Another nice article Dom. I remember over 40 years ago the manager of a large chain chemist telling me they added around 3% “wastage”, it may have risen now, to the price of each article to cover shoplifting. However he told me the biggest thieves were some of the staff, in cahoots (USA connection) with the logistics providers who had it off rotten.
So the effect is not that the shops lose money, it’s that everyone pays more for their goods. At least 40 years ago there was a deterrent of prosecution and conviction, not now.
As a probationer I too got lumbered with shoplifters and sometimes it seemed a tough job as it was a needy person whose life had been dealt a blow and they were on hard times but there was also the hard core who were opportunist and professional who did it for a living.
As soon as someone decided that the limit for prosecution was a certain amount, £300 I think, it virtually decriminalised the majority of shoplifters and was almost a licence to go and help yourself. Sadly the people who pick up the bill for this are firstly the shop owners and businesses targeted by those who feel the law no longer applies to them. Once they feel unsupported they harden their businesses and the community suffers. We need to show them we care and support them.
Having spent time on the West Coast last year and seeing the chaos that is descending in the major cities as well as outlying areas with defunding the Police, it’s obvious to most that whilst it would be great to invest in other services to support mental health and other factors in crime levels defunding those who stand between chaos and peace is shortsighted and not going to work.
I’ll never go back to Portland or SanFrancisco until there have been major changes and the Police has got the funding and respect they deserve back. It’s been a long time since I have felt that unsafe and retreated to a safe place before moving on. Sad to see these cities deteriorate visibly over a few years. Zero tolerance worked for Bill Bratton in New York and for the residents of New York. It’s back to it’s bad old ways nowadays
I spoke to a young American man in his twenties recently. He looked at me like I was crazy when I mentioned how much I liked San Francisco. Okay, my last visit was in 2003. He assured me it was now a toilet he wouldn't go anywhere near under any circumstances.
Part of me has sympathy with the police not dealing with so called petty crime. A younger me once had to deal with an OAP who had shoplifted (stolen) about £5 of groceries from a small supermarket. It seemed to me to be a waste of my time to report this old lady for theft. However, it was theft and rightly investigated. The time wasted was the bureaucratic form filling, must be worse now?
The important lessons for my younger self was:- 1 that crime should not pay
2 that paperwork should be reduced to
the bare minimum.
The current approach has more than achieved number 2, but 1 has been ignored at our peril....
In the early 90's as a jobbing Vat man I learnt my trade around New Cross , Brockley and Camberwell Green. An area of numerous Asian run CTN's and convenience stores, usually family owned shops from East Africa Asians, who had arrived in the UK 25 years previously having been expelled from Africa by the dictator's now in charge of the former British colonies. Their owners were now elderly couples whose shops had put their children through school, who were then almost exclusively on their own way to professional careers , accountants, Dr's, solicitors etc. , the immigrant dream.
Leaving mum and dad behind, to literally look after the shop, their only major resource in the UK .
It was a couple of years after the first Stephen Lawrence report, when the Met was either began disengaging with black crime, or vegan building new relationships with the Afro-Caribbean community's, depending on who was telling the story.
Almost without exception these elderly Asians who had met with white racism when they first came to the UK, now told me they now suffered from daily shop lifting from predominantly. black school children waiting for buses and until their parents came home. So dangerous that they could no longer let mother stay in the shop by herself after 3pn
"We call the police , Mr Davis, but they do nothing, they are scared "
So this is nothing new , just 30 years of learnt behaviours
Another nice article Dom. I remember over 40 years ago the manager of a large chain chemist telling me they added around 3% “wastage”, it may have risen now, to the price of each article to cover shoplifting. However he told me the biggest thieves were some of the staff, in cahoots (USA connection) with the logistics providers who had it off rotten.
So the effect is not that the shops lose money, it’s that everyone pays more for their goods. At least 40 years ago there was a deterrent of prosecution and conviction, not now.
I agree with much of this and I make a similar point about ´petty’ and grand’ corruption in ´The War on Dirty Money’.
As a probationer I too got lumbered with shoplifters and sometimes it seemed a tough job as it was a needy person whose life had been dealt a blow and they were on hard times but there was also the hard core who were opportunist and professional who did it for a living.
As soon as someone decided that the limit for prosecution was a certain amount, £300 I think, it virtually decriminalised the majority of shoplifters and was almost a licence to go and help yourself. Sadly the people who pick up the bill for this are firstly the shop owners and businesses targeted by those who feel the law no longer applies to them. Once they feel unsupported they harden their businesses and the community suffers. We need to show them we care and support them.
Having spent time on the West Coast last year and seeing the chaos that is descending in the major cities as well as outlying areas with defunding the Police, it’s obvious to most that whilst it would be great to invest in other services to support mental health and other factors in crime levels defunding those who stand between chaos and peace is shortsighted and not going to work.
I’ll never go back to Portland or SanFrancisco until there have been major changes and the Police has got the funding and respect they deserve back. It’s been a long time since I have felt that unsafe and retreated to a safe place before moving on. Sad to see these cities deteriorate visibly over a few years. Zero tolerance worked for Bill Bratton in New York and for the residents of New York. It’s back to it’s bad old ways nowadays
I spoke to a young American man in his twenties recently. He looked at me like I was crazy when I mentioned how much I liked San Francisco. Okay, my last visit was in 2003. He assured me it was now a toilet he wouldn't go anywhere near under any circumstances.
Part of me has sympathy with the police not dealing with so called petty crime. A younger me once had to deal with an OAP who had shoplifted (stolen) about £5 of groceries from a small supermarket. It seemed to me to be a waste of my time to report this old lady for theft. However, it was theft and rightly investigated. The time wasted was the bureaucratic form filling, must be worse now?
The important lessons for my younger self was:- 1 that crime should not pay
2 that paperwork should be reduced to
the bare minimum.
The current approach has more than achieved number 2, but 1 has been ignored at our peril....
In the early 90's as a jobbing Vat man I learnt my trade around New Cross , Brockley and Camberwell Green. An area of numerous Asian run CTN's and convenience stores, usually family owned shops from East Africa Asians, who had arrived in the UK 25 years previously having been expelled from Africa by the dictator's now in charge of the former British colonies. Their owners were now elderly couples whose shops had put their children through school, who were then almost exclusively on their own way to professional careers , accountants, Dr's, solicitors etc. , the immigrant dream.
Leaving mum and dad behind, to literally look after the shop, their only major resource in the UK .
It was a couple of years after the first Stephen Lawrence report, when the Met was either began disengaging with black crime, or vegan building new relationships with the Afro-Caribbean community's, depending on who was telling the story.
Almost without exception these elderly Asians who had met with white racism when they first came to the UK, now told me they now suffered from daily shop lifting from predominantly. black school children waiting for buses and until their parents came home. So dangerous that they could no longer let mother stay in the shop by herself after 3pn
"We call the police , Mr Davis, but they do nothing, they are scared "
So this is nothing new , just 30 years of learnt behaviours