The mugger the mob wanted freed

Here’s the thing.  I was strolling through a part of the centre of Liverpool, when I happened upon a small crowd surrounding two people.  “Let him go!  Let him go!” various people were shouting.

As I got closer I saw a security guard hanging on to the arm of a young boy of maybe 13 years of age, maybe younger.  To me he looked about 10.  The security guard was clearly a security guard, clearly wearing the uniform of the company he worked for and the ID card that security guards wear.  I’d not seen him before.

However, I recognised the young boy.  I’d unwittingly watched him some weeks earlier with an accomplice of about the same age, steam-rob a lady of her phone and handbag, running around her taunting her and daring her to try to recover her property, and then run off with it, turning back to laugh and mock her before disappearing.  I remember thinking how cruel he had been.

So, some weeks later the boy was now being held by the security guard, crying and pretending he was being hurt.  Clearly all the security guard was doing was holding onto his arm to try to keep him from running away.

The crowd were falling for it, and so were trying to get the security guard to let the boy go.  At the top of his voice the security guard was repeating, “He assaulted a shop assistant!  He assaulted a shop assistant!  He knocked her out!  He knocked her out!”

Some people stepped forward to defend the guard, but the overwhelming majority didn’t seem to care about what the young boy had done, they just saw a young boy being held against his will and wanted to free him.

Luckily, a couple of police weighed in and took control of the situation, telling the small crowd to move away.  As the boy was frogmarched off (he stopped the pretend crying once the police arrived), I mentioned to one of them that I thought I’d seen him snatch a phone and handbag some weeks ago.  “Very likely sir, he is well known to us, I’m afraid,” came the reply.

But why isn’t anything done to protect the public from this boy?  He clearly doesn’t care for others, as is evidenced by his cruel taunting of the mugging victim, and, if it’s true, his violence against a female shop assistant.

I’m guessing that if anybody bothers to try to prosecute him all the out of touch do-gooders passing sentences just keep him back out on the streets to attack and rob more of us.  Why are we not protected?  Why are they not held to account for not putting him away?