Mark Andrews: Trump's sour grapes, Storm Goretti, and when did shoplifting become socially acceptable? |
Mark Andrews takes a wry look at the week that was
This week West Midlands Police posted a photo of a man they wanted to speak to in connection with three shoplifting offences, stealing goods worth more than £200.
My first reaction was 'about time too'. How refreshing to see coppers going after real criminals, rather than scouring Twitter for politically incorrect jokes, finger-wagging about 'non-crime hate incidents'.
But it appears I may be in a minority. What followed the appeal was not an offer of useful information, but a social media pile-on from people angry that police were pursuing him at all. Hundreds of comments, almost entirely critical of the police for actually doing their job, and offers from the public to pay his fine. 'Leave him alone', 'Fair play to him, I'm sure Tesco won't go bankrupt' , 'our corrupt politicians are stealing a living at our expense' were fairly typical reactions. The general consensus seemed to be that he was a bit of a loveable rogue, a........