Man of Honour
Talk about scraping the bottom of the barrel. I can't see how this can be justified as being in the public interest by using a obscure section of the 1824 Vagrancy Act. The CPS should be prosecuted for wasting time and money.
Stealing food from skip
- Thread starter Storm3y
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Caporegime
In an ideal world, you'd have all this unopened/unused food going into schemes to feed the homeless (Obviously advertise what the food is, past sell by date, etc)
Permabanned
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How would it be stealing if everything in a skip is to be skipped. As junk.
Man of Honour
Indeed, I can't see the public interest.
Hanlon's Razor seems appropriate here:
Soldato
Sadly the "less fortunate" would the first to sue you if they had a tummy upset.
Associate
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This makes sense to me, personally. Two decisions have been made, for separate reasons, both logical.
The police, to arrest these men: They can't very well be seen to be endorsing people entering private property to take things, whether those things are waste or not. They'd still have to investigate every report they got of the trespass from the public, which would cost a large amount of police time to no gain. They couldn't just ignore these reports in case they really were burglaries. So: arrest, have a quiet word in the cells to those arrested to be more careful next time and only take from bins which are in public.
CPS: pick up the paperwork, and see an opportunity to either back up the police position and (importantly) publicise it OR to get a modern judgement which is more reasonable than the old law.
As others have alluded to - it's a small step from this to taking other 'waste', and if climbing a fence to do so becomes reasonable in the eyes of the law, then certain elements of our society -will- take advantage of it. The theft of scrap metal for example is a big enough problem without providing legal defenses for it.
I would doubt that these men will see any real punishment, and sympathise with their plight - but I don't see how ignoring it would have been in the interest of society.
The police, to arrest these men: They can't very well be seen to be endorsing people entering private property to take things, whether those things are waste or not. They'd still have to investigate every report they got of the trespass from the public, which would cost a large amount of police time to no gain. They couldn't just ignore these reports in case they really were burglaries. So: arrest, have a quiet word in the cells to those arrested to be more careful next time and only take from bins which are in public.
CPS: pick up the paperwork, and see an opportunity to either back up the police position and (importantly) publicise it OR to get a modern judgement which is more reasonable than the old law.
As others have alluded to - it's a small step from this to taking other 'waste', and if climbing a fence to do so becomes reasonable in the eyes of the law, then certain elements of our society -will- take advantage of it. The theft of scrap metal for example is a big enough problem without providing legal defenses for it.
I would doubt that these men will see any real punishment, and sympathise with their plight - but I don't see how ignoring it would have been in the interest of society.
Will no one think of the children?
So, who (or what) is supposed to be the victim of this crime? Was there any damage, injury or financial loss suffered or were the public put at risk? What important message would a successful prosecution send?
So, who (or what) is supposed to be the victim of this crime? Was there any damage, injury or financial loss suffered or were the public put at risk? What important message would a successful prosecution send?
This is how I see it, to be honest when I have scrap metal that isnt valuable enough to take to a scrap merchant I leave it next to the bins for the flats I like in in view of the road and its always gone within 48 hours.
Equally I see people rooting through the bins of the one stop shop I live near, they dont make a mess and the shop doesnt care because its all going to landfill anyway.
Yea I live in a lovely area
Soldato
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I'm struggling to see the public interest in this case other than the potential increase in the workload of the police force for handling the so-called 'thefts'.
I have looked at the act and the key consideration the Magistrates will need to apply is this:
I have looked at the act and the key consideration the Magistrates will need to apply is this:
Supermarkets **** their suppliers, they then charge way too much for their food, they waste a lot of it before it hits shelves (and don't pay suppliers for it), they get way too much stock in then end up binning a load of it anyway. They're the biggest cause of food waste in the UK and a huge drain on our economy - why do you care so much about them? Why shouldn't we be giving them some accountability, making them reduce waste? It's the least they can do.
Provided someone leaves it tidy I have no quarrel with them going through my bin - if they're leaving it in a mess I'll just run out with an axe or something and scare them off.
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Remember folks, David Cameron tells us crime is going down, and detection/prosecution rates are up!
No wonder... if we're going to criminalise taking waste food from bins, while we ignore actual criminals and report thefts as "losses" to massage the stats.
No wonder... if we're going to criminalise taking waste food from bins, while we ignore actual criminals and report thefts as "losses" to massage the stats.
Politics, it was once about looking after your people as an elected leader.
Nowadays, it's about how much bullfeces you can get them to believe while you and your friends take your fill of the countries wealth and leave it in total disarray.
I suppose right wing control of most media sources does Cameron a great justice, it's why he can get away with so many abuses of power.
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Associate
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I suspect the people that will stoop to eating from your trash won't be the tidy types.
It's my experience that supermarkets are incredibly cheap. A tiny proportion of my wage goes towards arguably the most important thing. Food. Further evidence would be the huge number of people around who plainly eat way too much. 61% of us in the UK apparently.
Man of Honour
Ahh yes, the trope that we should all be out catching rapists and murderers rather than issuing you a ticket for doing 45 in a 30.
Crime is going down. I don't dispute that there are issues with Police classifications of crimes, but the British Crime Survey (or whatever it's called now) is independent and well respected and it confirms the western world phenomenon of substantial cuts in crime.
That doesn't mean other lower level offences aren't important (this case aside) as they can have a big impact on community perceptions.
Soldato
In my experience (having attended similar jobs, one where someone got locked up by my crewmate for the same offence), the people who go skipping (a) aren't tidy and (b) aren't the poor innocent people down on their luck some of you believe.
Of course, I know nothing of this case and the people involved, he may well have been very considerate and tidied up after himself, and be desperate for food through no fault of his own. My point is, as usual, you are only being told one persons side of the story.
They've committed an offence (and found on enclosed is not 'obscure') and are now being prosecuted for it.
Of course, I know nothing of this case and the people involved, he may well have been very considerate and tidied up after himself, and be desperate for food through no fault of his own. My point is, as usual, you are only being told one persons side of the story.
They've committed an offence (and found on enclosed is not 'obscure') and are now being prosecuted for it.
Man of Honour
This is also a good point. We get many thefts from charity bins etc where people sell clothes for profit. It's not always as clear cut as people put out.
How much experience of independent stores/ markets do you have?
I save around £10 a week shopping independently rather than shopping at a supermarket and the produce is miles ahead in terms of quality.
I think most people these days work from the assumption supermarkets must be cheaper without properly considering independents - if there is any left nearby. But in reality, they have some many diseconomies of scale in these stores now it's unreal. Maybe they were cheaper once upon a time but it's certainly not the case these days, they've expanded so much and all of them spend ridiculous amounts fighting for market share that the cost of their food is just ridiculous.
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Man of Honour
What a waste of time.
Actually no. The public told us crime was down via an independent survey done by the ONS...
The possibly fiddles crime stats by the police also said the same.