Pat and I were checking out at the London Drugs at our local mall today.  The checkout we had taken happened to face out through the entrance into the mall main foyer.

As we were at the counter, there was an apparent furour in the foyer which we could watch while we waited.  Everyone in line and the clerk stopped to watch.

A young man, about 17 or 18 with a backpack, was being questioned by two mall security men.  After revealing the articles that he had stolen,  the kid attempted to run away and the security guys held on to him as two more mall security men came to assist.  The more the kid struggled the more they had to wrestle him until he was on the ground as he was screaming brutality.  The kid fought a lot more than he should have.

Now to me, the mall cops were perfectly reasonable, no hitting or kicking just trying their best to restrain him.  We eventually finished our purchase and went out to watch the kid quietly being escorted to the office.  I looked around and there were at least 5 people videotaping the episode on their smart phones including two that followed along the hall to the mall office like paparazzi.

Granted I will give you that public videos of police action have been identifying possible abuses are great for justice,  but this was a relatively minor shop lifting.  While I do not offer any excuse for the kid, I wonder how his punishment is going to be made far worse by the U Tube videos of his capture and struggle.  I just thought, wait a minute the issue is over, leave the kid alone.

The pure voyeurism of the people filming bothered me, but I correctly chose not to confront the people filming the videos lest I be brought into the limelight.   I guess that is just the norm in our modern age of everything we do in public being recorded.

I do not know why, but it bothered me all day long.