Don't worry about your stance, Acadia.

Safeway is owned by Kroger. I work for Kroger, and have for the past 30 years. And the policy is that you let a shoplifter go if there is =any= chance that other customers will be harmed. And you do not do the 'Rambo Run'. I'm a shop steward, and have sat in one disciplinary hearing over a night stocker who chased, tackled, and fought a shoplifter with a carton of cigarettes in his jacket. The kid almost lost his job, the thief in question was found to normally be armed in his little escapades (this from the cops, who both thanked Rambo and ripped him a new asshole for thinking with his dick....which might have gotten shot off another time), and after the flying tackle on private property by a representative of the company, and the broken nose his landing earned him, =DID= get a nice little $$$ paycheck from the company to go away and drop the assault suit.

Retail establishments are private property....so any of the things that can happen to a private citizen in a courtroom has a greater chance of happening to a retail outlet.