strict regulation here on when you can run your store. As far as I know there's nothing to suggest that the police made no effort to catch the robber.
A non-issue.

Besides, the robbery shows one of the reasons why it isn't a good idea to have an open shop at night.

[Husar]

What a weird decision is that?
Sounds like they took the easy way out because sitting in their chairs all day long made them unable to chase a criminal.

Besides, the robbery shows one of the reasons why it isn't a good idea to have an open shop at night.

Robberies can also happen at daytime. The bad thing here is that robbers get away too often while policemen are busy following regulations and filling out forms. If the stolen things aren't worth a million, they often give up early anyway.

[Adrian II]

Never eat a croissant in The Netherlands tour court if you know what's good for you. And Italian boys' choirs are a lot more seductive. Maltese police will actually run after a robber, pity they can't afford ps3's over there. Ah, the grass is always greener...

*smacks Fragony*

[Fragony]

Disobedience-tax? What is that?

I have to include some rabid populist lingo, otherwise they don't believe I wrote it.

[Kralizec]

What a weird decision is that?
Sounds like they took the easy way out because sitting in their chairs all day long made them unable to chase a criminal.


Robberies can also happen at daytime. The bad thing here is that robbers get away too often while policemen are busy following regulations and filling out forms. If the stolen things aren't worth a million, they often give up early anyway.

I repeat, I haven't seen anything that says or suggests that the police didn't go after the robber. If you have, show me.

The shop-owner should have known that he was breaking the law and has no reason whatsoever to whine about it. If he asked a permit like he was supposed to there'd be no problem, and the police could have been more alert on robberies (or you'd have good reason to accuse them of not doing their job)

The fact that cops give some cases of theft more priority then others has less to do with laziness and more with cost-benefit considerations. Spending hundreds of man-hours to solve every petty theft equals pissing away tax money.

[Fragony]

priority

There it is,



sorry couldn't resist, it's true though.

[Andres]

3) police fines shopkeeper because he didn't ask permision to open shop at 12

Well, it's not because A commits a robbery that B can open a shop without permission... Both are infractions.

As for priorities, it seems like the Belgian police force has the same priorities as the Dutch one...

I even have first-hand experience : a 50,00 € fine for driving 10 km's too fast on an empty highway on New Year's Eve

[Louis VI the Fat]

Yearly, two million traffic accidents result in 120,000 deaths and 2.5 million injured people in Europe.

Damn right the police should clamp down on speeding and drunken driving. They're the number one cause of mortality for people under the age of 35.

I'd give it much, much higher priority. It's a carnage of such mind-bogglingly high numbers that it resembles a civil war between reckless men who think they have a God-given right to establish their machoness everywhere and everybody else.



[/rant]

[InsaneApache]

Are these the Policemen you're on about?

[Crazed Rabbit]

Well, it's not because A commits a robbery that B can open a shop without permission... Both are infractions.

As for priorities, it seems like the Belgian police force has the same priorities as the Dutch one...

I even have first-hand experience : a 50,00 € fine for driving 10 km's too fast on an empty highway on New Year's Eve

Is that a 50 euro fine for going 6mph over? Sheesh! I guess they needs to pays for theirs donuts.

Here in the US, speeds are generally set too low on roads in the country, leading to rampant speeding often unchecked by cops. Of course, tis not the speeders so much as idiots at intersections you need to worry about.

Crazed Rabbit

[Andres]

Yearly, two million traffic accidents result in 120,000 deaths and 2.5 million injured people in Europe.

Are they caused by speeding an sich or by reckless driving? There is a difference imo. I don't see how driving 10 km's too fast, at night, on an empty highway can cause any danger (and I wasn't drunk that night, it was before I went out, after the party, my wife drove, sober).

Off course, it's easier to catch somebody who is speeding than somebody who drives dangerous, i.e. passing somebody on the right, cut somebody on the highway, not keeping enough distance at moderate or high speed, using the mobile phone whilst driving, fatigue (which can result in falling asleep whilst driving) etc, etc...

I agree 100 % on the drunken driving though.

[Husar]

I repeat, I haven't seen anything that says or suggests that the police didn't go after the robber. If you have, show me.

I haven't, but a chase wasn't mentioned either.

The shop-owner should have known that he was breaking the law and has no reason whatsoever to whine about it. If he asked a permit like he was supposed to there'd be no problem, and the police could have been more alert on robberies (or you'd have good reason to accuse them of not doing their job)

Well, that's right, he should have gotten the permission.

The fact that cops give some cases of theft more priority then others has less to do with laziness and more with cost-benefit considerations. Spending hundreds of man-hours to solve every petty theft equals pissing away tax money.

That's very nice, but also means that those who cannot always afford to get a replacement for what was stolen will be left with nothing while others who could easily afford to replace the stolen goods, get more help. Which is very anti-Robin Hood.

I also agree with Louis, very well said, but police, as most other "agencies" is usually underfunded.

And IA, those videos were hilarious.

[BDC]

I also agree with Louis, very well said, but police, as most other "agencies" is usually underfunded.

Agencies like police just eat up money. However much they get, they can use.

[Louis VI the Fat]

Are they caused by speeding an sich or by reckless driving? There is a difference imo. I don't see how driving 10 km's too fast, at night, on an empty highway can cause any danger (and I wasn't drunk that night, it was before I went out, after the party, my wife drove, sober).

I don't know how the numbers break down into different categories. But I think the number of traffic accidents that are truly an 'accident', as in an unfortunate string of events that nobody could've prevented is rather small.

Imagine for a second, that all airbags were removed from cars. And in their place a steel spear would be attached, connected to the bumper and aimed at the heart of the driver. How many accidents caused by cars would occur under these circumstances? Quite a few less, I'd imagine.

Now, I realise that a reasonable flow of traffic is a necessity for a functioning society, but I think the balance is swung too towards indulging motorists right now. The most frustrating thing is, that what really is happening on the streets, is a war of macho terrorists against everybody else.

It is the biggest, most deadly war that's waged on the planet:

Road traffic accidents—the leading cause of death by injury and the tenth-leading cause of all deaths globally—now make up a surprisingly significant portion of the worldwide burden of ill-health. An estimated 1.2 million people are killed in road crashes each year, and as many as 50 million are injured

With numbers ranging in the millions, you wonder if the invention of mororised transport isn't going to have an evolutionary effect. Misplaced bravoura and testosteron may well exterminate its proponents.

I do not know your driving style, Andres. Maybe you're a respectful, safe driver. And I understand your frustration with getting this ticket.
There is one thing though: when a road appears empty, usually it turns out it was indeed. But it's also true that most who've caused an accident were also quite convinced that the road was clear.

/ Sorry for hijacking this thread. It is simply one of my pet peeves. Too often I've heard that the police should prioritise and be less concerned with writing traffic tickets, and that they should fight real crime instead of motorists. When, in my book, traffic violations are far more important than petty theft.

[Adrian II]

The most frustrating thing is, that what really is happening on the streets, is a war of macho terrorists against everybody else.

Dear Louis, are you advocating a war on motorism?

[Louis VI the Fat]

Dear Louis, are you advocating a war on motorism?

Yes, we need a WoM.

I could make a call for a sensible policy towards traffic accident prevention, but a good second language speaker knows that to sound natural one has to apply the cultural idiom of the foreign language too.

[Adrian II]

Yes, we need a WoM.

You're either with us, or you're oncoming!

[Ice]

This is hilarious. I don't know what's more funny, a man being fined for opening his shop to the public whenever he pleases or getting fined 50 euros for driving 6 mph over the speed limit on an empty highway on New Year's Eve.

[Kralizec]

You're saying no such restrictions exist in the USA?

[Crazed Rabbit]

I don't know of any laws regulating when stores can operate (except liquor stores).

We do have speed limits, though, and plenty of traffic cops who go around ticketing and fining people for little infractions. Usually though, no one pulls you over unless you're going 5mph over at the very least, often you have to be going 10 mph over before they pull you over. It depends on if the cop is just driving around or waiting with a radar gun to catch someone.

Crazed Rabbit

[Csargo]

Well, it's not because A commits a robbery that B can open a shop without permission... Both are infractions.

As for priorities, it seems like the Belgian police force has the same priorities as the Dutch one...

I even have first-hand experience : a 50,00 € fine for driving 10 km's too fast on an empty highway on New Year's Eve

Hard to believe he wasn't sleeping Andres.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Agencies like police just eat up money. However much they get, they can use.

Replace "police" with ANY government-provided service/bureacracy and this sentence still holds true.

[Xiahou]

I don't know of any laws regulating when stores can operate (except liquor stores).

We do have speed limits, though, and plenty of traffic cops who go around ticketing and fining people for little infractions. Usually though, no one pulls you over unless you're going 5mph over at the very least, often you have to be going 10 mph over before they pull you over. It depends on if the cop is just driving around or waiting with a radar gun to catch someone.

Crazed Rabbit

My state may vary from others, but State Troopers generally don't bother you unless you're going at least 10mph over the limit. Local cops trying to drum up revenue may try to get away with more in the small towns though(if you know the law, you can give the cop a real hard time in court for busting you for <10mph though.). Regardless, I think most traffic enforcement is setup around revenue rather than driver safety- Louis' graphs are there own refutation. If writing speeding tickets really make for safer roads, why do so many still die? We'd be much better off targeting and severely punishing aggressive driving behavior instead of minor speed limit infractions. Of course, that would require such a sea change in the law enforcement/legal community that I doubt it will ever happen.

As to store hours, it should be a purely business decision. If it's worthwhile for a store to stay open for business at all hours, they should be permitted to do so.