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The darker side of pickpockets.....

Posted by (Vernon, Canada) on

This article provides a glimpse into the reality of life for some pickpockets, and it's not a nice picture. They are victims and receive little benefit from the money they scam or steal from tourists, as it goes to organized crime networks. This article is similar in tone to the award-winning Gypsy Child Thieves documentary exposé that was produced by BBC.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/07/05/meet-the-pickpocket-slaves-of-europe.html

Hopefully the authorities can find some way to stop this.

Posted by
2261 posts

Thanks for this, Ken. Far too often these members of society are simply dismissed as crooks, though of course all people have a particular background or set of circumstances in their life that put them where they are. Petition girls are annoying, but we can choose to look a little deeper if we want to.

Posted by
1855 posts

Other movies like slum dog millionaire and TAKEN show various forms of youth exploitation as well. This begging/theft thing is big in many Latin American countries as well. Every country probably has some horrible form of child exploitation. Thailand certainly does. I think the difference is how well the citizens try to combat this stuff. Civilized countries like the USA and Netherlands for example, really try hard to fight this junk and rescue minors.

Posted by
15787 posts

There are all sorts of issues in 'civilized' U.S. and Netherlands - including human labor and prostitution trafficking - and those same issues affect children AND adults in Europe as well.

Posted by
4535 posts

It's not that the issues do not exist in Western, 1st world nations, it's that more effort is given to combat it. Whether that is still enough or more should be done is open for debate for sure.

Posted by
11507 posts

So sad , but I did know most of this, I also have read that the toddlers and babies are drugged so they will sit or doze listlessly while they adult handler begs, so that mother holding a sleeping toddler begging disgusts me, I saw this woman holding a " sleeping @ child of about 3-4 , she held the limp child on her lap with her hands out, several hours later this child was still " sleeping" baloney!

Posted by
11507 posts

I did t notice the reference to Taken.

That was one silly movie.The sex trade does not kidnap tourists!!!

Posted by
19091 posts

And what is the lighter side of pickpockets?

Posted by
32198 posts

Lee,

"And what is the lighter side of pickpockets?"

I suppose a "lighter side" might be if they weren't being victimized and exploited by ruthless organized crime thugs, and got to keep the proceeds of their ill-gotten gains.

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