Editor: After reading the article “Man beaten over stolen jeans,” (The Times, May 22) I thought there must be two sides to this story. It appears that the alleged thief is turning out to be the victim and the security officer is the bad guy.
Having had dealings with this type of situation in my law enforcement days, I have found that a shoplifter can be very resistant to arrest and many carry knives or other items, in order to resist. Looking at the photo of this so-called homeless person with your article, he seems to have a very muscular arm.
I just wanted to ask people to hold back a little on their criticism for a while. I don’t know either person involved and am not familiar with Value Village’s attitude towards this sort of thing, but stealing is stealing and theft is theft.
Don Weber,
Langley