Sunday, January 23, 2011

New bill to help plain folks catch a thief

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Canada/1223566.html

"Chen made national headlines last fall when he was acquitted of assault and forcible confinement after catching and tying up a shoplifter in Toronto."

I can't imagine ever having the gall to catch and tie up a shoplifter, but as the article says, you need to actually catch a shoplifter for them to get charged with the law. I thought this article was interesting because when I at first saw the headline, I was initially like oh jeez. I thought it was going to be something super ridiculous. I don't know if that thought was valid or not though because I felt though that the article didn't share that much about the law that was going to get passed but was focused on Chen and Chan. The only real thing said in the article that alluded to what the amendment to the criminal code may be is what Harper said: "Let’s make sure that hard-working store owners won’t get punished if they try to defend their stores because that’s totally unfair." 

I can see the point of making sure they don't get punished for defending their stores, but I hope this doesn't mean we're going to have some crazy vigilante store owners harassing those who they suspect to be shoplifters but aren't. I remember a few years ago my dad's work van was stolen and used in a robbery of a store and the store owner actually chased after the van and beat it all in with a baseball bat. I understand that he was trying to defend his store, but the damages done to the van weren't covered by anything and came out of my parents pocket which I didn't think was fair. 

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