Latest news with #Theft
Telegraph
16 hours ago
- Politics
- Telegraph
Rampant shoplifting is the ultimate symbol of our descent into anti-Western decadence
Theft is wrong. Private property is sacrosanct. Shoplifting must be stamped out. We are governed by malicious, ignorant fools who cannot grasp the importance of such precepts, and who are vandalising our social order through their negligence, arrogance and suicidal empathy. Take the grotesque moral inversion exhibited by Labour when it tells shopkeepers not to place 'high value' items close to store entrances, in effect blaming the victims of crime for enticing shoplifters. A minister, Dame Diana Johnson, complained that 'some stores…put bottles of alcohol at the front of the store which obviously people will nick.' Note the use of the colloquial 'nick', which trivialises the violation, demonstrates an inability to take shoplifting seriously and implies that it is a cheeky, opportunistic, almost child-like act of rule-bending. The rest of Johnson's intervention is equally reprehensible. Why would a passer-by 'obviously' feel compelled to grab a bottle if they happen to see it? What kind of excuse is that? Why couldn't they choose not to steal? Do they entirely lack agency? Are we 'noble savages', unable to control our impulses, or are we civilised, demanding self-control, deferred gratification and respect for moral tenets such as 'thou shall not steal'? Labour, in common with many Tories, civil servants, charities and the police establishment, succumbed long ago to 'progressive' woke ideology. This divides the world into oppressors and oppressed, powerful and powerless, bad and good. Shop-owners are part of the capitalist class, and regardless of whether they are a major chain or the local independent corner shop, are tainted: they control the 'power structure' and are inherently guilty of racism, sexism and every sin. Shoplifters are defined, equally reflexively, as oppressed, latter-day Jean Valjeans, after Victor Hugo's character in Les Misérables jailed for 19 years for stealing bread for his sister's starving children.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Yahoo
Police would like to identify these people as part of enquiries into Bradford crimes
Police have released photos of people they would like to identify. The images are in relation to different crimes across Bradford district. West Yorkshire Police's images may be of both potential suspects or witnesses. Members of the public should not approach anyone who they believe to be displayed in the images. If you recognise any of these people, report information via the West Yorkshire Police website and 101 chat facility. Alternatively people can contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111. People should quote the reference number linked to the exact photo. Here's just some recently released 'caught on camera' images for offences in Bradford district. 1. Theft (Image: West Yorkshire Police) Offence date: 12/7/2025 Photo reference: BD8556 2. Theft from shop (Image: West Yorkshire Police) Offence date: 22/6/2025 Photo reference: BD8557 3. Burglary (Image: West Yorkshire Police) Offence date: 19/7/2025 Photo reference: BD8558 4. Theft (Image: West Yorkshire Police) Offence date: 23/7/2025 Photo reference: BD8562 5. Theft from shop (Image: West Yorkshire Police) Offence date: 18/7/2025 Photo reference: BD8561 6. Serious offence (Image: West Yorkshire Police) Offence date: 21/7/2025 Photo reference: BD8560 7. Public order (Image: West Yorkshire Police) Offence date: 30/6/2025 Photo reference: BD8559 8. Theft from shop (Image: West Yorkshire Police) Offence date: 25/7/2025 Photo reference: BD8567 9. Theft (Image: West Yorkshire Police) Offence date: 25/7/2025 Photo reference: BD8566 10. Hate crime (Image: West Yorkshire Police) Offence date: 6/7/2025 Photo reference: BD8565 11. Burglary other (Image: West Yorkshire Police) Offence date: 7/7/2025 Photo reference: BD8564 12. Assault (Image: West Yorkshire Police) Offence date: 24/7/2025 Photo reference: BD8563 13. Theft from shop (Image: West Yorkshire Police) Offence date: 3/8/2025 Photo reference: BD8570 14. Theft from vehicle (Image: West Yorkshire Police) Offence date: 29/7/2025 Photo reference: BD8569 15. Theft from shop (Image: West Yorkshire Police) Offence date: 25/7/2025 Photo reference: BD8568 The identities of those shown are sought in connection with enquiries into the described alleged offences. Images may be of both potential suspects or witnesses. If you contact police regarding one of those pictured in the appeals, state the identity of the person shown and quote the reference number accompanying the picture.
TimesLIVE
01-08-2025
- Entertainment
- TimesLIVE
Nobel Literature Prize winner Abdulrazak Gurnah will hook you in with ‘Theft'
Theft Abdulrazak Gurnah Bloomsbury Abdularazak Gurnah's writing is brilliant, perhaps unsurprising for a Nobel Literature Prize winner. At first glance it seems unshowy, beautifully easy to read and straightforward. At the same time it has immense power to hook in the reader and make them care deeply about the characters and their circumstances. Theft has three main characters whose lives we follow as they move from their 1990s childhood into adulthood. They are based in the author's native country of Tanzania, specifically Zanzibar, which Gurnah left at the age of 18 as a refugee before settling in Britain. The first is Karim, who, though his mother abandoned him when he was a child, was fortunate to have a supportive half-brother who saw that he wanted for very little. In contrast, Badar has no idea who his real parents were. The presumed relations who raised him until he was aged 14 then unceremoniously dumped him onto another family in Dar es Salaam to be a servant. The third character, Fauzia, is an only child, clever and deeply loved but with an overprotective mother who is always terrified her daughter's childhood epilepsy will recur and ruin her life. In the early part of the book we learn less about Fauzia, but her role will develop. The family who employ Badar are Karim's mother, her second husband and his gloomy father. Once Karim is a successful, high-flying and somewhat entitled student in Dar es Salaam, he visits them to re-establish a relationship with his mother and, in what is perhaps a slightly patronising way, befriends Badar. When Badar is wrongly accused of theft, he takes him back to Zanzibar and helps him find a job, working in a slightly rundown hotel in Stone Town. Karim is a charming and successful young man whose easy generosity to Badar sets up an unequal relationship which, when tested, may prove difficult. However, at the beginning it is happy, and when Karim marries Fauzia it seems Badar has the friendships and stability he has always craved. However, life is not that simple and in the story of three young people — ordinary in many ways and none of them likely to change the world — Gurnah explores how relationships work. It is not only the interpersonal that he highlights: Tanzania attracts aid workers, and Gurnah shows how the volunteers, however good their original motives, can be predatory and frighteningly careless of the societies in which they find themselves. On the personal level, he shows how people interact — who has power, influence, affection, empathy and need and how these compete.
Hindustan Times
19-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Hindustan Times
Review: Theft by Abdulrazak Gurnah
'We can endure any truth, however destructive, provided it replaces everything, provided it affords as much vitality as the hope for which it substitutes,' writes the Romanian philosopher EM Cioran in his classic The Trouble with Being Born. This quote characterises the Tanzanian-British novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah's latest novel, Theft – his first since winning the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2021. A testament to Gurnah's dedication to telling the stories of 'little people who somehow overcome things', it is divided into three parts. The first offers a slow reveal of characters and historical contexts. Perhaps this is Gurnah's nod to Tolstoy, whose short story Polikushka is invoked in a conversation in this novel. Here, readers learn what led to the marriage of 17-year-old Raya to Bakari Abbas, a divorcee in his forties. Raya was in love with Rafik, who had joined the Umma Party to free Zanzibar, then a British protectorate. But her father disapproved of Rafik, and foreseeing humiliation, gets his daughter married to Abbas. The rationale behind his rushed decision is explored only briefly but it establishes how, besides patriarchy, colonialism and communism too played a role in it. Raya and Abbas' marriage turns out to be a disaster. Powerless, she notes feeling Abbas' 'overbearing flesh upon her unresisting body'. This reflection on bedroom politics crucially underlines how some men believe it is their right to take what they desire. It was not so much Abbas' abusive nature but the 'charming' personality that he projected to others that disturbed Raya and made her wonder if anyone would believe her if she confided in them. With nothing to do, she internalises shame. She eventually summons up the courage to leave Abbas behind and returns to her parents' home with their three-year-old son, Karim. To avoid being her father's 'skivvy', she begins working at a clothing store but, in the process, fails to raise Karim with motherly affection. This loss — or theft? — of sorts, is one of the reasons why Karim turns out to be a careless father. Gurnah writes: 'Karim at times wondered why parents like his, who were neglecting and unloving, bothered to have children… He would do things differently when he became a father, that was certain.' When Raya remarries and moves to her husband Haji Othman's house in Dar es Salaam, Karim finds shelter in the home of his stepbrother Ali and his wife Jalila. Abbas' son from a previous marriage is a proxy father to Karim. These patterns of a newly-wed couple providing shelter to a forlorn man and of men looking for someone to fill the father-shaped void within themselves are repeated in the novel's climatic third part where Karim and his wife Fauzia open their doors for Badar. This circularity is perhaps what interests Gurnah the most, and is reflected in how Theft's principal character Badar Ismail's life pans out. When Badar was first brought to Haji's, he couldn't guess that he was to be their boy servant. While he missed his father, who was not actually his father, he accepts his fate as he finds nothing to complain about at Haji's. Except for Haji's father, Uncle Othman, everyone was nice to him. Juma, the old gardener, is good company and offers wisdom after the daily chores are done. Occasionally, Badar pleasures himself thinking of Raya 'when she had just risen from her afternoon rest and was dressed in a loose thin gown which sat well on her and clung a little to parts of her body as she moved'. READ MORE: Abdulrazak Gurnah: 'Silence can also be vocal' The sociopolitical history of Zanzibar and their own personal histories add layers of complexity to Gurnah's characters and their actions. This is particularly evident in the scene when Haji tries to appear candid by having a conversation full of rather 'touchy' questions with Badar. The latter is aware that Haji possesses the power to influence his future – something which eventually does happen when he is suspected of theft. Gurnah writes, 'Once again Badar found that the direction of his life had changed without any effort on his part.' And that's how Badar finds himself living with Karim and Fauzia before moving to his own space after having worked several months at the Tamarind Hotel, which features in the third part of the novel. The action and the anticipation in this section gives it a distinct energy and narrative tension. The goings-on at the hotel reveal the boundaries — kept and blurred — between people in the hospitality industry and their clients, corruption in the tourism industry, and the nexus between influential politicians and hoteliers like Bwana Sharif in a late-capitalist world. Theft makes readers think about how decisions are made and who eventually benefits from them. In reality, rewards don't distribute themselves but are purely dependent on the power their possible benefactors can wield. This novel is similar to Gurnah's earlier work in that it focuses on the mundane to reflect on a universal condition. It explores interactions between people, and presents the circuitous route that life often takes. Saurabh Sharma is a Delhi-based writer and freelance journalist. They can be found on Instagram/X: @writerly_life.
The Citizen
17-06-2025
- The Citizen
Stock theft crisis: Police struggle to return livestock to owners
The death of impounded animals due to ill health further complicates the process and reduces the number of livestock that can be returned to their owners, South African police are grappling with a mounting livestock crisis, with 328 animals unclaimed by their owners in the 2024-25 financial year alone — a dramatic increase from just two animals three years ago. The figures were recently revealed by Police Minister Senzo Mchunu in response to parliamentary questions. The crisis has escalated sharply over the past three years, with 82 livestock going unclaimed in 2023-24 compared to only two in 2022-23. Currently, police facilities and private pounds across the country are housing 723 animals, with the majority—652 livestock—kept in private facilities while 71 remain in public pounds. Rural safety strategy launched to combat stock theft Mchunu outlined government's comprehensive approach to addressing the problem when responding to questions from EFF MP Mothusi Kenneth Montwedi. 'Rural safety, including stock theft prevention, is a priority for the South African Police Service (Saps), and as part of this commitment, the multi-year Rural Safety Strategy was developed and approved in 2020,' Mchunu stated. The strategy aims to enhance safety and security in rural areas while ensuring food security through an integrated policing approach. Mchunu emphasised the collaborative nature of the initiative, explaining that it 'encourages collaboration with various stakeholders, including government departments, such as the Departments of Agriculture, Rural Development and Land Reform, and Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs.' The police service has established multiple coordinating mechanisms to address the issue, including Rural Safety Priority Committees, which function as subcommittees of the Joint Operations and Intelligence Structures at national, provincial, district, and station levels. According to Mchunu, a National Stock Theft Forum was also created in partnership with the Red Meat Producers' Organisation to serve as a collaborative platform for addressing stock theft. ALSO READ: Two Lesotho shepherds killed in violent stock theft incident in Free State Specialised units and training programmes deployed To strengthen investigative capabilities, the Saps has established 93 Stock Theft and Endangered Species Units throughout all nine provinces. Mchunu said specialised units are mandated to investigate all stock theft and endangered species-related cases. 'The ST&ESUs are resourced in terms of their physical and human resource needs. During the past three financial years, a total of 263 investigators were trained in the Stock Theft Investigators' Learning Programme,' Mchunu stated. The police service also developed a Stock Theft Prevention and Investigation Guideline in 2023-24 and conducted capacity-building sessions across all provinces, districts, and rural police stations to create awareness about prevention measures and investigation contributions. ALSO READ: Baanksy, the sheep who learnt to paint from Pigcasso, still missing [VIDEO] Provincial distribution reveals uneven impact The current livestock holdings reveal significant provincial variations in the crisis. North West province houses the largest number of animals in private pounds, with 349 livestock, while Eastern Cape has 211 animals in private facilities and 14 in public pounds. Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Northern Cape, and Western Cape also maintain both public and private pound facilities, while Free State and KwaZulu-Natal report no livestock currently in custody. The unclaimed animals for 2024-25 are concentrated primarily in the Eastern Cape with 225 livestock, the North West with 66 animals, and the Western Cape with 24. Several provinces, including Free State, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, and Mpumalanga, reported no unclaimed livestock for the current financial year. ALSO READ: Stock theft crisis deepens along SA borders with over 1 200 cattle cases reported in the last year Key challenges hampering return efforts Mchunu identified several critical obstacles preventing the successful return of livestock to their owners. The primary challenge stems from community non-compliance with the Animal Identification Act of 2002. 'Failure by communities to comply with section 7 of the Animal Identification Act, 2002 (Act No. 6 of 2002), which requires all livestock, e.g. cattle, sheep, goats, etc., to be marked,' represents a significant barrier to identifying rightful owners. Financial constraints also impede reunification efforts, particularly in cases where animals were impounded as strays and owners cannot afford the associated pound fees required for release. Additionally, the death of impounded animals due to ill health further complicates the process and reduces the number of livestock available for return. ALSO READ: Six nabbed for stock theft worth over R6m in Eastern Cape Disposal procedures and legal framework The management and disposal of seized or impounded livestock follows strict protocols outlined in the Saps National Instruction 8 of 2017 regarding Property and Exhibit Management. Mchunu noted that the procedures are 'outlined in detail in the Saps' National Instruction 8 of 2017: Property and Exhibit Management,' specifically referencing paragraphs 18 and 19 covering livestock management and disposal of exhibits in police custody. The minister indicated that detailed information about these procedures could be provided to parliamentary members upon request, suggesting the complexity and comprehensive nature of the protocols governing livestock handling. Cross-border cooperation and technology integration The police service has extended its anti-stock theft efforts beyond national borders through participation in Southern African Regional Police Chiefs Cooperation Organisation forums in border provinces and Southern African Development Community initiatives to address cross-border crime and stock theft. Technology plays an increasingly important role in the strategy, with existing Operational Command Centres at national, provincial and district levels linked to private security industry capabilities through the Eyes and Ears Project. Stock Theft Information Centres contribute to effective information flow and prevention efforts, particularly at the station level. NOW READ: Steenhuisen pushes 'zero tolerance' for cattle attacks
