Married couple arrested for planting "bait bikes" then beating thieves with baseball bats

This ain’t entrapment.

It’s assault, battery, and properly all sorts of illegal, but it’s not entrapment anymore than a cop not telling you he’s a cop is.

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My objection is that they went too far. A scare I would have been 100% behind, but when you’re beating them bloody with cudgels you’ve crossed the line.

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Ugh.

If you catch someone in the act of robbing you, then I can fully understand the urge to kick their ass.

But setting up a ‘honeypot’ to catch would-be thieves and opportunists?

That’s a dick move, yo.

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I read it as the “blood in the street” that was bothersome. You know, that is yucky. And the screaming of the thieves made it hard to sleep. Other than that, they were fine neighbors.

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Plenty of hate to go around. I also fault the po-po, for ignoring bike theft, and Youtube, for being so huge it can’t be bothered to notice when crimes are being broadcast on its service.

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I disagree. Not stealing shit from people is an option, and if you decide to fuck with someone like that, my sympathy for you will be very limited.

There is a strong pragmatic argument for enforcing the law against vigilantes to preserve rule of law, but people’s willingness to leave things to the law rather than taking matters into their own hands ultimately depends on the general effectiveness of the legal system at taking care of things. I the case of thefts like this, that is very often not the case, and, unless the legal system starts treating it seriously (actually working to catch the culprits, and keeping them off the street) I don’t really see any ethical reason that people shouldn’t be taking things into their own hands.

Here’s an article about a case where someone has been caught red handed stealing from over 40 neighbors, and the legal system still won’t do anything about it.

Car break-ins are rampant in my neighborhood, and the justice system has done nothing to fix that either.

In simple terms, if the legal system won’t stop thieves from going around victimizing people, you can’t expect them to just keep on sitting there, sucking it up forever.

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I hate thieves as well, but the “baseball bat/blood on the street every night” angle is a wee bit much for me.

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Which is why bicycle thieves should carry guns, so they can practice a little self defense in case a couple of lunatics with bats come at them while they are working.

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And count themselves lucky they didn’t run out to deliver a beating and found they’d brought baseball bats to a gunfight…

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At least if they did that, the legal system would actually pay attention, and track them down.

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I’d rather live next to bike thieves than people who enjoy beating the shit out of people.

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Antonio and Bruno concur

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OK, everybody in this story is an asshole.

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I think in most of the US, you can legally shoot someone who is attacking you with a deadly weapon, even if they are attacking you for stealing their stuff. (If they aren’t a police officer.) So as long as the bicycle thieves didn’t flee the scene, and possessed their guns legally, and were white, they’d be fine.

And the homicide detectives aren’t going to bother with attempted bike theft.

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Welcome to the suburbs!

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Savannah has definitely been getting fashion tips from Elizabeth Holmes.

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Married couple arrested for planting “bait bikes” then beating thieves with baseball bats

Oh they must be originally from New Jersey.

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No, because that protection doesn’t exist if you are committing a crime. If anyone, even your accomplice, is killed in the course of you committing a crime, even if it wasn’t you that killed them, you’re still legally on the hook for it.

It’s called the felony murder doctrine:
“ n. a rule of criminal statutes that any death which occurs during the commission of a felony is first degree murder , and all participants in that felony or attempted felony can be charged with and found guilty of murder .”

Also, if you’re carrying a gun when you commit theft, in the absence of very clear video evidence to the contrary, it would probably be considered armed robbery.

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Thats true for fake guns where I live, too.

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Go ‘way. Baitin’.

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