Disability rights campaigners are planning action in support of the wheelchair-bound looter jailed for making off with a television from a ransacked branch of Argos.
"It's a clear discrimination by the police to pick on this young looter just because he was in a wheelchair and easily identifiable on CCTV. Hundreds of other looters escaped scot-free because they weren't so easily identifiable and also because they could basically just run away," claims Helen Crumble of pressure group 'Equal Rights, Equal Wrongs'.
"Not only that," Crumble continued, in a slightly higher pitch. "This unfortunate looter was severely hampered in his attempt to escape by all the broken glass and stuff strewn across the floor by able-bodied looters, and no member of staff lifted a finger to help him make good his escape. People forget, when they watch the Paralympics that not everyone in a wheelchair is as nimble or as gifted as Tanni Grey-Thompson."
Crumble thinks shops should be obliged to install getaway ramps as this would go some way to redressing the balance in providing equal access to stolen goods for the mobility-challenged.
"Also, tills could be made a lot easier to smash open. Wielding a hammer when you're sitting down makes you feel a bit stupid."
"And it would be nice," Crumble added, "if they stopped putting the stuff that's really worth nicking so high up on the shelves. Asking another looter to reach something down for you is terribly demeaning."
