141–150 of 233 posts
High inflation? A pandemic disrupting millions of people's income? Rising inequality? Colour me surprised.
Note: I personally think masks are a necessary and good thing right now. I just see it as something relevant to why we might see changes in certain statistics.
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If they spend time in jail after the first time, maybe they won't become a habitual thief.
Nah, prison is where they learn how to get away with it next time from hardened criminals.
On other hand whole being marked felon thing is what really destroys the future. If you can't get a decent job, what options do you have left?
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> the deterrent of jail doesn't appear to be working. Deterrent ? It does work, the people in jail are not stealing
The USA has the most people in the world in the jail and this article is about the rising shoplifting problem. You are correct, those people that are currently in jail are not stealing.
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I’d also like anyone who promotes harsher punishments to actually go through the system for just a day before they insist on locking others into it. Getting arrested permanently changed my view on our justice system. It was a nonviolent offense, related to a paperwork issue, but it resulted in a bench warrant being issued for me. If I hadn’t just received several thousand dollars in my account from an unexpected wind…
How are jail fees not illegal extra-judicial punishment?
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Why should my grocery store close because people are stealing things from it? What do I do, just starve?
The average grocery store profit margin is around 2.2%. If additional shoplifting amounts to a substantial fraction of that, then there's no reason to keep the business open. Grocery stores aren't pro bono. https://thegrocerystoreguy.com/what-is-the-profit-margin-for...
Really many factors bring even some losses to be unacceptable.
Also note that shoplifting is all over the news, but wage theft is still rampant: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/dec/07/want-t...
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This shoplifting epidemic is happening because no one is going to jail for this. The DA has made clear they won't prosecute these crimes so the shoplifters have no fear of getting caught and know they will be released soon.
From the article: The top five cities for organized retail crime, in order, were Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, New York and San Francisco. By “the DA” you are probably referring to the DA of the #5 city?
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If only 1/5th of those prisoners are there for drug-crime (and I assume you believe as I do that much drug-related crime isn't worth the arrest?) then isn't that in fact evidence that our population commits substantially more _real_ crime than in other countries? If so, then yes, let's lock them up. "Everyone steals" is not a good defense to stealing.
Some other countries don’t consider possession of a minor amount of drugs, clearly intended for personal use, “a drug crime”. Of course your numbers will be higher than others, if you count things differently. Treat addiction like an illness, not a crime, and your numbers will fall in line with the rest of the countries, quickly. Moreso if you get rid of those for-profit prison system while you are at it.
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Because it's fun, easy, and beats working. Unless we arrest, prosecute, and imprison them. Or punish them other ways; how about flogging? It's arguably both a better deterrent and more humane than prison. Saying "Sure, go ahead!" is better for no one.
The issue seems less the boosters who are paid to shoplift than the operators moving the goods online profitably enough to hire an army of thieves.
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How are jail fees not illegal extra-judicial punishment?
:shrugs: I’m honestly not sure. Between the bail system and privately owned jails, the entire system seems designed to exploit the most vulnerable members of society.
Full stop there. No other explanation really needed.