This is exactly what Hamodia did this past week. They wrote a long article about the problems /abuses of passengers on the light rail in Jerusalem. The article had 3 stories, 2 very legitimate (a woman having to pay for a stroller and a problem with 2 transfers on the same card). Then came the third story which was the focus of the article. It told the story of Aryeh, an 18 year old foreign Yeshiva bochur who had no money but decided to take the light rail anyway (in short, steal/cheat). He figured the worst thing that would happen is that he would get caught and he would pay a 186 shekel fine. In plain terms the Yeshiva bachur was a thief who expressed no remorse about his actions and had no thought of paying back the company. He was caught and because he had no id on him he was arrested. Once he was arrested he was mistreated in jail etc.
I have 2 major problems with this story.
1. Why publicize the story about a thief? It just takes away from the legitimate complaints about the light rail. It also is a chillul hashem that someone who is learning in Yeshiva can steal without any reservations.
2. The Hamodia article was supposed to detail issues with the light rail. This boys story did not do that. He tried to cheat the light rail, had no id, and was arrested, there is nothing wrong with that. Whatever happened after that in the police station has nothing to do with the light rail and does not point to any problems with the light rail (it might point to other problems such as police brutality but that was not the point of this article).
What really bothered me about this story was the fact that this kind cheating is basically condoned by Hamodia and parts of the Charedi world. Yes, Hamodia paid lip service in the article by stating that he was wrong but that is all it was. If the cheating/stealing truly bothered them then they would have found a different story about the light rail to print. After all, according to the story there are hundreds of incidents to choose from.
