Tuesday, March 20, 2012

steal a bike in plain site of viewers

http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1148884--bike-theft-revealed-star-hits-the-streets-to-test-how-easy-it-is-to-steal-a-locked-up-bike

“We never want to say go in there and intervene and make a citizen’s arrest,” says Const. Wendy Drummond, who advises witnesses to call in immediately with a description of the perpetrator.

An alternative, she says, might be heightened vigilance for suspicious body language and criminal intent. But really, aren’t our lives busy enough without an Orwellian modus operandi?

And anyway, a 911 call might fall by the wayside.

“Bike thefts are lower priority than life-threatening calls,” Drummond notes.

I got a sense of this outside Robarts, not from police but rather two gun-clad guards collecting ATM money into a purple G4S armoured van. In addition to the students chewing hotdogs and lazing on the grass, I committed my pseudo-crime, which took 11 seconds, in plain view of men with the firepower to stop me.

Glen Whyte, a University of Toronto organizational behaviour professor, calls the failure-to-act phenomenon “diffusion of responsibility.” The onus to kibosh illegal activity is spread thin amongst the “group” — in this case all witnesses.

“(People) seem to operate...

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