If they really wanna do Paris a service they should start by dealing with all the pickpockets and bike thief first. My girlfriend has had 4 bikes stolen so far.
I will never understand why it's so freaking hard to deal with bike thieves. Should be the easiest thing in the world to catch these people red-handed and make it so that stealing bikes was actually associated with risks. If law enforcement wanted to actually improve the quality of life in cities, it would be an obvious place to start.
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.
I won’t argue about the police brutality because it exists, but the problem is deeper than that. When the law can’t stop you from stealing, nothing can!
Damn, get her one of those Kryptonite U locks for Christmas, they're basically indestructible unless you've got bike thieves walking around with angle grinders... Which actually sounds like you might.