David Chen, of Lucky Moose Food Mart, in Toronto, meets the media.
It really is difficult to believe. Or to
put it another way, if it were the premise for a television police show you
would think the whole thing was an implausible fantasy and had nothing to do
with the realities of law, justice and policing. But the tale of David Chen, a
career criminal and the Toronto police and crown prosecution service is as
authentic as Canada’s obsession with socialised medicine.
In 2009 Chen, a Chinese immigrant to
Toronto who is at the market buying produce at 3am and works more hours than
many of us would think humanly possible, had had just about enough of the
criminals and drug-addicts who habitually shoplifted from his grocery corner
store.
His profit margins were minimal and each
time the thieves stole his property it became increasingly difficult for the
man to make a living. He called the police whenever a crime occurred but after
a while they would arrive hours late and sometimes simply not show up at all.
Nor was Chen the only victim in the area –
because of the number of Chinese people with businesses in this part of Toronto
some in the criminal world considered it a “soft” target for their trade.
The final challenge came when a man whom
Chen recognised from previous encounters stole some expensive plants in the
morning and then returned later the same day, quite possibly to steal again.
Chen challenged the man and asked if he would pay for what he stole. The
response was foul and racist language.
At which point Chen made a citizen’s arrest
and held the thief until the police arrived. When they did, however, they
charged Chen and proceeded to offer the shoplifter, who had 43 previous
convictions to his name, reduced charges if he would testify against Chen and
help the crown and cops in their case.
The allegations are that Chen was intending
to beat the criminal up, that he had used too much force and – wait for it-
that he has box-cutters on his person. This said of a man who opens boxes all
day long as part of his job!
The trial has started and is costing the
public a small fortune in police time, lawyers’ fees and the like but also
reveals what has become a worrying gap in Canada between the public perception
of what constitutes justice and the legal and police community’s understanding
of what is law.
As a citizen Chen was part of a social
contract. He obeyed the law on the understanding that it and its officers
protected him from anarchy and crime to the best of their abilities. When,
however, the police not only failed to deal with his persecutors but did not
even attempt to protect him it was surely they and not he who broke the
contract. Yet when he tried to protect himself the police did indeed act and
the lawyers working for the state insisted on the fiercest possible prosecution
of a model citizen.
Polls have shown that the Canadian public
support Chen in overwhelming numbers and many in the media have followed suit.
Yet the trial has not been stopped and while Chen may not go to prison he could
well be convicted and be given a police record that will restrict his international
travel and damage his standing, credit rating and ability to work.
Such nonsense is not restricted to Canada
and similar types of cases involving police stupidity have been launched in
Europe as well.
In Britain a street-preacher was arrested and
held in a cell overnight after being challenged by a part-time police community
officer who was gay and insisted on knowing what the Christian speaker believed
about homosexuality. The preacher had not been discussing this issue but when
pressed stated that he thought homosexual activity to be sinful. For this
belief he was taken into custody and only released when, obviously, someone at
the police station realized just how illegally and dangerously the officer had
behaved.
In Canada earlier this year hundreds of
peaceful protestors at the massive G20 conference in Toronto were arrested
after the police had initially failed to stop some of their cars from being
torched and public property destroyed. A massive over-reaction after an
enormous display of passive incompetence. Also in Canada in early October five
young pro-life students were arrested in Ottawa after displaying graphic
pictures of aborted babies on the university campus. It was certainly a
controversial exhibit but similar events have been held by feminist,
Palestinian and leftist groups at the university for some years.
Whether political, religious or criminal,
what appears to be happening in many parts of Europe and North America is that
rather than being guardians of the people the police are taking on the role of
agents of the state. Instead of protecting citizens against crime they are
enforcing state policy against citizens. That’s deeply worrying in theory and
even more troubling in practise.
The Western, democratic notion of an
apolitical police force is beginning to evaporate as the police concern
themselves with “hate crimes”, “bias” and even plain political correctness.
What David Chen did was not obviously political but it did question the
authority and competence of authority and the police and did show an ordinary
person applying the law and common sense. That, it seems, is now the worst
crime of all.
Michael Coren is a broadcaster and
writer living in Toronto, Canada.
