I have gotten on at least a half-dozen Lime bikes with cut brakes, so unless this guy is one busy beaver, I’m guessing there’s more than one line-cutting sociopath out there. And yeah, I have left feedback on Lime after reporting cut brakes only to find the bike still online and unlockable hours later. They gotta tighten that shit up ASAP.

freaking joiners. since this is a crime that could actually have a victim, I hope this tool gets some books thrown at him.

That's awful.

Clearly these these Lime bikes strewed about the city is causing a backlash.

@2,

Not only could have a victim, but probably is intended to. That's a pretty good look at the guy. Maybe some sort of attempt to or something. Hopefully not a misdemeanor.

Holy shit, that's sociopathic.

Do we have any prison abolitionists in the crowd? I'm mostly-seriously interested in what you think restorative justice would look like, for this kind of crime.

@4 meant to suggest he could be charged with attempted assault. Hopefully.

You should always check a shared bike anyway to make sure it's in proper operational condition. The should find the vandal who is doing this and charge him for the cost of the repairs and better yet make him do the repairs out of his own pocket with proper supervision.

I know that "outrage" is all the rage these days but all it will do is increase hypertension and an eventual heart attack.

@7

Something tells me that if someone came around and slashed the tires on your car, you wouldn't be chiding yourself for failing to do a walk-around inspection before attempting to operate the vehicle, nor patiently waiting for the wheels of justice to send you a check covering the cost of repairs, and not a penny more.

This is a case where social media mob sleuth work and public dragging are actually called for.

Huh... is the metal wire inside brake lines valuable or something? It looks like it's not simply cutting them but removing and taking them.

I mean, still a dick move, but is there a $ motive?

I’d contribute to a GoFundMe page to buy the person(s) better quality cutters. Fuck them bikes.

Probably someone from Seattle Times, so that they can publish a new article about how much they hate these bikes and just LOOK at how unsafe they are, they don't even have brakes! And that bikes in general suck, we don't need bicyclists, survival of the fittest, there's a war on cars and the city clowncil did this, no bike lane on 35th blah blah blah, something about "Kashama" Sawant.

Spin is shutting down Seattle operations (customer email alert went out about an hour ago). Mentioning it here because it will likely take the Stranger staff a few days to pick up on this news.

Has the SPD tried giving out business cards?

@17

I'm not sure that's how the word "volunteering" works, and I don't think there are shelters for victims of bicycle sabotage, and if there were, I somehow doubt the presence of saboteurs would aid recovery... but OK, at least that's an answer.

Your 'vengeance model' crack is probably more realistic, really-- though I'm not sure the self-organizing collective of young men in balaclavas would be able to resist beating the fellow to death long enough to get that horror-coaster all set up.