Has this country had it

[mac111051]

Just makes you wonder if this country can ever be fixed
http://www.expressandstar.com/news/crim ... ton-canal/

[kwackers]

There are examples of stuff like that in any country, just doesn't make headline news.

Pretty appalling though.

[reohn2]

I ride towpaths quite a bit and I've never had a problem.
That said it sounds like an appalling attack and something that can completely ruin someone's life through fear of it happening again.
I'd say someone knows who these oinks are as they're probably local,people like that like to brag about their exploits so like scum should come upto the surface sooner or later,that's if the police are interested in catching them
The problem is what will happen if they're caught? a slap on the wrists and told not to do it again.

The question was,has this country had it?
If it's not it's gone a long way toward it.

[snibgo]

I was attacked in a similar manner last week. Nothing to do with cycling; we were all pedestrians on a road-side footway. I won't give details as I am hoping for a prosecution, but it ended with them running away from me. I was physically unharmed but am still very shakey.

I was heartened by two car drivers who stopped and offered me assistance.

The police knew who the thugs were from my description.

[thirdcrank]

I was attacked in a similar manner last week. Nothing to do with cycling; we were all pedestrians on a road-side footway. I won't give details as I am hoping for a prosecution, but it ended with them running away from me. I was physically unharmed but am still very shakey.

I was heartened by two car drivers who stopped and offered me assistance.

The police knew who the thugs were from my description.

I'm sorry to hear this. I hope you have a satisfactory result.

[al_yrpal]

Answer to the question - no! There are plenty of these scum about and the answer is to avoid the places they frequent. Unfortunately, that isn't possible for many people. We had a small group of such people here but concerted action by the police and the community curbed them and many have ended up behind bars. You hear a lot of waffle from the so called gubment about this but no action. It's only when whole communities are prepared to stand up to them in big numbers these cowards retreat.

Al

[snibgo]

For me, the best result would be that the thugs turn into decent members of society. I don't know how to achieve that. It would partly depend on why my attackers are thugs. As a woolly liberal, I fear that prison would make them more effective thugs.

Every case is different, and my sympathies go to the cyclist in the OP's link.

[thirdcrank]

For me, the best result would be that the thugs turn into decent members of society. ...

Even if that were to happen, you would probably never find out. In the meantime, "getting away with it" might make them even more confident next time, while a custodial sentence probably guarantees there will be a next time for somebody.

[Audax67]

Definitely not limited to the UK. One of the reasons we went south around Montpellier on our recent trip to Perpignan was a report of other diagonalistes being set on in the suburbs. I reckon that in the end it comes down to too many people and not enough jobs, and a sense in the less-intelligent young unemployed that they're despised and somehow victimized by older people. Years ago a neighbour of ours was held up at knifepoint in his own garden, a good 25 km north of Paris, by yobs who started their spiel with "so what have you got against the young?" before nicking his wallet: amazingly, they didn't cut him.

I doubt if things will change before the economy improves by 100% or so. And that's not about to happen.

[reohn2]

Definitely not limited to the UK. One of the reasons we went south around Montpellier on our recent trip to Perpignan was a report of other diagonalistes being set on in the suburbs. I reckon that in the end it comes down to too many people and not enough jobs, and a sense in the less-intelligent young unemployed that they're despised and somehow victimized by older people. Years ago a neighbour of ours was held up at knifepoint in his own garden, a good 25 km north of Paris, by yobs who started their spiel with "so what have you got against the young?" before nicking his wallet: amazingly, they didn't cut him.

I doubt if things will change before the economy improves by 100% or so. And that's not about to happen.

There's a saying "the devil* makes work for idle hands" I believe it to be true.

*I preferre to use the word "evil" rather than "the devil" as it personifies bad/wrong etc,therebye shifting the blaim to some unknown force.
The inability to earn one's own living in the world robs people of dignity and is therefore an evil.

[Ayesha]

Try plotting 'Thuggery' against solar flare activity.

[reohn2]

Try plotting 'Thuggery' against solar flare activity.

A bit cryptic,could you elaborate?

[Mark1978]

Perhaps that you can 'prove' a correlation between any two things which are blatantly unrelated.

[Cunobelin]

The police knew who the thugs were from my description.

Unfortunately there is a very small minority that causes most of the trouble.

When I lived in a small village near Cambridge there were two "likely lads" - if they were locked up then the Police knew that there would be no burglaries, vandalism, or other problems, but as soon as they were back out, there was need for a much higher presence.

I hate to think what they cost us in Police wages over the years

[Audax67]

Try plotting 'Thuggery' against solar flare activity.

A bit cryptic,could you elaborate?

Loose or no correlation:

http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?co ... moothing=3