3 ms·
To most voters "a misdemeanor" is not equivalent to "totally legal" but yet that's how the police and district attorneys have chosen to treat it.
by khuey 5y ago
To most voters "a misdemeanor" is not equivalent to "totally legal" but yet that's how the police and district attorneys have chosen to treat it.
- lumost 5y agoThis is the most concerning aspect, why do police feel that only felonies are worth their time?
- topspin 5y agoBecause non-felons are back in store taking stuff before the officers can finish the arrest paperwork.
- megous 5y agoRepeat offenses don't escalate the charges in SF?
- setr 5y agoIf it gets escalated, then it’s no longer a misdemeanor, and worth considering :-)
- ummonk 5y agoNo, repeat misdemeanors of this sort don't escalate charges anywhere in California, since there is no law for that. And the SF DA certainly wouldn't care to escalate charges for repeat offenders even if he could.
- upbeatlinux 5y agoThey don't. Their hand cuffed by Prop 47 and the apt but misdirected antics of defund the police.
- upbeatlinux 5y agoI suppose we can take this further and say prop 47 attempts to address symptoms because of a failure to agree on what the problems are (what problems should we be talking about).
- lumost 5y agoMy understanding of prop 47 reduced up charging and limited non violent theft to a misdemeanor offense. To my knowledge it doesn’t block enforcement of misdemeanor crimes.
- palijer 5y agoI don't think they "feel" that way more as it is an economical decision. If you have more work coming in than you have allocated resources for, there are decisions that have to get made. Summed up and very simplified obviously, but eh.
- aoeusnth1 5y agoBut the workload shouldn’t change - the same number of arrests and prosecutions can be made before and after the law is passed.
- maxlybbert 5y agoThe police arrest, gather information, and pass the file to the prosecutor. If the prosecutor decides to drop the case, the police have no say. If the police hand hundreds of cases to the prosecutor only to have the prosecutor refuse to pursue them, the police get the message.
- lumost 5y agoWhy doesn't the DA pursue these cases? San Francisco elects their DA. One could even imagine starting a recall campaign over a refusal to prosecute misdemeanors. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_San_Francisco_District_Attorney_election https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_San_Francisco_District_At...
- maxlybbert 5y agoYears ago, I ran across the statement that democracy guarantees voters get the government they deserve. I didn’t take it seriously at the time, but I’ve come around. San Francisco will change when the voters insist on it, but I don’t expect that any time soon.
- 5560675260 5y agoEach time I hear about this I'm baffled that not prosecuting is a legal option for DA.
- closeparen 5y agoHow much intersection do you think there is between people who shoplift at CVS and people who have something to lose if they get a fine?