This sort of helplessness is very sad. Good citizens know that if they were to get involved, there could be potential lawsuit from the criminals if they were hurt. And recording and posting the video just emboldens other criminals. There needs to be a good solution to deputize or indemnify anyone who gets involved to stop an obvious crime.

Just an Observation,

Dan, in order to "deputize" a person it must be done PRIOR to any official action. Sorry, but until one is CONVICTED of a crime, one cannot be assumed guilty. Remember the Constitution?

The facts are any individual that acts to impersonate a law enforcement officer is committing a crime itself.

I understand that there needs to be more security for the fact that the economic situation has resulted in many people only being able to do criminal action to make a living.

And it is just going to get worse. But trying to give the same qualified immunity to a civilian is simply impossible.

I disagree with assessment that “the economic situation” has driven people to a life of crime without any other options. Aren’t we in a labor shortage? At any rate, the solution is a mix of stronger deterrent and installment of posh recreation centers in low income areas that pipeline troubled youth to gainful employment. Extend school day until 9pm with music and video game clubs, with a good dinner, so these kids start to love and respect program from early age.

Missing from this report:
As per company policy, employees were more concerned about customer safety.

Within minutes of the robbery all of the missing display items were disabled, rendering them useless to the thieves.

Not saying this is not a bad situation, or that the thieves shouldn't be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, but seriously, this is seems to be more of an initiation robbery, given how many times it seems to happen, with the same results.