After all it's a slippery slope to doing cocaine, which is a slippery slope to amphetamines, which is a slippery slope to stealing bikes. They take problem by the roots.

I don't think increased sentences is necessarily where the shoe is pressing, but rather enforcement in general. Right now the risk of getting caught stealing a bike is next to zero, and it's basically an industry. It's not primarily poor people who need to steal to afford food, it's organized groups travelling around stuffing bikes into vans.

Unless it's a cop of course, then they can "defend" themselves all they want