One of the great dangers facing any society is its ability to act freely and legally in defence of its members and their property. Free speech is based on this premise. We all have the right to say whatever it is we wish to say with the sole exceptions of inciting hatred or yelling “fire” in a crowded theatre.
Same goes for the defence of property. Case in point is the Toronto Chinatown storekeeper who upon seeing a person he believes to be a thief lawfully (IMHO) used appropriate force and detention and confinement for only so long as it took the police to arrive. And yet, this storekeeper found himself the subject of charges of kidnapping, forceable confinement and possession of a dangerous weapon (a box cutter which is standard equipment for store keepers). This is a travesty.
Canadians among other civilized nations have long recognized the ability of a citizen to make an arrest in a situation where there is reasonable and probably grounds to believe someone has committed an indictable offence. (BTW according to new reports this entire sorry episode was captured on surveillance video. The suspect seems to have a previous record of such illegal behaviour.)
So what went wrong in this case? I believe the police and the crown attorney have made the simple mistake of believing they are above the law. Worse, and I hope this isn’t true, is they see themselves as a law unto themselves. In other words, if you need policing services you can’t act but must wait until the constabulary arrives. The problem, especially in Chinatown, is the police often don’t arrive at all.
The concept of citizen’s arrest goes back to medieval England when the sheriffs encourage citizens to make their own arrests. This is part of the concept of “community policing” which has been a buzz word in the policing community for the last decade. Seems it might need some dusting off in this case.
