(Photo: Pedal Bike Tours/Instagram)
While Portland’s protests in the name of the murder of George Floyd and ongoing police brutality in America have gotten more peaceful in recent nights, several downtown bike shop owners are still recovering from thefts that happened last week.
We’re aware of over 30 bikes that have been stolen so far. Most of them were taken on Friday, May 29th when some people who were downtown during the protest smashed windows and took products from a number of stores. The hardest hit shops have been Bike Gallery on Southwest 10th and Salmon and Pedal Bike Tours on Southwest 2nd near Ankeny.
Bike Gallery lost 13 bikes including mid-to-high end models from Orbea and Trek. Pedal Bike Tours lost 20 bikes. Most of them were Breezer city bikes. Thanks to help from Bike Index, we’ve posted a complete list of the bikes stolen from both shops along with their serial numbers on this thread in our Forums.
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Cycle Portland owner Evan Ross said his shop on Northwest Third and Couch was spared, but he’s not taking any chances. “My shop barely escaped,” he told us via email. “And I’ve spent time sleeping down there to defend it.”
On that note, PPB Officer Dave Sanders of the Bike Theft Task Force is urging everyone to be extra vigilant. “Theft is rampant right now and our thieves are motivated like never before,” Sanders warns. “If you have a bike stored anywhere during this time, please ensure that it is secured properly by the most expensive U-lock you can afford. Especially true for secure bike storage areas!”
For shop owners specifically, Ofcr. Sanders says all bikes on the showroom floor should be secured to each other with u-locks. He also recommends boarding up windows and hiring nighttime security if possible.
— Jonathan Maus: (503) 706-8804, @jonathan_maus on Twitter and jonathan@bikeportland.org
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San Francisco is reporting organized burglaries of multiple cannabis dispensaries and associated businesses while the police are otherwise engaged with protests.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/organized-thieves-use-protests-as-cover-to-raid-weed-dispensaries?ref=home
In the end it’s just bikes. Property that an be replaced. Store owners need to realize there is a price to be paid for injustice. Apparently other cities are establishing funds to rebuild. We could do the same here in Portland.
So, in the meantime, those doing the stealing decide who pays the price for injustice?
I’m only reiterating the sentiment of some posters on this forum.
Apparently, yes. Those who steal, smash, and burn are not only deciding who pays the price, but what the price is, and there is no avenue for appeal.
Even the most righteous of mobs rarely mete out justice.
[obligatory note that most protesters were peaceful and well behaved]
What’s the price for a life? Apparently, $20.00.
Based on his posting history, I think TK is being facetious.
My response was to Chris. But, HK seems to be chiming in with approval? Yep, sometimes it is hard to tell.
It seems it should read “…when some thieves broke..”
Just because there were protesters in the area doesn’t mean it was them. This is like saying “when some nearby pedestrians broke smashed windows and took products..”
I hear you Craig. I’m well aware of this being a sensitive characterization and I thought about this before posting. We don’t know exactly who did what and my editorial decision was to avoid splitting up the people involved in the protest along any type of smaller factional lines. Who’s to say people can’t be thieves and also be protesting? I am not in a position to label the motives of any particular people as there is a range of protesting activities that happened.
You are presuming guilt on the protesters despite having no evidence to support it. Not having to consider the consequences of the words you choose and how it will impact the protesters shows blind spots in your privilege.
Did you read my comment Craig? I did consider the consequences of my words. I disagree with you about them. And I’m not sure this has anything to do with my privileged blind spots but thanks.
If you have blind spots, things in those areas fail to make the list of pros/cons when you are considering the appropriate action to take. Therefore your choices seem completely justified and reasonable.
Myself, I grew up in conservative Central Washington State. Until I moved away, I was under the notion that everything came down to hard work, it wasn’t luck. If someone wasn’t succeeding, it was because they were not willing to pay their dues. I said a ton of garbage back then I’m glad the internet wasn’t around to preserve. I said stuff to (and about) people that looking back was completely wrong since I had no frame of reference for their situation. At the time though I felt I knew right from wrong and was being a considerate person.
Once I moved away from home, I realized I was born at least second base. I was born white and had white parents. My parents loved each other and rarely fought, they were there for my sister and I all through school, and although we were not well off financially, they could afford to take us to Seattle for a couple nights once per year. Since then I have gained a lot of friends who had to go through some horrible shit growing up. Some are doing great and others are struggling.
Hell, I’m still learning. Just a couple weeks ago I woke up at 4:30am to the sound of explosions and police sirens. A full SWAT team, ambulance, and at least a dozen officers were outside of a house we suspected as being a drug house due to all the activity.
I posted on Nextdoor what was going on and how it was a “good” thing. My neighbor questioned it and he seemed completely out of line to me. With how strong of a force the police had, I assumed the people that lived there were very dangerous and would be shooting back. I later found out although the guy at the house had dealt drugs, they were primarily arresting him for dozens of cases of identify theft, and they released him a few hours later. Since then I’ve learned about how prevalent (and how damn wrong) the militarization of our police has became. I now share my neighbor’s opinion of the situation.
RE Hard work vs. luck: You can’t control luck, but you can, to some degree, influence it, and you can certainly choose how to respond to it. Hard work properly directed can make a huge difference for most people most of the time. That said, we all know people who worked very hard and made good choices, but who just couldn’t escape fate.
Of course all of this presupposes the existence of free will, which some thinkers I respect have made compelling arguments against. If free will is an illusion, then it’s all luck, and a huge burden can be lifted from my shoulders.
That’s a cool story. Now back to the thefts of the bikes…and the shop owners who were victimized.
At a minimum, the protesters are guilty of pulling police resources away and providing cover for looting. They don’t want it to happen, but that’s the reality of it. The police aren’t going to stand down when thousands of people surround the justice center. The decision by organizers to continue protests well into the night is leading us to this. Wouldn’t protests be more effective during the daytime, shutting down streets during business hours?
The fact that the largest groups of protesters tend to be during evenings and weekends would indicate that most work during the day – that the protesters are by and large the middle-class and working poor, rather than thieves, juvenile delinquents, slackers, and retired folks.
By the way, here in Minneapolis the largest protests have overwhelmingly been in the middle-afternoon to early-evening timeframe.
Also, since there has been nearly zero police presence at these daytime protests – I mean, there are seriously no cops to be seen anywhere – I don’t know how much this has sapped police resources, at least during the day. We have had a crime spike at night, but that may be more related to the force’s reduced trust and effectiveness in the wake of the killing than to resource constraints.
Not having to consider the consequences of the protesting and how it will impact others shows blind spots in your privilege.
But you are in a position to remain completely neutral and simply describe them as “people” or “individuals”.
Yes I am. I will check that passage again and try to make it better if necessary. Thanks.
Saying that they were thieves is factually indisputable. Saying that they were protesters is speculation. Shouldn’t you only report what you know to be true?
I’m not necessarily disagreeing with you, but how would you distinguish between someone who was protesting and took advantage of the situation to score a new bike and someone who was not protesting and took advantage of the situation to score a new bike? It seems like you have to divine the heart of the thief to know the difference.
Bike thieves do not have hearts.
Doing something violent to get a thing that you want is actually well within the discription of being human: Killing an animal to cut off and eat parts of it. Blowing the top off a mountain to get the coal beneath it. Destroying a population of other people because you want the things they have or the land they live on. Why single out bike theives? Should they be shot? Incarcerated? How long, per theft? Do you know what it costs to keep a person in prison for a year? It costs in money, that we can figure out, but the human costs we’ll maybe never understand.
This post is to remind you that Bike Gallery is 90% owned by Trek
Why is that relevant?
It should help Bike Gallery recover more quickly from the losses and damage, and make it much less likely the store (or its location) will close. And it’s more likely that Trek’s insurance will pay for the losses. It’s the small individually-owned stores that get hit especially hard from such disasters, as insurance is minimal and the owners typically have their life-savings invested into their shops.
So we should only steal from well insured companies?
Or else loot during business hours only or by appointment, observing social distance guidelines of course. Wearing a mask goes without saying.
I’m going to make an appointment at Cyclepath today!
Completely untrue and irrelevant to this discussion.
So theft and vandalism is OK when you are sticking it to the man?
And does Trek even qualify as “the man”?
They are a central player in the “All Powerful Bike Lobby”. Everyone knows that.
I’ll bet GM was behind the theft. First they came for the streetcars, then they came for our Treks.
They call this the borderline personality disorder logical trap
I’d love to be able to afford a Trek Madone to bookend my Spesh Tarmac. (But I sure wouldn’t smash a window during a protest to get my hands on one….)
i sleep with my bikes next to my bed. only way I can get rest every night.
I keep mine in my living room, that way they have an opportunity to relax and commiserate with each other.
My bikes spend most of their time at the bar; I’m lucky if I see them in the mornings.
Mine are in the basement, trolling conservative news sites and eating TV dinners.
It’s disheartening to see two separate people in this thread justifying damage and theft to businesses. One person says that it’s the “price to be paid for injustice”. The other thinks that sticking it to the man (Trek) makes it okay.
Where do you think the money for this comes from? You, that’s who. It will all roll downhill eventually. It may also add up to lost jobs if a business decides that the losses can’t be sustained. Every single business that got broken into now has to recoup those losses somehow.
The people that stole these bikes had no interest in “justice” or corporate reform. They
just wanted to steal something and profit from it or get away with it. They took advantage of a chaotic situation.
Hey Chris, again I stated I was reiterating the sentiment of other posters here. It’s not my sentiment at all. Somebody here accused me of possessing an RPG (preposterous), but if I did, you know what? I’d help defend the bike shop with it. I don’t like injustice, but I sure as hell don’t like seeing the city I call home burned to the ground either.
it’s a bikeportland conumdrum. Stealing bikes to stick it to the man.
Wouldn’t be a bit surprised when it turns out that cops are grabbing their share of those bikes.
Ending racism one bike at a time..right?
This stealing/looting thing will all end when we defund and dismantle the police.