Crosswords3 mins ago
Shoplifting?
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last week Policing Minister Chris Philp said "thefts from shops should not be tolerated at any level"
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this is today's front page for the Daily Mirror:-
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this has created something of a storm on social media, along the lines of why is a "left wing tabloid" seeking to persecute the poor and desperate who must engage in Urban Foraging because it's the only way to survive.
Is the reported shoplifting epidemic mainly in the hands of the severely disadvantaged? if yes, is it right for everyone - including store owners and the police - to look the other way?
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For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.The problem is that the police seem uninterested in the crime which makes shop staff vulnerable and encourages the crime. That is, utterly wrong.
We have a welfare state, no one should be that desperate. And if some temporarily are there are food parcel charity schemes anyway.
Those who inadvertently fail to purchase should be identifiable in many cases and the store themselves can decide how to procede, with compassion hopefully.
But each incident needs to be processed not ignored and allowed.
Storms on social media are either best ignored or if that looks not to work, overwhelmed by those with at least a modicum of sense.
I was in our local Aldi last night for the first time in a while and they've installed some self service points.The bagging area is tiny so you have to balance stuff on top of each other.
Anyway, there was a group of forrin yoof charging about the place with a trolley, babbling away to each other in their native tongue, let's say Romanian, and I'm sure they must have paid something but the 17 year old operative in charge certainly wasn't in a position to challenge them, neither did she chase them up the street when they nicked the trolley to get their goodies home/to their fence.
It's enough to make one xenophobic I thought to myself.
I think what's different recently is that the shoplifters have realised they don't need to bother doing it surreptitiously.
They can just wander (often mob handed) into a shop, scoop a load stuff off a shelf and wander out again without being challenged and with zero chance of the police being interested in catching them.
//People shoplifting to order and addicts shoplifting stuff to sell to feed their addiction are in a different category//
Iv'e shoplifted to feed myself and to feed an addicition.
When you are homeless and have nothing to eat you will do anything. And that includes feeding your addiction.
(I only ever stole food)