Following is a quote from an excellent article on OpenDemocracy.net by Tina Beattie :
I was walking past a Marks & Spencer store towards Edgware Road tube station in central London recently when a security-guard rushed out of the shop and ran past me. As I drew nearer, I saw that he was going to help his colleague who had apprehended a shoplifter. It was an old tramp who had, it seems, stolen a quarter-litre of milk. I joined a small group of onlookers as the guards wrestled the man to the ground, pulling off his shirt in the process, while the rest of us urged them to leave him alone.The guards ignored us, manhandling the man for several minutes and then finally letting him go, leaving him lying half-naked on the ground. One of the onlookers paid for the milk, and the guards went back into the shop while the dazed old man struggled to sit up, still clutching his meagre prize.
I went into the shop and complained to a manager. He was well-trained in the art of placating customers, giving me a smooth-tongued response. Yes, the guards were perhaps a little over-enthusiastic, but the man was a persistent offender who was well-known to them, and they have a duty to stop shoplifters. I protested and eventually left, but the incident has continued to haunt me.
A Bristol homecoming
Banksy understands that haunting perhaps better than any other contemporary British artist. His new exhibition at Bristol Museum and Art Gallery - Banksy Versus Bristol Museum - is defiant, witty and courageous. It is a triumph of dissenting liberality over the increasingly authoritarian regimes which seek to control our diminishing spaces of democracy and freedom.
If that doesn't tempt you to get to Bristol then watch the following trailer:
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