# Student charged for stealing free milk. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 25, 2016, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-charged-for-stealing-free-milk/755625 "2016-05-25T03:55:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2016, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-charged-for-stealing-free-milk/755625/101 "2016-05-26T16:45:25Z")
> [@yellowjacketcoder](#): > > Kid grabbed milk, did not go through the line to pay for it. What does that look like? Sure looks like stealing from here. It’s a school lunch line with free milk. I would assume what the kid claimed, that he forgot the milk and went back to get it. If the cop had been paying attention he would have seen that, or if he wasn’t there to see that is what happened then he didn’t have enough information to conclude anything. At worst it might look like the kid was guilty of violating the no cutsies rule. ---
**Author:** ![yellowjacketcoder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/4bbf92/32.png) [@yellowjacketcoder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yellowjacketcoder)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2016, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-charged-for-stealing-free-milk/755625/102 "2016-05-26T16:46:07Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > So the answer is “Go direct to confrontation and physicality”? Confronting someone that you reasonably believe has stolen an item? Uh, yes, that is completely normal. > [@Chimera](#): > > If this is your thinking, then you should not be involved in law enforcement or public policy. Back at ya. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2016, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-charged-for-stealing-free-milk/755625/103 "2016-05-26T16:54:01Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > There are more serious situations where police intervention is needed. I _hate_ it when people say that. “Isn’t there something better you could be doing right now?” is never, ever an excuse for “Don’t mind me while I do something I’m not supposed to be doing”. Further more, the person getting caught is usually wrong about what the authority figure could be doing. In this case, the officer’s sole job was to be at the school watching what was going on. Maybe in this case (as it is with my neighbor, that I mentioned up thread) if he wasn’t doing that, he’d wouldn’t be off duty. It’s not that he’s at the school _instead_ of out catching murderers. Which brings me to the next example. You often here 'don’t you have something better to be doing, like catching bad guys\* when people get pulled over. Is that what you think patrol officers do? This isn’t your boss micromanaging. This is you doing something wrong and blaming the person that caught you (for not catching someone else doing something else?). ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2016, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-charged-for-stealing-free-milk/755625/104 "2016-05-26T17:05:21Z")
> [@yellowjacketcoder](#): > > I do agree that the kid’s parents are probably idiots if this is how they raised their son. This reminds me of a side-by-side comparison of comments on CNN articles about two mothers of criminals expressing sorrow about what happened to their sons. Comments relating to Mother 1: > [@](#): > > I’m sure her heart is broken. That’s her son. She loves him no matter what. that’s what mother’s do. > [@](#): > > I feel bad for her…Her son broke her heart and had caused her so much pain > [@](#): > > You never stop loving your child even when they hurt your [sic] deeply and your heart is broken! That love is always there! My heart goes out to this mother! > [@](#): > > That is a real mothers love for her child!!! No matter what you do in your life!! Your Mother will always be your Mother!! Comments relating to Mother 2: > [@](#): > > I would teach my child to respect authority and not rob stores or punch cops. > [@](#): > > I raised mine to obey the law. > [@](#): > > It’s becoming apparent as to why [name] was a thug. > [@](#): > > Should have raised your son to be respectful > [@](#): > > Suck it up, you raised the thug. Now live with what you created. The two criminals in question were Michael Brown and David SweatNo points for guessing which comments pertain to which mother… ---
**Author:** ![Omega\_Glory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/7c8e57/32.png) [@Omega\_Glory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omega_Glory)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2016, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-charged-for-stealing-free-milk/755625/105 "2016-05-26T17:30:21Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > It’s quite interesting how many people accept that the law be applied in this case. > > I saw this as a routing discipline problem. Easily handled by the school staff. A warning and demerits maybe. Detention. Whatever they prefer using. Yes. This is a middle school. What happened to lunch ladies? The school made a mistake when they decided to have a cop patrol the cafeteria. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2016, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-charged-for-stealing-free-milk/755625/106 "2016-05-26T17:42:45Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > If it legitimately looked like the kid was stealing the milk, then it was 100% appropriate for the officer to begin the arrest process. In fact, it would be grossly inappropriate for him to fail to do so. Far better for the kid to learn not to steal now, over a petty matter, than for it to happen when he’s shoplifting hundreds of dollars worth of merchandise from a store. > > Note that I said “begin the arrest process”. This process could have been cut short, if the kid had not actually stolen the milk and had reacted reasonably. Even by the accounts we have, he did not. Did someone hijack your account? I would have expected this type of comment from a poster with a 2016 join date coming in to whine about how liberals are soft on crime, not a reasonable poster like yourself. How in the world can you think police are an appropriate response? You don’t get the criminal justice system involved because you think a kid is stealing a $0.60 milk. The criminal justice system is for things that cannot be resolved any other way. You aren’t teaching the kids not to steal. You’re teaching them “make sure there’s not a cop around.” Because that’s the only way anything bad will happen to you. He learned that cops are completely unreasonable–and will assume that a kid going back and getting a milk must be stealing it, rather than ask the kid what happened. He will threaten and scare the kid into an emotional response–in order to take advantage. The only time a resource officer should get involved in basic school discipline is when the regular system has failed. There’s a reason there are childcare classes. Where, if you’d been to one, you’ll be taught that an unwanted touch is threatening and not a good idea. What really sucks is that this could turn into a situation where there is more information, and things aren’t as they seem. And all the people advocating for arresting kids for minor discipline problems will treat it like confirmation that everything they said was right. Yeah, a resource officer can be a good thing. My schools had one. You know what never happened on my campus? Anyone being arrested. You know who patrolled the kids lunch? Teachers. You always had those 2 or 3 who were the strict ones that would get you in trouble. And what did trouble mean? Detention. Maybe a charge back to your account that you would have to pay–that would, if carried far enough, keep from graduating if you didn’t pay. I do not understand anyone taking the side that children should be arrested for things like this. ---
**Author:** ![CannyDan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cannydan/32/548_2.png) [@CannyDan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CannyDan)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2016, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-charged-for-stealing-free-milk/755625/107 "2016-05-26T18:44:48Z")
What frustrates and alarms me about this case (and several other recent cases) is that we are talking about _children_. By definition, children are incapable of reliably making mature evaluations of situations they may encounter. And children are also unreliable in controlling their own actions. This inconsistency is due in part to their immature evaluative ability, and in part is a consequence of incompletely developed internal mechanisms of self control. We codify this in the law in a variety of ways. For instance, we don’t usually allow children to sign contracts (or we won’t enforce a contract made by a child). And we have an entire subset of criminality devoted to “juvenile justice”. I don’t wish to belabor these examples; suffice it to say that our society recognizes that children are different from adults, and holds them to a different standard. Except in a growing number of cases involving police officers. Like this one. I’m willing to accept some justification for “_respect my authorit-eye!_” in police interactions with adults. The (i) reasonable suspicion, (ii) probable cause, (iii) let a judge sort it out ladder of escalation is acceptable to me, as long as the LEOs abide by the rules. But not with children. Once upon a time, many sawgrass seasons ago, I was a classroom teacher in a public school. We dealt with unruly kids all the time, including some involved in petty crimes. We didn’t lay hands on them, and the only time we involved the “school resources officer” (campus cop) was after the Principal had determined that the juvenile was in fact delinquent in a way that offended the law and other courses of correction (detention, suspension) were insufficient for the magnitude of the transgression. Hypothetical Scene 1 – Lunch Lady yells at kid “You know better! Get back in line!” Kid replies “Aww, I forgot my milk. My lunch is over there getting cold!” LL retorts “Yeah, that’s the price you pay for forgetting the first time. Back in line.” Hypothetical Scene 2 – Cop grabs child, and the description follows the criminal justice scenario being supported by several posters above. I’m thinking there will be two different results of these different scenarios. One result will be a kid grumbling “Crotchety old bat! You see the hair net on that one? But I’m sure gonna remember my milk next time.” Another result will be a kid telling everyone he knows “Fuckin’ assholes, pushed me around and gave me a criminal record for stealing a carton of milk! Milk that I was entitled to anyway! Fuck them, fuck their system! Just wait till I’m bigger! Bastards!” Which is the preferred product of our school system? ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2016, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-charged-for-stealing-free-milk/755625/108 "2016-05-26T18:50:25Z")
> [@IvoryTowerDenizen](#): > > You are taking my quote out of context. > > I said that **I was not commenting** on this situation, but responding to the OP’s assertion that cops in schools is a weird, strange thing that would never happen in the happy times he was in school. In many schools, the officers are in the schools for exactly the reason I said. I don’t think I was taking it out of context. The reason for putting the officers there is often exactly what you said, so that children learn to interact with and trust officers. I was pointing out that, regardless of the reasoning, children may learn a different lesson. ---
**Author:** ![Omega\_Glory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/7c8e57/32.png) [@Omega\_Glory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omega_Glory)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2016, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-charged-for-stealing-free-milk/755625/109 "2016-05-26T18:58:56Z")
> [@CannyDan](#): > > Hypothetical Scene 1 – Lunch Lady yells at kid “You know better! Get back in line!” Kid replies “Aww, I forgot my milk. My lunch is over there getting cold!” LL retorts “Yeah, that’s the price you pay for forgetting the first time. Back in line.” > > Hypothetical Scene 2 – Cop grabs child, and the description follows the criminal justice scenario being supported by several posters above. Or - Hypothetical Scene 3 - Lunch Lady yells at kid “You know better! Get back in line!” Kid replies “Aww, I forgot my milk, and I can just take it because I get free lunch." Lunch Lady explains that the kid still has to go through the line because the school has to keep track of the inventory. Kid: “Oh.” Kid learns something, no one gets arrested, and an entire cafeteria full of kids aren’t subjected to this overreaction. ---
**Author:** ![CannyDan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cannydan/32/548_2.png) [@CannyDan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CannyDan)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2016, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-charged-for-stealing-free-milk/755625/110 "2016-05-26T19:04:41Z")
**Omega** , I’m perfectly comfortable with your expanded and optimistic additional possibility! I’d love to think the best of all involved. But I was afraid that some degree of pessimism would be called for by those insisting that some criminal mind was at work here, so I went with the slightly reluctant but still compliant kid. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2016, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-charged-for-stealing-free-milk/755625/111 "2016-05-26T19:08:03Z")
Hypothetical Scene 4: “Hey, did you steal that milk?” “No. I get it for free.” “Oh. Ok. Off you go.” Nah. Crazy, I know. ---
**Author:** ![CannyDan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cannydan/32/548_2.png) [@CannyDan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CannyDan)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2016, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-charged-for-stealing-free-milk/755625/112 "2016-05-26T19:12:33Z")
Wait a minute there! Doesn’t he deserve some jail time for butting the line? ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2016, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-charged-for-stealing-free-milk/755625/113 "2016-05-26T19:43:26Z")
> [@yellowjacketcoder](#): > > Confronting someone that you reasonably believe has stolen an item? Uh, yes, that is completely normal. Sure, if you ignore all training in de-escalation and are a complete roidrager. Most people don’t want police that resort to violence at the drop of a hat. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2016, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-charged-for-stealing-free-milk/755625/114 "2016-05-26T20:06:57Z")
So confronting a kid who has (apparently) stolen an item is being “a complete roidrager”? :rolleyes: Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2016, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-charged-for-stealing-free-milk/755625/115 "2016-05-26T20:16:34Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > This is a claim about a factual matter, and it’s incorrect. > > Wrong. In error. It’s not a true factual statement. > > Would you care to cite even one such state law? > [@Muffin](#): > > [Statutes & Constitution :View Statutes : Online Sunshine](http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0800-0899/0843/Sections/0843.02.html) > > Despite Florida being in an altered state, it still is a State of the USA. So let’s review the original claim: > [@](#): > > Some states even have laws on the books like “Resisting an Officer Without Violence” which are **defined so broadly that any disagreement or displeasure becomes an arrestable offense.** (emphasis mine) No doubt about it: Florida’s law is titled, “Resisting an Officer Without Violence.” But as you can see from the text of the law, it’s not “…defined so broadly that any disagreement or displeasure becomes an arrestable offense.” The law says in pertinent part: > [@](#): > > Whoever shall resist, obstruct, or oppose any officer as defined in s. 943.10(1), (2), (3), (6), (7), (8), or (9). . . in the execution of legal process or in the lawful execution of any legal duty, without offering or doing violence to the person of the officer, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor of the first degree… “Resist, obstruct, or oppose” is not defined in the statute, but the words carry their ordinary meaning. Merely offering disagreement or displeasure does not create probable cause to believe that the subject has violated 943.10. See, e.g., _DG v. State,_, 661 So. 2d 75 FDCA 1995): > [@](#): > > At least three officers entered the yard between 3 and 4 a.m. with flashlights. As they searched the curtilage, they knocked on the doors and windows to wake the occupants. D.G.‘s mother came outside the house. Shortly thereafter, D.G. came outside, protesting loudly and obnoxiously. He refused to answer the officers’ questions, but never threatened anyone. The officers arrested D.G. for disorderly conduct because he refused to stop yelling after several warnings. > . > . > . > D.G.'s decision to exercise his First Amendment rights with such enthusiasm during the early hours of the morning may reflect youthful indiscretion, but his actions do not constitute disorderly conduct or obstruction of a police officer in the performance of a legal duty. Which state would you like to try next? ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2016, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-charged-for-stealing-free-milk/755625/116 "2016-05-26T20:20:58Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > So confronting a kid who has (apparently) stolen an item is being “a complete roidrager”? Perhaps a bit of an exaggeration, but considering the presumption that the police have every right to grab and subdue people yet charge those people with ‘resisting arrest’ when they’re not actually being arrested and/or have not committed an actual crime, the onus is on the police officer’s behavior in being aggressive and physical right out of the gate. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2016, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-charged-for-stealing-free-milk/755625/117 "2016-05-26T20:40:03Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > It’s a school lunch line with free milk. No, it’s a school lunch line that offers some kids free milk. Not all of them. That’s important. This isn’t a free for all. Some (many?/most?) kids pay for their milk. Some of them get it for free. We can tell this since all these articles mention that it was 65 cents. Also the school’s website specifically mentions that milk can be purchased (I’ll let you look it up yourself, but it is there). I’ll go out on a limb and assume that even the kids that get free milk are limited to one per day and as has been stated over and over, they have to go through the checkout. Even if it’s free, it’s still stealing if you don’t do that. If you have a coupon for a free gallon of milk, you can just grab a milk and wave the coupon at the clerk as you walk back out the door "I got a coupon, see, it says ‘One Free Milk’, because that’s what he was doing. He got a milk, didn’t get ‘charged’ for it. Whether it was his second one for the day, or it meant he would get another one later in the year, I don’t know (or maybe not, maybe it’s one a day, take it or lose it). Either way, from other’s POVs, it looked wrong. > [@](#): > > I would assume what the kid claimed, that he forgot the milk and went back to get it. If the cop had been paying attention he would have seen that, or if he wasn’t there to see that is what happened then he didn’t have enough information to conclude anything. At worst it might look like the kid was guilty of violating the no cutsies rule. But you’re ignoring everything the happened after he cut in line. The part where he then concealed the milk and jumped back out of line. And what do you mean ‘if the cop had been paying attention’? How many people do you think are in the lunch room, like 5 or 10? According to the district website, the school has over 900 students. Pity the officer didn’t notice that he forget to grab his milk, hopefully this can be avoided when they bring in a replacement officer that can pay better attention to each student’s meal. > [@TriPolar](#): > > The officer is an idiot. Would you think it was ok if this officer saw you getting into your car and arrested you because he thought you were stealing it? There was no reasonable basis to think the kid was stealing milk. The cop was wrong, the school was wrong to put a cop there, and yes, the dumb kid’s parents are probably idiots too. The police are not a solution to stupidity. Let’s compare apples to apples. Next time you go to your car, in the vicinity of an officer, climb in through the window or use a screw driver to unlock it. It’s your car, totally legal. But, when he approaches you, just drive away, I’m sure it’ll end well. Even if you don’t like what happened at all and I can appreciate that, I’m not sure why you thought comparing what he did to just getting in your car and driving away made any sense. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2016, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-charged-for-stealing-free-milk/755625/118 "2016-05-26T20:44:19Z")
We don’t know exactly what happened, and therefore we don’t know in what way or to what extent the officer was aggressive and physical. There are other aspects to the incident, such as the later suggestion that the student was suspected from his behavior in the principal’s office of being under the influence of drugs, that suggest he may not have been an innocent little angel confronted by the Big Bad [del]Wolf[/del] Cop. That having been said, ISTM that the kid at least, probably his dim-ass mother, and a good many other people don’t have the same understanding of what constitutes legitimate authority, especially for a kid. The cop is a legitimate authority, and _you have to do what he says_. No back talk, no struggles if he grabs you by the arm (if that is what happened) - do what he says. America doesn’t turn into a police state every time a cop walks some mouthy little middle schooler off to the principal’s office because he tried to sneak past the check out line. TANSTAAFL. You gotta show it to the lunch lady. And if you don’t, it looks suspicious, and Officer Friendly doesn’t have to play “After you my dear Alphonse” as if he was arresting you for murder just because your mother didn’t raise you right. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2016, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-charged-for-stealing-free-milk/755625/119 "2016-05-26T22:30:26Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > Which state would you like to try next? > [@](#): > > St. James also argues that the State failed to show that he knew an investigation was underway and that he intended to obstruct the officer when he told the officer, “I don’t know no St. James.” The State asserts that the evidence was sufficient to show that the officer was engaged in the lawful execution of a legal duty in that he was investigating the bike theft and St. James obstructed the lawful duty because his response delayed the officer’s investigation. > > We agree that the evidence was insufficient to support the charge of obstructing an officer without violence. In D.G. v. State, 661 So.2d 75, 76 (Fla. 2d DCA 1995), this court stated that a suspect can commit the offense of obstructing a police officer without violence by providing false information to a police officer during a valid arrest or Terry stop, but the court noted that “[t]his rule . . . does not obligate a person to give his or her correct identity to an officer unless that person is legally detained.” Here, St. James was not legally detained when he denied his identity. Although the officer had probable cause to arrest St. James at the time, the officer did not convey that fact to the group, and there was no showing that St. James knew that the officer intended to detain him. Therefore, we reverse the conviction for obstructing without violence based on insufficient evidence. See D.M. v. State, 681 So.2d 797 (Fla. 2d DCA 1996); D.G., 661 So.2d 75; S.G.K. v. State, 657 So.2d 1246, 1248 (Fla. 1st DCA 1995); Harris v. State, 647 So.2d 206, 208-09 (Fla. 1st DCA 1994). [From the Florida statute](http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0800-0899/0843/Sections/0843.02.html): “Whoever shall . . . obstruct . . . any officer . . . in the lawful execution of any legal duty . . . .” Yet here we have a matter in which the officer was acting in the lawful execution of his legal duty, but the skid who obstructed the officer in the lawful execution of the officer’s legal duty skated due the skid not having been legally detained. The statute does not mention a thing one way or the other about detention, which makes it vague, such that the average person upon reading it would assume the law reaches further than it actually does and submit to the officer’s request rather than risk being arrested based on an ordinary meaning of the words. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2016, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-charged-for-stealing-free-milk/755625/120 "2016-05-27T13:53:41Z")
> [@yellowjacketcoder](#): > > Which is great if you know their name ahead of time. But I think taking someone by the arm is reasonable even if you’re on a first name basis with them. Abso-fuckin-lutely not. You never touch a child in a school to stop them unless you have to e.g. preventing a fight or other violent act. The first thing would be to call out his name or at least yell out hey to get his attention. As people around what his name is then call it out. Follow him to where he will drink his illicit milk while chortling over his masterful crime. A lot of things you can do before grabbing him. Like I said before, the kid is black so he’s lucky the cop didn’t put him in a chokehold for resisting arrest. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-charged-for-stealing-free-milk/755625.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-charged-for-stealing-free-milk/755625.md?page=7)