Legalized Pickpocketing

"Riboflavin" <r... DeleteThis @mindspring.com> wrote on 2000/11/26:

> ANIM8Rfsk wrote in message <20001125140858.01951.00003324@ng-
> >I was just following the precedent. They made pickpocketing legal because
> they
> >couldn't enforce it (which seems stupid to me). So why not murder?
>
> What always struck me as really stupid about the pickpocketing bit is that
> no one ever made a 'lockable pocket' of some sort to keep from getting
> robbed. Despite the fact that pickpocketing was completely routine, everyone
> apparently kept on using wallets in ordinary pockets despite the ease with
> which one could block that sort of thing. Something as basic as a zippered
> pocket with a lock on it (possible opened by the person's fingerprint since
> IIRC they had that level of technology) would make pickpocketing much more
> difficult, yet apparently no one bothered to make such a thing.

I bet that many people did have such security, but Larry Niven merely
forgot to mention it in his stories, since pickpocketing wasn't a major
plot point.

In "Flatlander", Beowolf was unaware of the legality of pickpocketing,
so he didn't realize that he should put his wallet in a secured pocket.