A person smashed a large hole in the window of Glasmagasinet, Oslo’s iconic central shopping centre, in the early hours of Sunday morning, climbed in and stole items, without caring that many people were standing outside and watching what was happening. This is the second shocking break-in in the city centre in a short space of time. On 19 May, someone smashed a large plate-glass window at the upmarket Gucci store and stole handbags.

It was just after midnight that the police reported that a person had smashed a window at the shopping centre.

– There is a large hole in the window, and the perpetrator is believed to have entered the premises and stolen something, operations leader Guro Sandnes of the Oslo Police District told the press.

A video of the incident obtained by VG shows the person smashing a hole in the Elkjøp window at Glasmagasinet with a hammer before entering the shop. The video shows many onlookers and several people walking straight past the scene.

– It looks as if he had planned it and was prepared for the fact that there were lots of people there. But he cannot have got away with much, at most a couple of items before he ran out again and sprinted up towards the Storting, eyewitness Silje Karlsen told the newspaper. (NTB)

That someone should smash windows in the city centre right in front of “onlookers” is in itself an aggravating circumstance. Instead, it is downplayed with the claim that he probably did not manage to take more than a few mobile phones.
The media and the police fail to understand that such a robber is tearing down the deterrent effect of living in a society governed by the rule of law. The thief shows that he can do whatever he wants, and the public who do not intervene are joining in the fun.
The next stage is that people are robbed and women raped on the open street without anyone daring to intervene.
That is the slippery slope we are on.
Assessing the cost in terms of mobile phones is completely wrong. The real cost is that respect for law and order is disappearing.