A shop owner in Wrexham, North Wales, was asked by police to remove a sign calling shoplifters “scum bags” because it had “caused offense.”
61-year-old Rob Davies, who runs the retro shop Run Ragged, put up signs around his store warning customers that cabinets were locked due to ongoing shoplifting problems. The notice read, “Due to scumbags shoplifting, please ask for assistance to open cabinets.”
According to a report by the Daily Mail, police visited the shop after receiving a complaint about the signs and asked Davies to “take the signs down.”
“One person whinges about a sign, and the police turn up and ask if I can take the signs down,” Davies said. “I have a legitimate reason to complain to the police due to thieving, they don’t turn up.”
Davies said the store, which he has run for five years, has faced a wave of theft that led him to stop reporting incidents to police. Last year, he estimated losing about £200 in stock and reported five shoplifters. In one case, police merely returned a shirt stolen by a suspect and told him to “get on his way.”
Police urged Davies to “re-word” his signs because they could be seen as “provocative and offensive.” When Davies asked who could be offended by the sign, he was told it was due to a member of the public’s complaint.
“ I just wonder if that person was a shoplifter who was offended as it was detrimental to their work,” he said. “Well guys, if you know me you will know I don’t mean to cause offence but in this case please feel free to be offended and stop frequenting my shop. You are no loss.”
The incident is the latest amid broader criticisms of free speech erosion in the UK. Recently, US Vice President JD Vance met with UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy, warning that the West has become “too comfortable” censoring ideas. Vance cautioned the UK not to follow “dark path” of censorship.
“The entire collective West - our transatlantic relationship, our Nato allies, certainly the United States under the Biden administration - got a little too comfortable with censoring rather than engaging with a diverse range of opinions,” Vance said. “I've raised some concerns about our friends on this side of the Atlantic but the thing I would say to the people of England, to David, is that many of the things I worry most about were happening in the United States from 2020 to 2024.”
“I just don't want other countries to follow us on what I think was a very dark path under the Biden administration,” Vance added.
