Yes, This Law Is An Ass

"The guy is a living, breathing and walking mockery of our justice system. He's a product of our system. He has shown neither fear nor respect for the system, and no wonder. It has coddled him for the last thirty years." Chi-Kun Shi, Toronto lawyer

There is much frustration among the small shopkeepers in Toronto's Chinatown. Little wonder. They've had to put up with thefts of their merchandise, without much recourse under the law. By the time they alert the police to a theft, the thief has fled the scene. It takes an average of three to four hours generally before police show up to investigate such theft claims.

Anthony Bennett is one of those thieves whose incessantly marauding inclinations identify him as a bane of small shopkeepers. Mr. Bennett, in fact, is the cause of a trial currently ongoing in Toronto. Charges have been laid against a shopkeeper, a greengrocer in Chinatown whom Mr. Bennett targeted once too often.

He is, strangely enough through a plea bargain the Crown's chief witness in this case. Where storekeeper David Chen has been charged under the law for detaining this thief. A citizen's arrest may be made lawfully only when the purloined goods are still in the possession of the thief. Mr. Bennett light-fingered $60-worth of plants at Mr. Chen's Lucky Moose store.

And then he returned later in the day for a repeat performance. At which juncture Mr. Chen and two other men who worked for him, chased the thief, cornered him, tied him up, called police and waited for their arrival. Which was, on this singular occasion, swift. The police didn't think much of Mr. Chen and his colleagues taking the law into their own hands, finding no stolen objects on Mr. Bennett.

But a video camera in the store had picked up quite clearly what he had been up to, and it wasn't difficult to identify him and his preoccupation. He agreed to a plea bargain, that he would testify against Mr. Chen who had been charged with an offence under the law of forcefully apprehending a thief. That agreement led to his sentence being reduced from three months to 30 days' incarceration.

Mr. Chen described the manner in which he confronted Mr. Bennett, informing the thief that he would not call police as long as he paid for what he had stolen. "He told me, 'I've never been here before. Go f--- yourself, Chinese. Stop bullshitting and don't stop me", explained Mr. Chen. And it was at that point that Mr. Bennett ran off and Mr. Chen pursued him.

"We tied up his feet so he won't be able to run away. He was using his hand to hit us with his fist, so I tied up his hands to bring him back to the store." Storekeeper David Chen

Cornered by Mr. Chen and his brother-in-law Quing Ping Li and employee Jie Chen (all of whom have been charged under the law with malfeasance as a result of this theft-and-apprehension) Mr. Bennett punched and elbowed Mr. Chen who had the bruises to prove how violent Mr. Bennett had been. Once Mr. Bennett's arms and feet had been secured, the three accused waited for the police to arrive.

When they did show up, the three police officers ordered the three men to the ground, handcuffed them and took them along to the police station. Where they were further humiliated by a "level three" search, sans clothing. And where the police triumphantly found boxcutters in the possession of Jie Chen and David Chen.

Tools of the trade to most, lethal weapons to these police officers. "That's an edged weapon. I did not think it could be anything other than a concealed weapon", explained Constable Patrick Stewart, one of the arresting officers and a witness at the trial. Whereupon the prosecutor argued, addressing Mr. Chen: "I'm going to suggest that if you laid enough of a beating on him, that he would not come back to the store."

Who had been beaten, the storekeeper or the thief? And if someone is aggressively violent, does that not warrant a similar response in self-protection?

Mr. Chen's lawyer, Peter Lindsay, enquired of the Crown's star witness, "Would you agree with me that you are still an unreliable witness now?" "Yes I am", Mr. Bennett obligingly replied.
"Do you have a bad memory?" Mr. Lindsay further asked. "Extremely", replied Mr. Bennett.
"Often when confronted by honest shopkeepers, you yell at them, threaten them, give them the finger. Fair?", Mr. Lindsay pursued. "Fair", responded Mr. Bennett.

Who has in fact had ample experience as a thief. Whose reputation is such that all the area shopkeepers know him quite well. They know also that their quest for justice has been fairly sterile in the past. And watching how this trial is progressing, hearing evidence, they must feel fairly hard done by. For the fact of the matter is, this is an absurd law taken to an absurd level of action.

Clearly, the wrong persons have been targeted as accused. Just as clearly one can only wonder whether there is a tinge of racism involved, as well.