STANDING UP TO CRIMINALS TAKES COURAGE

Those Who Foil Thieves Deserve Praise, Not Punishment

The more I hear about gangsters, drug dealers and other scum holding
our neighbourhoods hostage, the more I'm convinced that we've become a
pretty passive society.

We don't stand up for much, except the odd politically correct cause.
And we allow so-called experts to use weasel words to excuse evil behaviour.

Criminals, we're told, don't do bad things any more; they just "make
poor choices." They're not really thugs and bullies, just victims . .
. of a poor upbringing or the "disease" of addiction.

Outraged taxpayers are advised simply to stand by and let the police
and the experts deal with them.

The career crooks receive, oh, a week or two of house arrest. And
those gutsy folks who do intervene often find themselves in the firing
line -- or being fired.

Take Kelowna gas-bar employee Rod Fuhr, 31, who last month collared a
would-be thief by locking him in the store. The fellow countered by
kicking Fuhr in the face and biting him. But Fuhr overpowered his
attacker and detained him until the police came.

The man was later charged with attempted robbery. Fuhr, amazingly,
wound up losing his $10.50-an-hour job, on the grounds that he
violated company policy by refusing to stand aside and let the fellow
leave.

Let him leave? Fuhr thinks that's ridiculous. And I agree with
him.

Simon Fraser University criminology professor Neil Boyd contends that,
in these kind of cases, corporate non-intervention policies make sense
and that caution is often the better option.

Caution, though, can be an excuse for cowardice . . . or a green light
for continued thievery. And Fuhr's case reminds me of that of
Vancouver security guard Shawn Fortin, who, in 2006, tackled a thief
he saw break into a vehicle across from the Harbour Centre, where he
was on guard.

The 25-year-old Fortin held the robber, who threatened to stab him,
until the cops arrived.

Instead of receiving praise from his boss, he, too, was
dismissed.

I think there's something very wrong here, and it's the companies'
policies that deserve to be trashed, not their plucky employees.

OK, you may say, what about 60-year-old Burnaby contractor Alberto
Morgadinho, killed last week while reportedly trying to stop a car
thief? Wouldn't he have been better off letting the guy go? Or how
about 24-year-old Grant De Patie, the Maple Ridge gas-station employee
who, in 2005, was dragged to death while trying to stop a teen driver
from stealing $12.30 in gas? Well, it's a sad commentary on our
"progressive" justice system that our society has to do without a fine
young man like De Patie, while the punk who killed him will no doubt
be out of jail soon.

I still admire those who stand up for what is right, including
Kerrisdale travel agent Jillian Kailuweit, 26, who late last month
turned the tables on a violent young purse-snatcher.

"I was not going to be a victim," she told me.

Kailuweit, Fuhr, Morgadinho and De Patie are heroes in my book. They
make life better for us all.