Reasons Why The Shoplifting Community Is Under No Threat
1. Tumblr staff has already been petitioned to “stop” the shoplifting community. Their response to the issue, (which is easily searchable) was that they basically could do nothing about us. They responded saying that photos of a “crime” are not illegal, because the media constantly promotes images of crime occurring/the aftermath of a crime. They mentioned that they had no intention of shutting any shoplifting fandom blogs down because that would be infringing on our first amendment rights of free speech. That being said, have no fear! Tumblr is not kicking us off! (If they kicked us off, they’d also have to kick off the porn blogs…..lol)
2. ALSO, don’t ever worry about law enforcement finding you off of tumblr! If any of you have seen it, a list containing our URL’s has been going viral which urges people to “report” us to online crimestoppers. I chuckle at their half-assed attempt to stop us, but they aren’t smart enough to understand that even their best try to shut our community down is endlessly flawed. Firstly, even if the FBI or police cared about striking down shoplifters, they have no way of sifting the actual shoplifters from the roleplayers or “fantasy shoplifters”. Many blogs who claim to shoplift are mere trolls or people who have a weird alter ego. Do you really think the cops will try to investigate thousands of blogs, trying to determine the real “criminals” from the posers? Hell no.
-Additionally, even IF police forces could somehow determine the true shoplifters from the fakes, they would not have enough evidence to bring suit in court. They would have to prove that beyond a reasonable doubt, that YOU stole. One picture of a haul just won’t do it. They’d have to use their precious time and resources to obtain footage from retail stores, obtain receipts of purchase, and obtain inventory data…..and then court! On average, hiring lawyers and paying a fee to even have a case heard can cost anywhere from $2-$3k. It’s impossible.
The ONLY way that a shoplifter would actually face real trouble from Tumblr would be if he/she were to post about a serious crime, like a murder or robbing a bank of thousands. Or…posting a haul with mona lisa in it. LOL.
For law enforcement officials, trying to prosecute shoplifters is a huge waste of time, resources, and money. Believe me when I say that they have much bigger issues on their hands.
The only real “danger” that our community faces is intimidation and hatred from non-lifters. They’ll send us private messages, they’ll compile lists and try to track us, they’ll wine and go on rants about the “social injustices” we cause, but they’re only bitching and wasting their energy. Let them take out all their teenage angst and frustration out on us while we sit back and laugh. The world has bigger problems.
