Off With His Head!

David Chen, owner of the Lucky Moose Market on Dundas Street here in Toronto's Chinatown, was in court yesterday waiting to face charges for the alleged assault and kidnapping of a shoplifter outside of his produce store. Mr. Chen was arrested in May and charged with the alleged assault and kidnapping of suspected shoplifter, Anthony Bennett. The word "suspected" is interesting in this case.
First of all, surveillance video from May 23, 2009, shows Mr. Bennett taking a tray of plants from outside the Lucky Moose Market, placing it on the back of his bicycle and then riding off with it. Clear footage of shoplifting, but still Bennett is just "suspected". Mr. Bennett is the proud owner of a criminal record that dates back to 1976 and he has admitted in his guilty plea to feeding a crack addiction by stealing from local businesses. Clear admission of guilt from the suspect himself, but still he is just "suspected". Obviously, Bennett needs his time in court just as he needs a judge and jury to change the adjective to "guilty". Mr. Chen, however, does not need the time he is being forced to spend in court. This is a time when Canada's legal system is showcasing its lamentable tendency too often to protect the supposed rights of the guilty at the cost of the innocent.
On that date back in May, Bennett returned an hour later to the Lucky Moose, quite possibly with the intent of helping himself to more merchandise. AT that point, Chen and two employees chased him and caught him. Perhaps if they had just stood with him out on the sidewalk, holding his hand and asking him nicely to stay there until the police arrived, there would have been no problem. I'm sure Bennett would have stayed calm and willingly remained with Chen if they had just appealed to his obvious sense of morals. Instead, Chen and the two employees bound Bennett's hands and held him in the back of a van until police arrived. Note that detail. It was only until the police arrived. It was not for weeks and months.
Because the citizen's arrest did not occur during the actual commission of an offence, Mr. Chen found himself charged with assault, kidnapping, forcible confinement and concealment of a weapon, to wit, the deadly box cutter he keeps on his belt. Mr. Bennett, on the other hand, was charged with two counts of shoplifting, one relating to a flower shop down on King Street. After agreeing to testify as a Crown witness against Mr. Chen, however, Bennett pleaded guilty and his sentence was significantly reduced. Now we have the upright contributor to society facing the wrath of the law while the long-time lawbreaker is being sheltered under its wigs and flowing robes. Bennett has been stealing for years from various shops in the area of the Lucky Moose. and is known to many there as an inveterate thief. According to one of the area shopkeepers, stealing plants from one location and then selling them further up the street is one of Bennett's special talents. All of this really begs the question; why has our justice system allowed this man to continue his light-fingered habits for so long? It also makes the arrest and charging of Mr. Chen into a very badly written joke. On the steps of the courthouse yesterday, Chen's lawyer, Peter Lindsay, said it well when he declared, "What today's events say about our justice system is that up is down and left is right and everything is perverse."
Can't you just picture the scene when/if this fiasco has its day in the courtroom? I imagine a judge of a clearly choleric disposition wearing a huge wig, all askew on his otherwise bald pate, looking very much like the Red Queen in Disney's production of "Alice in Wonderland". I see him bringing his gavel crashing down on his desk and screaming "Off with his head!", very much like the Red Queen does. I just can't quite see whether he's pointing his gavel at Chen or at Bennett.