The Sikh clerks who took on a brazen robber may face legal charges
It was a satisfying video for those who see America sinking into a criminal abyss: a brazen robber was systematically working his way through a Stockton, California convenience store's cigarette shelves, pouring hundreds of packs into a huge garbage can on wheels. Eventually, one clerk grappled with him, and another began whacking his legs with a long stick. The clerks are now being investigated for assault under the theory that you cannot use deadly force to protect commercial property. That's just wrong.
The video is striking (literally and figuratively). The person filming and narrating tells the clerks they cannot do anything to stop the robber (with the subtext being that California is a lawless state), only to cheer once they have the robber on the ground and mete out instant punishment. (The following is the best video I could find, although you must watch it on YouTube.)
According to Deda, the man who made the videotape, when the clerks approached the man, he reached for his waistband as if he had a gun. And while it's hard to hear on the video, Deda says the man threatened them:
"He kind of said, 'I've got a strap. Back up,'" Deda recalled.
At the end of the robber's moment with instant justice, he had bruised legs — in other words, the clerks' attack was carefully calibrated not to threaten the man's life.
Nevertheless, police are investigating the clerks for criminal assault. These are the same police who never showed up during the robbery itself, despite being immediately across the street from the store.
In common law, the principles applicable here are simple: you cannot use deadly force in defense of commercial (or otherwise unoccupied) property. However, you can use appropriate force in defense of property. Since the clerks only bruised the man's legs and made no effort to strike him on other body parts, it's obvious that they were not using disproportionate force.
Technically, as the Modesto Bee points out in an editorial hostile to the clerks, California also hews to the "proportionate force for commercial property crimes" rule:
California law gives a homeowner the right to confront an intruder with deadly force. That right does not extend to commercial property subjected to shoplifting.
[snip]
Readers of The Modesto Bee recently learned the ins and outs of citizen's arrest. If you observe a crime, you can lawfully detain someone until the cops arrive, reporter Dominique Williams explained. "Reasonable" force is OK under some circumstances, Modesto police told her.
As for the police failing to show, the same editorial notes that they're "busy with weighty matters. ... Petty theft often doesn't get the cops' attention[.]" And therein lies the rub.
It may be petty to some spoiled, college-educated twit sitting in a news office, but it is not petty to the men whose livelihoods depend on a functioning store. As this video explains (and note the talking head's horror), the same thief has been at the store repeatedly, with no consequences:
Did I call it or what? pic.twitter.com/hK24ISu0NO
— Jeff Charles, King of the NonwhitesрџЏґ (@jeffcharlesjr) August 6, 2023
When the government encourages lawlessness, as California clearly does, we are no longer witnessing mere property crimes. Instead, we are witnessing the slow death of the people whose property is under endless assault from brazen robbers who know they cannot be touched.
For the Sikh men, the loss of a job during the shabby Biden economy has the real potential to mean the end of their lives: the end of their having a home, raising a family...heck, even feeding their family. When crime becomes the norm, everyone's life is at stake.
I sincerely hope that the police conclude that the Sikh men used entirely proportionate force to stop a person who has slowly been killing them. But since this is California and, as in Superman's Bizarro World, everything is backward in the most evil way, I fully expect the robber to get a pass because "he's been punished enough," while the brave Sikhs who stepped up in a law enforcement vacuum find themselves caught in the California "justice" system.
Image: Instant justice for brazen robber. YouTube screen grab.