Confronted a Bike Thief Today. Police were more upset that I confronted the individual than they were about the stolen bike.

I believe you on this. I stopped on my bike to refill my water bottle and a homeless guy stole my bike. He didn't get far and I caught up to him. Just happened to have a cop in the area . I told him what was going on but he didn't want to make an arrest. He's like what for , you got your bike back. I think he didn't want stinky in his squad car.

that bike not worth the pension risk. those cop(s) will retire early 50 something on full salary for life w/ healthcare while the rest of us who had their bikes stolen will be on the trader joes website applying for jobs, hoping to sneak home expired eggs & milk from the dumpster after closing.

Dead Serious wrote:

You're my hero wrote:

If you want to be a cop then go enroll at the academy.

Otherwise just behave like a responsible citizen and let the police do their job.

Do you think I acted responsibly? Seriously.

You did not act responsibly. In college, I caught a waterpolo player (alongside two other guys from the waterpolo team) riding my brother's bike a week after it was stolen.

I shoved him off the bike and to the ground and called him a little b'tch. He was so surprised that a scrawny distance runner would act like that he just watched as I took the bike back and rode away. His friends just laughed at him and made no attempt to intervene.

That is how you should have acted. Put your damn gun away, you freakin p*ssy.

Threatening to shoot a guy is a far more serious crime than stealing a bike. You arr far more of a threat to the neighborhood than he is.

If you pull a gun, it will be interpreted as a death threat by a lot of people, and some will defend themselves accordingly.

You're my hero wrote:

If you want to be a cop then go enroll at the academy.

Otherwise just behave like a responsible citizen and let the police do their job.

Not sure if this is a troll or not....

I’m 100% pro guns but you can’t be the police unless you are the police. Nobody needs to be shot over a stolen bike, and especially if it’s not even your bike that was stolen. That thief is a POS, but we can’t have joe citizen doing proactive police work using lethal force.

However, if they are in your home, that’s a different story. You have every right, if not a duty to defend yourself and family.

back woods wrote:

Threatening to shoot a guy is a far more serious crime than stealing a bike. You arr far more of a threat to the neighborhood than he is.

If you pull a gun, it will be interpreted as a death threat by a lot of people, and some will defend themselves accordingly.

We agree on this. I did not threaten him with a gun because he stole a bike. I showed him my gun because he threatened me and continued to walk towards me after I told him to stop and wait for the police.

Had he - at that point - decided to make it a life and death conflict... well, I am glad we didn't have to find out.

Bad Wigins wrote:

Dead Serious wrote:

I got in new racing flats today

say no more.

you race in flats => you run long distance reasonably fast => you are skinny

you walk around the neighborhood with a concealed firearm + you are skinny => you are a skinny adult with an inferiority complex due to your skinny stick arms. This complex leads you to irrational thoughts such as

bikes were stolen in my neighborhood + there's a guy riding a bike => that guy must be the bike thief

a possibly angry guy is approaching me => I have the right to escalate the confrontation with threats of deadly force

where you should start is to undo all the fantasizing about shooting people or other compensations for your physical inferiority that you've undoubtedly done ad nauseam for years, maybe decades. Not good thoughts.

Not exactly.

My decision to carry a gun has nothing to do with my size. A bullet will kill a big dude and a small dude alike. And I had a picture of the guy; I realize you were joking about this part, but I didn't flag him down just because he was riding a bike.

He escalated by walking towards me. Before that, we were talking from a driveway to the middle of the street. When he started coming towards me, I told him to stop (twice, I think). Only when it looked like he was going to keep coming did I show him my pistol.

Fwiw, the officer didn't seem to care about the gun part; only that I stopped him in the first place. I believe I handled that part exactly right. If I DID let him get close enough for a physical encounter, it is possible he could have grabbed the gun if it fell out. That wasn't a risk I was willing to accept.

Look in the Mirror wrote:

Learn the Dictionary wrote:

Showing is not "brandishing".

Federal law defines brandished as, “with reference to a dangerous weapon (including a firearm) means that all or part of the weapon was displayed, or the presence of the weapon was otherwise made known to another person, in order to intimidate that person, regardless of whether the weapon was directly visible to that person. Accordingly, although the dangerous weapon does not have to be directly visible, the weapon must be present.” (18 USCS Appx § 1B1.1)

The only point of contention here is "in order to intimidate that person". I feel that I did it to avoid a physical confrontation, not to, for instance, intimidate him to stay in one place until the cops showed up.

It would be an interesting legal interpretation, I think. (Or maybe you are 100% right. No idea.)

I applaud your courage but the best thing you could have done is to be the eyes and ears of the police department. You could have written down the guys plate number and taken it to the PD. The chance that you could be wrong could be ugly and could have led to a fight or at least a complaint against you. Detectives would have appreciated your submitting the plate number and then they could question the man legally and more safely. It would have been a good arrest by the detectives and many of their arrests are done after investigation so it's not like the guy would have gotten away free.

Dead Serious wrote:

back woods wrote:

Threatening to shoot a guy is a far more serious crime than stealing a bike. You arr far more of a threat to the neighborhood than he is.

If you pull a gun, it will be interpreted as a death threat by a lot of people, and some will defend themselves accordingly.

We agree on this. I did not threaten him with a gun because he stole a bike. I showed him my gun because he threatened me and continued to walk towards me after I told him to stop and wait for the police.

Had he - at that point - decided to make it a life and death conflict... well, I am glad we didn't have to find out.

¨showing¨ a gun is ¨threatening¨ with a gun. There is no difference. Letting someone know you are carrying a gun during a confrontation is letting them know you might use it, and that's a threat.

If you confront someone while carrying a gun you are acting as if you're a police officer. If you shot and killed him you might have faced some charges which could cost $100,000+ in legal fees and even if you were acquitted, you might find that killing someone, in a situation you initiated, could have a negative effect on the rest of your life.

The risk you shouldn't have been willing to take was confronting him in the first place.

Wow, I didn't realize letsrun has so many p***ys. OP, you acted completely correctly. We need more citizens like you. I'm sorry to hear the police officer you encountered was lazy.

Skwodockkeoslc wrote:

Wow, I didn't realize letsrun has so many p***ys. OP, you acted completely correctly. We need more citizens like you. I'm sorry to hear the police officer you encountered was lazy.

I don't know if you are kidding, but confronting an unarmed man while carrying is not especially manly as it is insurance to keep from getting your ass kicked.

Him being there, or photos of him being there, does not justify an arrest. The OP took a big risk with nothing to gain.

Skwodockkeoslc wrote:

Wow, I didn't realize letsrun has so many p***ys. OP, you acted completely correctly. We need more citizens like you. I'm sorry to hear the police officer you encountered was lazy.

This is rich. The person who is too WEAK to fight and such a COWARD they feel the need to carry a gun is not a p*ssy but the people saying what he did is stupid are. That's great.

Happens literally all the time wrote:

SDSU Aztec wrote:

I've lived in many places and have not been assaulted by "riff-raff". Can you share an example of when carrying a gun saved you from serious bodily injury or even death?

Yes, but it would be TL,DR.

Maybe if you cower in fear in your basement, you've never seen the Real World.

Start lifting bro and stop being a COWARD.

Skwodockkeoslc wrote:

Wow, I didn't realize letsrun has so many p***ys. OP, you acted completely correctly. We need more citizens like you. I'm sorry to hear the police officer you encountered was lazy.

Dude, Joe Citizen cannot engage in proactive police work. Defend yourself, for sure, but we have police for a reason. They are officially empowered by our society to Enforce Laws. Joe citizen is NOT. For very good reasons.

John Utah wrote:

Skwodockkeoslc wrote:

Wow, I didn't realize letsrun has so many p***ys. OP, you acted completely correctly. We need more citizens like you. I'm sorry to hear the police officer you encountered was lazy.

Dude, Joe Citizen cannot engage in proactive police work. Defend yourself, for sure, but we have police for a reason. They are officially empowered by our society to Enforce Laws. Joe citizen is NOT. For very good reasons.

Simply untrue.

Yeah... no. wrote:

John Utah wrote:

Dude, Joe Citizen cannot engage in proactive police work. Defend yourself, for sure, but we have police for a reason. They are officially empowered by our society to Enforce Laws. Joe citizen is NOT. For very good reasons.

Simply untrue.

https://criminal.findlaw.com/criminal-procedure/citizen-s-arrest.html

Nope.

Defend yourself, but let law enforcement enforce the laws. That's the way our society is set up.

John Utah wrote:

Yeah... no. wrote:

Simply untrue.

https://criminal.findlaw.com/criminal-procedure/citizen-s-arrest.html

Nope.

Defend yourself, but let law enforcement enforce the laws. That's the way our society is set up.

You are evidence of our decaying society.