Should this man have been arrested?

Yes..

And I am a socialist.

Well, if your speaking literally that he stole food than the law is black and white and yes he definitely should have been arrested for stealing. If your speaking emotionally, than still yes though most would say no. Yes, because there is no right or wrong illegal act.

Yes. He couldn’t call social services for help? In this case, he’s no Jean Valjean.

If he stole something then yes. If he took something from dumpsters, then no.

Yes. There are plenty of other options before resorting to theft.

Yes. Even if he’s hungry he still broke the law. There are always other options.

It is super easy to get food stamps. I found myself living in my sisters garage about 5 years ago. I lied and said I was homeless. I told them that I have place, it was just easier to be homeless. Paperwork-wise

I got $160 a month for a single dude. No questions asked and it took about thirty minutes.

I think he should be fined, because he stole.But he doesn’t have to go to jail, because the whole reason that he was doing this was because of his children, so they shouldn’t make the children’s lives any harder.

He needs some sort of punishment and directions to a shelter.

@Pseudonym the children’s lives would be harder… how exactly? At least in the foster system, they’d be fed on a regular basis. And cleaned.

@MrItty You definetely have a point there, my friend. My point is that hopefully the guy would use food stamps or something, but then again, I admit you may be right.

Want to hear the outcome of this situation?

The question should have been “How sad is this story.”

Absolutely. Why didn’t he look into a food pantry?

john65pennington has an agenda he is pushing?

@Zen_Again I agree.

The man was not arrested. our main concern was for his children. the man admitted the burglary. we gathered the owner of the drive-in market, the man, and Childrens Services together for discussion. the man apologized to the store owner. the owner agreed not to prosecute, but the man was going to have to work for him in order to pay for the damages and lost food. Children Services temporarily placed the two children in a foster home, until the man worked off his punishment and cleaned his trailer. we also had him placed on Food Stamps and a certain amount of money each month from the state. could this man have done this all for himself, without committing a crime? yes, but since he had no prior criminal record, we decided to give him a break for his childrens sake, not his. this man was not educated. he stated he did not know such programs existed and we believed him. was this the correct avenue for the police to take? this incident occurred 20 years ago and i have never seen his name on a criminal police record. maybe, we did the right thing.

@john65pennington That sounds like a fair course of action. I’m sure it’s tough to see these cases.

While I fully understand the imperative to protect & provide for your family, yes he did break the law….. However I would say that this is one of the cases where the Police would be best off using their judgment rather than the letter of the law.

Each incident is entirely different than another. the choices we make are sometimes tough choices, but hopefully the correct choice. there is nothing in a police manual that states that we have to arrest everybody we come in contact with. this is what common sense is all about.

Well, I’m glad it turned out to be beneficial for everyone.

@john65pennington… hiya john, glad to hear how this turned out. I certainly dont envy the decisions you have to make on a daily basis.

Thank you!

Agreed with others. I think I’d like to amend my answer from “Yes” to “it would have been justified if he was, but if a suitable compromise could be worked out amongst all parties, so much the better”

@MrItty Likewise. I think the real concern is just ensuring justice.

True there are many options but maybe he thought if he went to social services his children would be taken away. Some people see that like putting your child in prison. You never know what kind of care they are going to get. And yes he could’ve gone to a shelter for food but sometimes when people feel extremely helpless they can’t see what is the right thing to do. All he saw was hungry children and a place loaded with food they throw out every day. I think it was the right thing to do. Sometimes people need help digging themselves out of a hole. A hand in friendship sometimes is all the cure one needs. Not everyone is a criminal. Some are just lost.
Jail would’ve meant the store owner just lost money from damages
tax payers have to support him in jail
the children probably would’ve remained in day care till 18 (more tax payer money)
the man probably would’ve lost the only home he had
he probably would’ve remained unemployed because he would have a record saying he stole but not what for
Everyone loses, the store owner, the children, the man and the tax payers. So where would’ve been the justice in that.

@john65pennington You did good. He should have known that there were other ways to feed his childre, but he acted from ignorance. Restitution and seeing to the childrens welfare was the right move.

don’t think so John! would give him some more food and take him home! my dad and uncle were policemen, betting they would have done that!

also, would have contacted some the local churches and made them aware of the situation.

doing a wrong thing for the right reasons is still wrong.

Yes, stealing is stealing and there are other options that he could have tried before stealing (although, I suppose we don’t know whether he did try other options before resorting to theft).

@aprilsimnel Nice Les Mis reference there :)

Yes, of course. He stole food. The law doesn’t play favorites. Whether he stole it for his kids or his drug dealer friend, he broke the law.

@john65pennington…. funny that the day after this question I see this on the morning news http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/north_yorkshire/8425420.stm

As I first read this question my immediate reaction was (like a lot of others, I see), “Yes, of course he should have been arrested.”

But… seeing so many other more or less quick and automatic “yes” answers made me question my own immediate response. (I tend to question a lot of my quick and automatic answers, and even sooner and stronger if I find myself in a majority.) By the time I had gotten to your explanation of the outcome later in the thread I was wondering, “What else could happen here?” So it was great to see the thought process that you used and the alternative ending you arrived at. (Interim ending, anyway. I’m sure this is a process, and not a fairy tale. There’s no fairy godmother here, right? The guy’s wife was obviously at her own limit, and her loss stressed the whole system… yada yada.)

Thanks for the story, and thanks for your demonstration of “alternative justice”. After all, arrests, trials and prisons, or even “community service” doesn’t do much to make either the victims or the offenders any better off, do they?

Any idea what happened with him (or with those kids) in the 20 years since?