Cops are giving a green light to criminals to shoplift and terrorise staff – there’s no deterrent and it’s depressing
BLATANT shoplifting is on the rise, with store managers at their wits’ end over how to tackle it.
Not least because they’ve been all but abandoned by police.
Richard Inglis, who runs a chain of Co-op supermarkets in Hampshire, says in-store thefts have essentially been decriminalised because officers won’t investigate unless the stolen items are worth more than £200, there’s clear CCTV footage of the incident and he knows the full name of the shoplifter.
It would be funny if it wasn’t so bloody depressing.
In other words, no blue light presence is a green light for thieves to steal with impunity, knowing that even if the police did get involved, the Crown Prosecution Service is unlikely to charge them.
Consequently, Mr Inglis’s three shops have suffered 80 reported incidents in July alone — with 33 of them involving violence or threats of it.
He added that it’s not uncommon for his staff to be punched, attacked with knives or have bottles thrown at them.
Anti-social behaviour
Hampshire police have denied setting a criteria for shoplifting offences, coming up with what — to my mind — sounds like a load of old waffle about assessing crimes “based on balancing threat, risk and harm to the community or individual”.
The bottom line is that many law-abiding taxpayers feel their concerns are largely being ignored by the police forces they fund, and that the failure to tackle what is regarded as “petty” crime — which feels pretty serious when you are a victim of it — means anti-social behaviour escalates.
Think about it.
Someone with a drug habit and a personal stash will likely be left alone by police, who mitigate that they have bigger fish to catch.
But that same addict will have to fund his habit by stealing from either shops or innocent passers-by, and he may carry a knife for the purpose of ensuring compliance from his victims.
If he’s caught with the knife, it is confiscated and he is cautioned.
So he just buys a new one and merrily carries on terrorising his local neighbourhood.
Where’s the deterrent?
Until there is one, our communities will continue to be blighted by anti-social behaviour, petty crime and far worse.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has just announced a welcome review of Low Traffic Neighbourhoods.
With a general election looming next year, he’d be wise to focus on giving us low crime neighbourhoods too.
20MPH ZONES ARE OTT
IT has emerged that actor Laurence Fox was fined £220 for driving at 24mph along London’s Vauxhall Bridge Road on Boxing Day last year.
His “speed” – if you can call it that – was in contravention of Sadiq Khan’s random rollout of 20mph zones across our capital city, which means you are in danger of being overtaken by an asthmatic octogenarian on a bicycle.
I sympathise. Recently I was clocked doing 28mph along Park Lane on a Sunday morning – a pedestrian-free dual carriageway that has hitherto been 40mph for as long as I can remember – and ended up paying £91 to do a speed awareness course on Zoom.
It is my first motoring offence in over 40 years of points-free driving.
A 20mph limit outside a school or on a narrow road in a built-up area? I get it.
However, on a main thoroughfare with no pedestrians? It’s nonsense.
But it’s a money-making nonsense so no doubt it will stay.
KHANT SETTLE
BOXER Amir Khan is reportedly living apart from long-suffering wife Faryal following claims he had a four-month fling with another woman last year.
Plus, earlier this month he apologised to his wife after being caught begging a bridal model for saucy photos.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the couple’s reality show The Khans: Big In Bolton is currently on ice.
Given his failure to settle, perhaps Big In Bolting might be a more appropriate title.
SARAH Ferguson has been spotted for the first time since having breast cancer surgery.
She was being driven by ex-husband Prince Andrew from the grounds of their home in Windsor.
Good. Following her unswerving loyalty to him during the Epstein scandal, it’s nice to now see him supporting her in this hour of need.
NIGEL Farage is reportedly in talks with Coutts bank to keep his account.
But the burning question is: After the appalling way it treated him, why would he want to stay?
I wonder who put out Sleepy Joe’s towel?
AS Brits head off on their holibags, hilarious footage is emerging of Chariots Of Fire-style racing along the beach or poolside to secure the best sunbeds.
I’ve done it myself, though it was back in the glory days when being a natural early-riser meant you were ahead of the pack.
But now certain hotels have installed gates that only open at a specified time, meaning snaking queues reminiscent of the Harrods New Year sale.
My favourite photo so far is of hardy holidaymakers actually bringing chairs to sit on while they queue.
Next it will be small tents for overnight stays like “first come, first served” Wimbledon fans.
All very amusing for the rest of us, but hardly the recipe for a relaxing holiday, is it?
Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden and wife Jill are photographed reading their books on sun loungers at Delaware’s beautiful Rehoboth Beach with four Secret Service agents stationed at discreet distance to ensure their isolated splendour.
I’ll bet they didn’t have to set their alarms for stupid o’clock and do a Usain Bolt sprint to the best spot.
SAINT’S SO LIKE SINEAD
COMMENTING on Sinead O’Connor’s death, the Reverend Richard Coles says he offered her a prayer via Saint Christina the Astonishing who, he says, might be viewed as “a patron saint for women who demand to be heard.”
Wikipedia tells me that, born in 1150, Christina was thought to have died at 21 but arose from her coffin, levitated up to the rafters, and vowed to live a life of penance.
She would throw herself into burning furnaces and plunge into a frozen river, only to emerge without a mark on her, and it was the same story when she was whipped round in the blades of a mill wheel or bitten by dogs.
“She lived to please God, not men,” is one interpretation of her admittedly unusual behaviour, while others suggest she suffered from “hysteria”.
Either way, she is the patron saint of psychiatrists, psychologists and those suffering mental illness.
Just like Sinead, it sounds like she was daringly disruptive and never dull.
HEADS UP HAZ
CUSTOMERS at a plant-based burger van got quite a shock when they found themselves being served by Prince William.
His visit to the van in Bermondsey, South London, was to highlight his Earthshot Prize environmental awards and, according to onlookers, His Royal Highness was a dab hand at flipping patties.
A useful life skill he may wish to pass on to his brother once the last of his “work” in the US dries up.