Days like this, as I have been moved to mention before, it’s difficult to know where to start.

Should I kick off with the shopkeeper told by police to remove a sign calling shoplifters ‘scumbags’ and the crazy data protection law which prevents retailers displaying photographs of known thieves?

Or the Jewish woman called a Zionist ‘scumbag’ online who was told by a different police force that she shouldn’t post on ‘politically sensitive’ subjects such as Gaza?

For now, let’s begin with vintage-clothing store owner Rob Davies who has been plagued by thefts from his shop. He has now been forced to display his stock under lock and key.

By way of explanation, Mr Davies put a poster in his window, reading: ‘Due to scumbags shoplifting, please ask for assistance to open cabinets.’

Shortly afterwards, police arrived to tell him to remove the sign as it was ‘provocative and offensive’. They had apparently received a complaint from an unnamed member of the public.

Mr Davies, who owns Run Ragged, in Wrexham, North Wales, said: ‘The only people it should be causing offence to are the shoplifters.’

Rob Davies, who has been plagued by thefts from his shop, has been forced to display his stock under lock and key

Mr Davies left a handwritten note on his cabinets to explain why they were now locked

For the past 12 months, he has caught five thieves red-handed. But apart from the first incident, the police weren’t interested. The only time they did respond, they retrieved a stolen shirt but let the shoplifter go without charge.

Recently, he’s lost £200 worth of stock to thieves – a trifling amount as far as the police are concerned but a significant loss to a small business already struggling to pay sky-high rent, rates and energy bills.

Basket Case Britain is in the grip of a shoplifting epidemic, as opportunist thieves loot shelves with impunity secure in the knowledge that they won’t be arrested.

The only surprise is that when Mr Davies detained that first scumbag, the cops didn’t nick him for ‘taking the law into his own hands’. They certainly responded rapidly to admonish him when someone was offended by his ‘scumbag’ poster, which gives you a stark illustration of their warped priorities.

But as he asks plaintively: ‘What else am I supposed to do?’ Precisely. The police won’t arrest shoplifters, the CPS won’t prosecute. So where’s the deterrent?

Every day is Supermarket Sweep, as thieves fill their boots, their rucksacks and shopping trolleys with swag and walk out grinning, without paying, as staff are instructed to stand back and let them get on with it.

In desperation, some stores have been exhibiting photos of known thieves, taken from CCTV, in the hope that this might discourage them.

Now, though, they have been told by the Information Commissioner’s Office that naming and shaming is a breach of data protection legislation.

The law is more concerned about shielding the identities of criminals than protecting their victims.

Mr Davies has lost £200 worth of stock to shoplifters a significant loss to a small business already struggling to pay sky-high rent, rates and energy bills

How many times have you heard complaints, from this column in particular, that the Old Bill would rather patrol the internet than tackle real crimes like burglary, shoplifting and phone theft? These days they can’t even get that right.

Here’s a seriously troubling case in point. Heidi Bachram is a Jewish woman from Sussex, some of whose family were murdered and taken hostage by Hamas during the October 7 pogrom.

She posts regularly on the forum previously known as Twitter and has been subject to vile anti-Semitic abuse into the bargain. Some of it is too graphic and horrible to repeat here, but it includes calling her an ‘ugly Zionist pig’ and, yes, a ‘scumbag’.

Ms Bachram reported it to the police but says they were reluctant to investigate. Instead she was visited by one officer who advised her to stop posting ‘politically sensitive’ material about ‘controversial subjects’ such as Gaza.

‘He said I was making myself a target. I feel like I’ve been victimised twice. Once by this cruel troll and secondly by the police.’

The clear implication was that it was her own fault. Talk about blaming the victim. This is the online equivalent of telling a young woman who has been dragged off the streets and raped that it served her right because she had gone out wearing a short skirt. 

Perhaps if the sick, cowardly individual who trolled Ms Bachram had posted a few disobliging comments about illegal migrants the cops would have come down hard on him instantly. He’d now be banged up in jail for two-and-a-half years like the misguided Lucy Connolly, currently doing time for angry, ill-judged tweets during the post-Southport riots.

We are increasingly told that reports of Lawless Britain are exaggerated. But what the hell else are we to conclude when the law puts the ‘rights’ of scumbags ahead of protecting innocent shopkeepers and abused Jewish women?

Never mind where to start. Where will it all end?