Arrested For Being Falsely Imprisoned

As you may know I don't often link to other people's blogs, but I've been reading this one guy's journal about his recent visit to a Circuit City in Ohio.

Seems (as you will discover if/when you read the blog) he was asked to produce a receipt for his purchases after he left the store. He refused to do so - which he is well within his rights to do - and was then stopped from leaving the car park by two members of Circuit City's staff. He (not the Circuit City staff) then calls the police to resolve the situation, and after not providing a Driver's License (despite not being in a motor vehicle at the time or being the driver of the one he was a passenger in) was arrested, despite apparently not having committed a crime.

There are some interesting points made in the Slashdot comments about how being forced to show a receipt on exiting a store is - despite being effective social engineering on a grand scale - actually illegal, and raise some valid questions about when shoplifting actually occurs. Which is apposite as some friends of mine were recently accused of shoplifting while carrying goods they intended to purchase around our local supermarket.

Mostly though, it's an fascinating look at how the US has become some kind of Orwellian/Kafkaesque nightmare - where the citizenry has gotten so used to the invasions of power into their everyday lives that when someone actively stands up for their rights, they're arrested.