Robbed of Meaning?
Published as a Letter to the Editor in the Westmount Independent, 16 April 2024
The Police Report (April 2, 2024, p10) headline “‘Flash mob’ thieves rob Sherbrooke boutique…” left me confused. Are the perpetrators thieves, or are they robbers? Fortunately, the body of the article helped to clear up the confusion. Since the perps just grabbed the clothes and walked out, and did not use violence or threaten violence, they’re just shoplifters, not robbers.
I also wondered, do two people constitute a “mob”?
The following item, about cars being broken into and robbed, is also misleading. While banks and stores can be robbed or held up, with the implication that the people inside were intimidated or subjected to violence, a car without its occupants cannot be “robbed” or high-jacked; it can be stolen, though, and its contents can also be stolen, although if the car is unlocked the perp would not need to break into it.
When we read headlines that escalate theft into robbery, we start to believe that we live in increasingly dangerous times, we become more suspicious of each other, and our voting swings to the right, calling for more police, longer jail sentences, and more surveillance cameras.
In reality, the numbers for Station 12 show that criminality has decreased by 37% over the 10 years from 2012 to 2021. So, please, tone down the scary headlines!