I first got an idea of this "petty crime" epidemic when reading on a car brand forum when doing research about a model. Owners were constantly complaining about

I first got an idea of this "petty crime" epidemic when reading on a car brand forum when doing research about a model. Owners were constantly complaining about their rear quarter windows getting punched out. Over and over again it was west coast, but especially San Fran owners talking about it. It was so common that people were taking the recommendation to put down the rear seats so thieves could see the empty trunk and not punch out your window to check the trunk for stuff to steal. The criminals became experts in technique because even when handed dash cam videos with license plates and faces of perps, there were no investigations, arrests or prosecutions. You could see videos of them pulling in, making a hit and leaving in under a minute. Living in NYC I've watched our politics slowly follow the same mistakes as SF in terms of non-prosecution and catch&release for "non violent" crimes just as COVID hit. The confluence of the two has lead to an insane increase in crime in NYC. We have a similar anti-Asian hate crime epidemic, in addition to a 100% increase in shootings & 50% increase in murders 2019->2020. The trend has continued, we are on track for another 20-50% increase in 2021, and summer, the traditional shooting season has not begun. The murder rate has backtracked 10 years of progress in 1 year. Some might say "oh well those are non-violent criminals being release, so its not the same people doing the shooting". Well in video after video of dudes beating the shit out of an Asian guy on subway, the clip starts with the guy jumping a turnstile to enter the station. It turns out some criminals do lots of different crimes! When you decide some crimes don't really need enforcing anymore, the criminal can continue to go do more of the other crimes as well. I suspect the pendulum is about to swing the other way in NYC given the mayoral candidates. The impression I have is that the mayhem has now spilled over into rich neighborhoods filled with the very vocal liberals who previously supported these policies, and suddenly find themselves of a different mind.