Also its not always the low level street criminal that we envision that are most in need of being brought to justice.
The true criminals are mostly the people higher up managing the backend distribution who you don't see who are systematically taking advantage bail reform and of the low level actors who may indeed need the money for food - at scale.
The nice thing is that societally there probably isn't much disagreement that these higher ups who are buying second vacation houses with these "earnings" need to be held accountable.
For instance with the San Francisco retail thefts [1]:
"agents seized and recovered approximately $8 million of stolen merchandise from retailers across the San Francisco Bay Area"
"Video from a police stakeout shows Drago unloading trunkloads full of merchandise at one of his warehouses — mouthwash, cleaning supplies, shampoo, foot spray, over-the-counter medicine, and more than $1 million dollars worth of razors. Drago allegedly directs the boosters to steal small, compact items, with long expiration dates, and high resale value."
To add another dimension of irony if there's a similar pattern to the CVS/Walgreens shoplifting distribution mechanisms - the main distribution back into the system is Amazon and E-bay, etc.
"The stolen goods eventually find their way to Ebay, Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, and Amazon, where they are sold at a steep discount. Dugan says there’s a big societal cost to saving a few bucks."
So in that case, Amazon stuff is getting pilfered only to back into Amazon to be sold as Amazon marketplace items - no questions asked.
> The true criminals are mostly the people higher up managing the backend distribution who you don't see who are systematically taking advantage bail reform
Well in my mind if one is setting up an LLC for a shell company with $8 million in inventory, that's probably hard to say you are hard pressed for money for feeding the kids.
I admit its probably my own imagination that if one has warehouses, cash counters and shell LLCs for this size of operation that one is also aware and actively figuring out how to exploit bail reform and sub-$1000 theft limits in a way akin to BigCo lawyers reading anti-trust legislation to figure out the loopholes.
"Working with the task force, investigators tracked the stolen goods to 16 different storage lockers, warehouses and homes across the Bay Area. Much of the goods were then sold online through what law enforcement says was a shell company ... they found cash, a high-speed bill counting machine, and multiple vehicles... they found stacks of hundred dollar bills. Drago’s money was laundered through real estate transactions and other businesses."
It seems to me that if an organization's employees are frequently arrested, then released easily and able to go back to work, that organization is benefiting from the easy release. It seems somewhat similar to how Walmart benefits from its employees getting Medicaid.
You don't need a quote from a Walmart executive to know that Walmart is benefiting from its employees getting Medicaid and food stamps. So similarly you don't need a quote from a criminal leader to know that the criminal organization is benefiting from lax law enforcement.
But I'm not finding good data on how lax the law enforcement actually is.
There are certainly a number of places pointing it out, such as a member of the board of supervisors of SF saying Thieves “are obviously choosing locales based on what the consequences are,” Safaí said. “If there are no consequences for their actions, then you invite the behavior. Over and over.”, Walgreens saying the thefts in their SF stores are 4x other cities, and CVS calling SF “one of the epicenters of organized retail crime”[1]. One woman stole 120 times[2]. Former assistant DAs say the DA "selectively enforces laws"[3]. The police say hundreds of repeat offenders are responsible for shoplifting in the city.[4]
On the other hand, the police's actual numbers aren't convincing:
>In 2018, there were 238 repeat offenders, 20% of them were rearrested. In 2019, there were 219 repeat offenders, 29% of them rearrested.
>While in 2020, there were 116 repeat offenders -- 33% rearrested.[4]
So the repeat offender numbers are going down. That seems to indicate no problem caused by bail reform. And why are the percent rearrested low? That seems like it's the police's fault, not directly a bail problem. Also, I'd be more interested in knowing the number of thefts committed by repeat offenders, rather than the number of repeat offenders. And especially what percent of thefts are committed by repeat offenders. Shoplifting has been declining in SF, and SF, while much higher in shoplifting rates than some cities, is also much lower than others.[5]
So I think it's obvious that lenient bail and prosecution will aid shoplifting groups, but it's unclear to me how lenient the bail and prosecution is, or how severe shoplifting is in SF.
Thanks for spurring me to look into this more; it's more complicated than I thought.
Society needs to bring everyone with it, otherwise there will be revolt. Its an ebb and flow. Living in a place where previously white people got police protection vs living in a place where there is more white people having crime committed against them?
This is exactly what the startup unicorns do - they disrupt. The scam world is computer savey, and feeds of information that hackers distribute. It could be said that we are part of the problem. Has your code been used in scam?
>Living in a place where previously white people got police protection vs living in a place where there is more white people having crime committed against them?
I don't think those are the only 2 alternatives. There's also the alternative of everyone getting good protection from crime.
The true criminals are mostly the people higher up managing the backend distribution who you don't see who are systematically taking advantage bail reform and of the low level actors who may indeed need the money for food - at scale.
The nice thing is that societally there probably isn't much disagreement that these higher ups who are buying second vacation houses with these "earnings" need to be held accountable.
For instance with the San Francisco retail thefts [1]:
"agents seized and recovered approximately $8 million of stolen merchandise from retailers across the San Francisco Bay Area"
"Video from a police stakeout shows Drago unloading trunkloads full of merchandise at one of his warehouses — mouthwash, cleaning supplies, shampoo, foot spray, over-the-counter medicine, and more than $1 million dollars worth of razors. Drago allegedly directs the boosters to steal small, compact items, with long expiration dates, and high resale value."
To add another dimension of irony if there's a similar pattern to the CVS/Walgreens shoplifting distribution mechanisms - the main distribution back into the system is Amazon and E-bay, etc.
"The stolen goods eventually find their way to Ebay, Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, and Amazon, where they are sold at a steep discount. Dugan says there’s a big societal cost to saving a few bucks."
So in that case, Amazon stuff is getting pilfered only to back into Amazon to be sold as Amazon marketplace items - no questions asked.
[1] https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2020/10/06/major-san-franc...