When I was walking through Edinburgh today I saw a woman being led away from a second hand book shop to a waiting police van. There was something about the fact that someone was stealing something with no monetary value potential for resale but rather something which we are forever placing on a moral pedastal and lecturing on the academic value of that saddened me. She wasn't stealing them in order to sell them for crack; she was taking them because she wanted to read them.
At the time I was thinking about justice policies (because I'm cool like that) and it reminded me that crime is as much a symptom as it is a problem in its own right, something I constantly have to remind myself. As long as there are prison spaces to fill we can send people to prison and create a deterrent that will lower crime rates and protect people and communities from real damage, however there will still be people in desparate situations that are driven to commit crimes in an effort to help themselves when there is no other help fourthcoming.
Tuesday, 7 April 2009
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"She wasn't stealing them in order to sell them for crack; she was taking them because she wanted to read them."
ReplyDeleteHad she never heard of a library? Or was she banned from stealing the books there?
I don't about the library near you, but the one nearest me (and the one beyond that) is absolutely rubbish: the local second hand bookshops contain far more worthwhile reads. In fact, libraries themselves would probably do a better trade if they stocked up using second hand bookshops.
ReplyDeleteThe woman concerned lives in Edinburgh which doesn't suffer from rubbish libraries, I assure you.
ReplyDeleteJust a thought but how do you know she was stealing books?
ReplyDeletePersonally I like Chartiy bookshops; there's an Oxfam Bookshop in Durham that I worked in for a while that is very good.
The clue is in the title of the blog post.
ReplyDeleteUmm no it's not. He saw her being lead away from a second hand bookshop, that doesn't neccessarily mean she was stealing books.
ReplyDeleteClue Fail.
Hmm, then why does the title say: "I saw a person being arrested for stealing books today".
ReplyDeleteOr, "There was something about the fact that someone was stealing something with no monetary value..."
And, "She wasn't stealing them in order to sell them for crack..."
I was asking how he knew she was stealing books.
ReplyDeleteThose quotes simply shows that he thought she was stealing books, not how he knew it.