shoplifting nonsense

[intexasatthe moment]

Damian - yes ,mistakes do get made .

Another student ,studying in Cambridge ,was also arrested ,interviewed etc for the fire extinguisher incident at Millbank .

But as a different person has now been charged and appeared in court I guess this was an error .

[Damian H]

And I assume he was ruled out of the investigation following interview. But unless suspects are identified they cannot be interviewed or investigated to establish whether or not they may need to face prosecution.

[intexasatthe moment]

Well he was investigated and I assume that this was because the police identified him as a suspect .

Whether they " identified " him by an image or some other means ,I wouldn't know .

[Anderson]

I think we should publicly stone shoplifters on Goose Green. Could make a nice family day out of it.

[Damian H]

Is it too late for a festive version? The accused could be given a Santa hat and mulled wine and mince pies could be supplied to all the stoners. Perhaps the accused could be transported to the location on a reindeer?

[tallulah71]

*Bob* Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Celestial? I didn't realise there was anything

> worth stealing in there.

Ha ha h ah ah ha ha ha h!! totally agree. And they're not the friendliest of people. (Doesn't mean I condone shoplifting though.)

[Sue]

tallulah71 Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> they're not the friendliest of people.

xxxxxxx

I've always found them helpful and friendly, and they went to enormous lengths to track something down for me to replace something I'd bought there and lost, which their supplier no longer made. And I wasn't even buying it from them.

[tallulah71]

Good for you.

[Sue]

tallulah71 Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Good for you.

xxxxxx

I'd have said it was more Good for Them, but then that would have been too nice for you to post, I guess :)

[Dickensman]

Did you know that Harold Wilson whilst acting prime minister,

was once citizen arrested,

by some character who accused him (Wilson) of allowing in to the country unprecidented amounts of foreign immigrants.

[Huguenot]

What on earth has this thread got to do with immigration?

[Loz]

I saw this and immediately thought of this thread...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-12473446

[Ridgley]

Because the law states, innocent till proven guilty his boss took matters in his own hands and this is the result. Even if his employee is guilty it has to be done correctly has this sort of thing will happen.

[zeban]

Exactly Ridgely.

[RosieH]

Yeah, and in a longer version of the story I read today, it said that the boss, with help from others, tied the bloke up, bundled him in the back of his van, and beat him up. And was, as a consequence, potentially facing charges of assault and false imprisonment.

So you know, of the two crims in the story, I'd take my chances with the guy who claims he cashed the cheque to cover his unpaid wages.

Let this be a lesson to certain of the ED intellectually subnormals: vigilantism does not pay

[Huguenot]

You guys are being ridiculous, this case is nothing like the shoplifting poster case.

This guy didn't receive his damages for being called a thief on a poster, he recieved them for suffering kidnap, false imprisonment, assault and threatening behviour.

I positively agree that vigilantism is wrong - I simply refuse to accept that putting a poster in a shop window trying to indentify miscreants is vigilantism.

I think the insitence that shoplifting posters are the thin end of a wedge that ends up in an armed outlaw paramilitary militia roaming the streets implementing kangaroo courts and capital punishment is silly hyperbole.

[Loz]

According to the article the damages were for "distress and humiliation".

[Huguenot]

Distress and humiliation caused by kidnap, false imprisonment, assault and threatening behviour.

Not distress and humiliation caused by putting his photo in a shop window saying 'wanted for shoplifting'.

My position here is based on degree. If people want to claim that kidnap, false imprisonment, assault and threatening behaviour has equivalence with a photo in a shop window then there really isn't much further to go with this one.

[RosieH]

Huguenot, when you said "you guys are being ridiculous" I hope you didn't mean me. I'm just irritated to fuck by people not bothering to get their heads round a news story before sounding off in all directions (see also Rastamouse), But then that's part of a bigger dumbing down issue that bugs the shit out of me.

As for the poster in the window, it makes me really uncomfortable. I can't be arsed to wade through all 9 pages of this thread, so I'm sure someone else has made the point that don't we hold the innocent until proven guilty rule sacrosanct in this country? Actually, what the hell am I talking about, of course we don't. Even DC slated Cheryl Cole as a racist. But I do.

Is the issue that the CCTV showed a person stealing something but the police can't do anything because they can't identify the perpetrator? Or is it that the police won't arrest anyone because the CCTV isn't clear about whether they stole or not?

[bibaradcliffe]

Hmm, I sympathise with the shopkeeper, but am pretty sure that those shoplifters could sue them! Believe it or not, the was a case in the papers just this week about a bloke who got caught stealing from his employers. Said employer made him wear a sign round his neck which read 'I am a thief', all the way to the Police station. The Employer then got sued and had to pay the thief compensation of a few ?k for 'hurt feelings' and 'humiliation' or something crazy like that.

Mad but true.

[zeban]

bibaradcliffe that's what we're talking about! we're also comparing it to the original incident this thread was started around

[RosieH]

bibaradcliffe - the employer paid out for tying him up, kidnapping him and beating him up. Please will people try reading beyond the daily mail's headlines.

[pk]

RosieH Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> bibaradcliffe - the employer paid out for tying

> him up, kidnapping him and beating him up.

they settled out of court so i'd say no-one knows why they paid out. the employer certainly doesn't admit tying him up, kidnapping him and beating him up and no court has ruled that to be true, even on a balance of probability

[RosieH]

Yeah pk, you're quite right. I was just blowing off a bit of steam at people who don't have the curiosity to think "hang on, that doesn't sound plausible" and read a bit further than the header when they read a ludicrous story or get an offer of a bank transfer from a Nigerian general.

But what you say is correct.

[regalia]

I sympathise with the shopkeeper.

I had an employee who ran up a bill of ?2,500 on the firms phone and when she was sacked she went to the employment tribunal and I was ordered to pay her ?7000 for unfair dismissal plus the cost of getting the information to fight the case which was another ?6000

When will business people be allowed to get fair play?