As RedState reported, a Sikh convenience store owner turned the tables on a shoplifter as he attempted to get away with thousands of dollars of stolen merchandise.

The viral scene unfolded in California, showing a man shoveling entire shelves worth of tobacco and other products into a trash can while taunting the owner with proclamations that “there’s nothing you can do.” The shoplifter quickly learned that wasn’t true, though, as he was tackled to the ground and beaten with a rod.

Sikh grocery store owner was told that "there ain't nothing you can do" repeatedly and that "ayy, just let him go" as they were being robbed. The Sikhs disagreed. pic.twitter.com/ZIb5CVLMNl

— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) August 2, 2023

Apparently, while many California cities have no desire to actually enforce the laws against people who steal from business owners and put them in financial peril, they are interested in enforcing battery laws involving the protection of said businesses. According to a new report, the Sikh man is now facing criminal charges as local police investigate the incident.

Clown world.

The Sikh convenience store clerk who beat the piss out of a shoplifter with a stick in is under investigation from Stockton, California police for assault.

The clerks also said the same man stole from their store two other times.
pic.twitter.com/ZueivvTZEC

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) August 6, 2023

Some are making the argument that the force used on the shoplifter in the video was excessive, and as a purely legal matter, that may be true. The shoplifter was begging for mercy while the store owner continued to swing back and strike him. The question is at what point the store owner is expected to disengage, and he likely passed that point.

Still, I think that argument misses the broader point of what normally law-abiding citizens are dealing with and what the ultimate consequences are of refusing to enforce the law against criminal vagrants. These business owners (and also just people walking down the street) are being ignored by local police and prosecutors as they are harassed, assaulted, and stolen from. It was just a matter of time before someone reached their breaking point and lashed out.

That’s really the story here, as far as I’m concerned. We can argue the finer points of the law all day and at what point self-defense turns into aggression. But what would solve all these problems and avoid scenes like those in that video is having local jurisdictions and state governments that are willing to put shoplifters and other common criminals behind bars so they can’t continue to terrorize people. Until that happens, we are going to see a lot more of what we saw in that video.