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Not enough information about your vandal to speculate on his or her motives but there are reports of gangs of shoplifters raiding shops and taking less than $95

Not enough information about your vandal to speculate on his or her motives but there are reports of gangs of shoplifters raiding shops and taking less than $950 worth of goods each e.g. https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2016/05/14/shoplifting-california-prop-47-reduced-penalties/ https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2016/05/14/shoplifting-cal...

inferiorhuman 7y ago
Oh it was one of my neighbors, not a gang. ~$800 was the quote for a car with cheaper paint. This car has metallic paint (more expensive and more difficult to respray well), I'd be very surprised if I could find a competent shop to fix it for less than a grand. https://www.criminaldefenselawyer.com/resources/criminal-defense/crime-penalties/petty-theft-california-penalties-defense https://www.criminaldefenselawyer.com/resources/criminal-def... https://www.shouselaw.com/burglary.html#2.3 https://www.shouselaw.com/burglary.html#2.3 I'm not a lawyer so here's how I interpreted these lawyers: Petty theft is up to six months in jail + up to $1,000 fine. Prop 47 added a misdemeanor shoplifting statute with a max. incarceration to one year. Previously this was considered burglary where a defendant could be charged with either a misdemeanor (up to a year in jail) or felony (up to three or so years). The existing burglary statute (which otherwise covered what is now called shoplifting) carries a sentence of up to one year in jail (misdemeanor) or more (felony). The gangs taking less than $950 worth of goods are taking advantage of police apathy. So, sure, maybe Prop 47 resulted in an increase in shoplifting/burglary. However, if the police were to see these things through repeat criminals would still be subject to the same felony statue as before.
- pandaman 7y ago
  I am not a lawyer too but, from what I know, the police do not prosecute crimes. They bring their reports to a DA who decides to charge or not. And the DAs, being an elected official and seeing what is the public opinion of these crimes from the prop 47, do not want to charge them. And if the DAs are not going to charge these crimes anyways there is no point for the police to catch the criminals.
  - inferiorhuman 7y ago
    The police don't prosecute crimes, correct. As long as they're not making arrests it's not even a matter of what the DA or judge does. And if the DAs are not going to charge these crimes anyways there is no point for the police to catch the criminals. And there it is. There is absolutely a point in making misdemeanor arrests. Making misdemeanor arrests allows the rest of society to focus on the next step in the process.
    - pandaman 7y ago
      So, in your opinion, the initiative comes from the police and DAs have not changed their charging based on prop 47? Then, why did the police change their behavior in your opinion?
      - inferiorhuman 7y ago
        When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. So for the police more "lenient" sentences for first time offenders is offensive. They want to crack skulls. If they can't then they don't care. The SF POA, for instance, threw a ton of money around to defend capital punishment in California while the residents of San Francisco elected a DA (Kamala Harris) who campaigned on a platform of staunch opposition to capital punishment. It was a lot of the same crap with the three strikes law. Non-partisan analysis pointed out that the California statute was excessively punitive and expensive but police and prosecutors across the state came out swinging against proposed reform. Same thing with the new DA (Boudin). One of his planks was focusing on gangs (a.k.a. organized crime) that are breaking into cars versus and focusing on getting addicts and homeless people into diversion/treatment programs. Of course there was plenty of outrage about how property crime was going to get even worse under Boudin's reign of apathy. Whatddya know, someone posted a video the other day of a break-in at an Embarcadero parking lot. Was it a junkie looking to score? No, it was a group of people in a car, wearing masks going about their task very methodically. https://digital.modernluxury.com/publication/?i=360208&article_id=2644630&view=articleBrowser&ver=html5#{%22issue_id%22:360208,%22view%22:%22articleBrowser%22,%22publication_id%22:%223609%22,%22article_id%22:%222644630%22} https://digital.modernluxury.com/publication/?i=360208&artic...

inferiorhuman 7y ago

Oh it was one of my neighbors, not a gang. ~$800 was the quote for a car with cheaper paint. This car has metallic paint (more expensive and more difficult to respray well), I'd be very surprised if I could find a competent shop to fix it for less than a grand. https://www.criminaldefenselawyer.com/resources/criminal-defense/crime-penalties/petty-theft-california-penalties-defense https://www.criminaldefenselawyer.com/resources/criminal-def... https://www.shouselaw.com/burglary.html#2.3 https://www.shouselaw.com/burglary.html#2.3 I'm not a lawyer so here's how I interpreted these lawyers: Petty theft is up to six months in jail + up to $1,000 fine. Prop 47 added a misdemeanor shoplifting statute with a max. incarceration to one year. Previously this was considered burglary where a defendant could be charged with either a misdemeanor (up to a year in jail) or felony (up to three or so years). The existing burglary statute (which otherwise covered what is now called shoplifting) carries a sentence of up to one year in jail (misdemeanor) or more (felony). The gangs taking less than $950 worth of goods are taking advantage of police apathy. So, sure, maybe Prop 47 resulted in an increase in shoplifting/burglary. However, if the police were to see these things through repeat criminals would still be subject to the same felony statue as before.

pandaman 7y ago
I am not a lawyer too but, from what I know, the police do not prosecute crimes. They bring their reports to a DA who decides to charge or not. And the DAs, being an elected official and seeing what is the public opinion of these crimes from the prop 47, do not want to charge them. And if the DAs are not going to charge these crimes anyways there is no point for the police to catch the criminals.
- inferiorhuman 7y ago
  The police don't prosecute crimes, correct. As long as they're not making arrests it's not even a matter of what the DA or judge does. And if the DAs are not going to charge these crimes anyways there is no point for the police to catch the criminals. And there it is. There is absolutely a point in making misdemeanor arrests. Making misdemeanor arrests allows the rest of society to focus on the next step in the process.
  - pandaman 7y ago
    So, in your opinion, the initiative comes from the police and DAs have not changed their charging based on prop 47? Then, why did the police change their behavior in your opinion?
    - inferiorhuman 7y ago
      When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. So for the police more "lenient" sentences for first time offenders is offensive. They want to crack skulls. If they can't then they don't care. The SF POA, for instance, threw a ton of money around to defend capital punishment in California while the residents of San Francisco elected a DA (Kamala Harris) who campaigned on a platform of staunch opposition to capital punishment. It was a lot of the same crap with the three strikes law. Non-partisan analysis pointed out that the California statute was excessively punitive and expensive but police and prosecutors across the state came out swinging against proposed reform. Same thing with the new DA (Boudin). One of his planks was focusing on gangs (a.k.a. organized crime) that are breaking into cars versus and focusing on getting addicts and homeless people into diversion/treatment programs. Of course there was plenty of outrage about how property crime was going to get even worse under Boudin's reign of apathy. Whatddya know, someone posted a video the other day of a break-in at an Embarcadero parking lot. Was it a junkie looking to score? No, it was a group of people in a car, wearing masks going about their task very methodically. https://digital.modernluxury.com/publication/?i=360208&article_id=2644630&view=articleBrowser&ver=html5#{%22issue_id%22:360208,%22view%22:%22articleBrowser%22,%22publication_id%22:%223609%22,%22article_id%22:%222644630%22} https://digital.modernluxury.com/publication/?i=360208&artic...