Public Transportation and Smart Growth

I've had to delay trips and get into slow buses while international lines were down because organized thieves stole the copper cables that let the trains zip between Köln-Aachen-Brussels. They pick times of night when traffic is slow, and dismantle tons of copper cable lines at a time. These are organized bands from Eastern Europe and/or North Africa who shoot back, so German cops don't like dealing with them. Hand-wringing the morning after is deemed much safer. To deflect and swerve, as it were.