JoeB131
Diamond Member
I suppose it happens in other states from time to time, but there's a big reason it happens here in California.
In 2014, the Democraps pushed a ballot proposition that they claimed would improve law enforcement, by increasing the focus on major crimes. Too many stupid Californians took the bait, and voted for Proposition 47; which really had the effect of effectively decriminalizing crimes deemed to fall below some threshold; mostly petty thefts and vandalisms. Now, in California, you can commit such crimes free of any risk of adverse consequences. I think the limit is $950. Any single crime causing that much loss or less is effectively unprosecutable. This, of course, includes shoplifting. You can go into any store, take up to $950 worth of merchandise, and walk out without paying for any of it, and nobody can do anything to stop you.
These gangs have figured out that they can do this more efficiently en-masse. A whole bunch of them storm into a store at once, grab what they can (no individual taking more than $950 worth) and storm out again.
And of course, if the store is a small one, like this 7-11, then they can pick the store completely clean this way. They've probably put that store out of business, permanently, and put several honest people out of jobs.
Okay, not that you are capable of a rational discussion.
The problem was that your state locked up all these people for stealing slices of pizza and tube socks under the Three Strikes Laws, often with life sentences if it was a third offense.
Then you didn't actually bother to build more jail cells to lock them up in, to the point where your prisons were at 200% capacity and even the right wing SCOTUS had to mandate you bring it down to 137% capacity.
Brown v. Plata - Wikipedia
The real problem is that if you have a property loss less than $950.00, does it really make sense to spend $106,000 a year to lock that person up? Now, we are just talking PROPERTY damage here, not murder, rape, assault or any violent offense.
Legislative Analyst's Office
If we aren't going to fix the underlying causes of crime - poverty, unemployment, racism, addiction, mental illness, gun proliferation - then we shouldn't really bitch that loudly about it.