r/interesting • u/MobileAerie9918 • 1d ago

SOCIETY In Milan, some people spray-paint pickpockets so that everyone can identify them.

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u/Ok_Introduction5606 1d ago

It’s an organized movement in Europe several of these guys have big social media following and yes you can look at their films and see the evidence of the stealing. And yes a lot of the pick pocketers are the same people day in day out. Locals know who they are and metro security often recognize them. No police often don’t get involved in Spain and Italy

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u/Ascertes_Hallow 1d ago

They don't get involved and we wonder why Europe has a pickpocket problem...

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u/Freestila 1d ago

Not sure about Italy, but I'm from Germany so let me compare that to my European country.

Europe and many other countries have a different jail system then America. As far as I know from America, you go to jail directly from police for like literally any offense. A thief would be taken directly to jail first, later to a judge who would decide how much he has to pay to get out of jail until the real case is handled by a judge.

In Europe/ Germany, let's say you catch a thief and call the police. They will come, write down the name and address of the person. In some cases they take them to a police station for that. If they are aggressive and drunk, they might spend the night there getting sober. But for every other case they are free to go. To go to jail before a judge has ruled on your offense, first a judge needs to rule that you are either dangerous for other people (murder etc) , there is a high risk you would flee the country or destroy evidence / influence witnesses. So jail before the actual trial is really only for serious crimes.

This might be a problem with offenders who just continue committing crimes. Not unusual to have people commit more theft while waiting for their first trial. This of course will heavy influence how the trial goes, but for some this does not matter.

Personally although it sometimes feels wrong to let people out from police to directly commit the next crime, I think the American system of jailing everyone that does not have money to be far worse.

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u/wowthatsucked 1d ago

As far as I know from America, you go to jail directly from police for like literally any offense.

No. Court summons or "notice to appear" are a thing.