Decriminalizing Property Crimes

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I read an article this morning about a massive uptick in burglaries in San Francisco, California.

San Francisco is seeing a sharp uptick in burglaries, according to police data, but in some neighborhoods the number of break-ins reported doubled since last year.

The city's Park District had a 100% jump in burglaries from Jan. 1 through Sept. 20 compared to the same time period last year. The area experienced 373 break-ins this year, more than double the 186 recorded in 2019, according to figures from the San Francisco Police Department. The area covers the Haight and the surrounding neighborhood of the University of California, San Francisco.

Source: San Francisco neighborhood sees 100% increase in burglaries during pandemic

So why is this happening. Well it seems to have two factors that caused the uptick. The first was that California changed it laws on property crimes making them more lenient.

In November 2014, California voters approved another criminal justice reform with far-reaching consequences: Proposition 47. With nearly 60 percent voter approval, Prop 47 reduced six non-violent felonies (including certain drug offenses) to misdemeanors, and required misdemeanor sentencing for property crimes in which the value of the property involved is less than $950. (The pre-Prop-47 threshold for felony sentencing was $500.) The changes mandated by Prop 47 went into effect immediately, and the initiative allowed for re-sentencing of people convicted and sentenced before passage of Prop 47.



Source: California Property Crime Surge Is Unintended Consequence of Proposition 47

The second one is less obvious. San Francisco is a tourist city and the criminal elements in city were feeding on the unsuspecting tourist. Since the coronavirus lockdown occurred, there are no tourist. As a result the criminal element has begun feeding on their own city dwellers. Strange!! !! !!

Source: Burglars switch to homes in S.F. as tourists, and their cars, stay away

I guess I'm glad to rent

That's right I live in Massachusetts,our state doesn't tolerate anarchy,we don't have worry about such things anyway

I am not sure that was a great piece of analysis. Shoplifting did spike for one year and then returned to low levels. The other data are not so clear cut either. Correlation does not mean causation.

ttypical sentencing here in midwest has gotten incredibly more lax , as prosecuetors are claiming
they are overworked and jails are beyond capacity . So getting anything other than violent crimes addressed is getting harder and harder . Quite ridiculous , Getting anything investigated is
close to impossible overhere . But yet we have innocent people getting killed by mistake .By Police .
am alittle concerned here . Could use some positive info concerning law enforcement .
2 nearby meth producing houses , were closed down, but not cause they were dealing meth in fact , the codes dept closed them down . Cause the houses became a health hazard to live in . So the owners were cited to clean up their houses.
cause of chemical toxins from production .And houses could not be inhabited
till such time.. No busts no criminl charges mentioned from what police has stated . Now the houses are being used again by same people . Whom were there before . just less traffic around the houses now . from what i can see.
Wish were wrong about what is being presented to this neighhborhood .

burglars and other robbers who, without using violence, took something that belonged to somebody else, should be made to enter into a restorative justice program where their victims take something of value from the robber. just my opinion.

Sounds fair to me.

I think that the reasons for such a trend can be complex and are often related to other trends.
The world gets more complex by the day.

Possibly the reason why the localised thefts haven gone up is because a percentage of the thefts are committed by hard drug users who need to steal to raise money to pay for their drugs etc.

Or perhaps some of the rise in shoplifting is due to boredom, with the many restrictions imposed due to the corona virus, i guess shoplifting is one of the few thrills left. I don't know, never was a shoplifter myself.

I am saddened that theft is associated with anarchism. I feel this is greatly due to the punk movement following the ethos of "all property is theft", a concept that the punks took from Native American Indians.

Interestingly enough, Punks didn't include how some Native American Indian Tribes used to scalp and murder people who had the stuff that they wanted (perhaps because their victims stole from them?).

I am an honest guy who doesn't like people stealing. Ironically, people over the years have stolen loads of things from me. I guess the good path is always one that results in taking damage.

Just out of interest, if the rise in theft is due to drug users stealing to raise funds to pay for their drugs.
This is one aspect of law that could be solved by the state decriminalising drugs, and perhaps even legalising drugs,
ideally allowing pharmaceutical companies to start selling medical grade recreational and habitual drugs at cost.

And using the money that would have been used to police / pay for court trials / prison, to pay for education programs, user support, drug testing and optional rehabilitation services.

That certainly would be a more cost effective and humane approach to the worlds drug problem.
Such a strategy would also undermine the cartels and thus take power away from them,
and drug users would no longer have to get involved with criminals to use drugs,
and thus would have a knock on affect of decriminalising drug users in their mentality and mindset.

Returning to how Victorians used to be able to pop across to their local chemist and buy some opium or cocaine.
In a very civilised manner.

It would be like the difference between the times during and after prohibition with alcohol.

lastly, in case anyone was wondering. I am not a drug fiend, haven't even smoked a joint for 20 years.
I do however see the damage that the present way of dealing with drug users causes, haven lost quiet a few
friends to drugs overdoses including my own brother. Many who also were damaged and criminalised by being put into prison for drug possession.

Putting people in prison for drug offences to punish someone for an addiction problem
is the same as putting someone in prison for having a mental illness or Autism Spectrum Disorder.

It is in my opinion inhumane and causes more damage to society than the drugs themselves (if supported by services).

I wouldn't assume indigenous Americans had radically different views towards property than other peoples who lived similar lives. Private property that isn't personal property isn't a very useful concept if your society doesn't own livestock.

Noble savage stereotypes might make some overlook that violence existed within our societies just like every other society, but why would one feel the need to place us up on pedestal like that? Humans are violent animals, one should anticipate human societies will feature violence.

How Prop 47 was born: "Hey Lets Just De-Criminalize Everything and Crime Will Go Down!". Thunderous Applause.

Also grouping hundreds to thousands of different tribes across a continent into a singular world view would seem erroneous.

Don't like theft? Don't commit one.