4 ms·

> "They are saying that’s the primary reason, but I also think when a place is not generating revenue, and when they’re saturated — S.F. has a lot of Walgreens

> "They are saying that’s the primary reason, but I also think when a place is not generating revenue, and when they’re saturated — S.F. has a lot of Walgreens locations all over the city — so I do think that there are other factors that come into play,” Mayor London Breed told reporters Wednesday. https://youtu.be/2jrnhaLzCqA https://youtu.be/2jrnhaLzCqA There are dozens of videos of theft in SF Walgreens captured on YouTube. Can someone explain to the mayor that your revenue is going to decrease when criminals are walking out with garbage bags full of merchandise? Per typical, SF Democrats are trying to cover up their underreporting of crimes.

just_steve_h 5y ago
The plural of "anecdote" is not "data."
- robbedpeter 5y ago
  So stores should just accept being stolen from, creating highly unsafe situations for employees and customers, in the middle of economic conditions already hurting profit and supply chains? Or maybe the stores should hire private security, sufficiently armed to deter theft? That's probably a minimum cost of $500k per year for wages and insurance and licensing. I'm truly curious what the endgame is with this line of bleeding heart absurdity.
  - taurath 5y ago
    A society where people don’t need to steal to survive, if you are truly asking. A Walgreens takes money from a community and gives it to their shareholders. They pay minimum wage. The desperation people have across this country should be responded to with policies that lessen desperation, rather than jailing people like we have been for the last 60 years - 25% of the prisoners in the world are in the USA which has 5% of the population. If you want people to not steal food, give them food. If you want people to not be homeless, give them a home. If you want people in prison, prevent the hungry from eating and the homeless from finding a home. It costs a lot more to hold a prisoner than providing food or shelter by other means.
    - sjwalter 5y ago
      You are building the assumption that the thieves are super-poor and starving. Food distribution is already very good for the poor and hungry. It is possible some of these thieves are just down on their luck. But when there are zero consequences to stealing, many folks will just steal in order to get more stuff/make more money. You seem to believe the world is populated by nice, well-meaning people who would never steal were they not hungry. They aren't hungry at all. Your view is just incredibly naive.
      - taurath 5y ago
        > Food distribution is already very good for the poor and hungry. It is not. https://www.dallasnews.com/news/public-health/2020/11/14/thousands-pour-into-fair-park-for-north-texas-food-banks-largest-distribution-yet-during-pandemic/ https://www.dallasnews.com/news/public-health/2020/11/14/tho... https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-lifestyle-united-states-health-hunger-2c509e7e1ce108c47287b42315e2a0c3 https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-lifestyle-un... > But when there are zero consequences to stealing, many folks will just steal in order to get more stuff/make more money. I don't think there are zero consequences to stealing, even under a "cops won't show up for low amounts of theft" policy. > You seem to believe the world is populated by nice, well-meaning people who would never steal were they not hungry. Not the case. I believe thefts are almost finely tuned along with economic problems. https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/232084.pdf https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/232084.pdf - see page 52, and 53. The less people have, the more burglaries they do. Also page 53, the more income inequality in an area, the more robberies take place. SF is one of the places with the highest income inequality in the country. To summarize: more poor people, more burglaries. Take the reverse, robberies are primarily carried out by poor people. > They aren't hungry at all. Your view is just incredibly naive. I would say your view is naïve about some inherent evil of people from a moralistic perspective directed at the poor. You seem to think its that people are greedy - sure, everyone is greedy to a point. Who are the most greedy in society? Who gets the longest prison terms? A white collar criminal embezzling a million dollars or someone who takes a coke from a convenience store? My view is its a condemnation of our extremely rich society that people must resort to shoplifting. I'm not an idealist, I'm a realist. Broke people are gonna steal more often - that shouldn't be controversial. The study above, shows that places where EVERYONE is poor people steal less. In places where some are very poor compared to the richest, people steal more. You will see some anecdote about some band of merry professional thieves who live in a nice apartment somewhere - that is the outlier, not the norm. Just like the idea of the "welfare queen", its time to stop thinking along jingoistic terms about criminal justice in the US. Again, we have 25% of the prison population IN THE WORLD.

just_steve_h 5y ago

The plural of "anecdote" is not "data."

robbedpeter 5y ago
So stores should just accept being stolen from, creating highly unsafe situations for employees and customers, in the middle of economic conditions already hurting profit and supply chains? Or maybe the stores should hire private security, sufficiently armed to deter theft? That's probably a minimum cost of $500k per year for wages and insurance and licensing. I'm truly curious what the endgame is with this line of bleeding heart absurdity.
- taurath 5y ago
  A society where people don’t need to steal to survive, if you are truly asking. A Walgreens takes money from a community and gives it to their shareholders. They pay minimum wage. The desperation people have across this country should be responded to with policies that lessen desperation, rather than jailing people like we have been for the last 60 years - 25% of the prisoners in the world are in the USA which has 5% of the population. If you want people to not steal food, give them food. If you want people to not be homeless, give them a home. If you want people in prison, prevent the hungry from eating and the homeless from finding a home. It costs a lot more to hold a prisoner than providing food or shelter by other means.
  - sjwalter 5y ago
    You are building the assumption that the thieves are super-poor and starving. Food distribution is already very good for the poor and hungry. It is possible some of these thieves are just down on their luck. But when there are zero consequences to stealing, many folks will just steal in order to get more stuff/make more money. You seem to believe the world is populated by nice, well-meaning people who would never steal were they not hungry. They aren't hungry at all. Your view is just incredibly naive.
    - taurath 5y ago
      > Food distribution is already very good for the poor and hungry. It is not. https://www.dallasnews.com/news/public-health/2020/11/14/thousands-pour-into-fair-park-for-north-texas-food-banks-largest-distribution-yet-during-pandemic/ https://www.dallasnews.com/news/public-health/2020/11/14/tho... https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-lifestyle-united-states-health-hunger-2c509e7e1ce108c47287b42315e2a0c3 https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-lifestyle-un... > But when there are zero consequences to stealing, many folks will just steal in order to get more stuff/make more money. I don't think there are zero consequences to stealing, even under a "cops won't show up for low amounts of theft" policy. > You seem to believe the world is populated by nice, well-meaning people who would never steal were they not hungry. Not the case. I believe thefts are almost finely tuned along with economic problems. https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/232084.pdf https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/232084.pdf - see page 52, and 53. The less people have, the more burglaries they do. Also page 53, the more income inequality in an area, the more robberies take place. SF is one of the places with the highest income inequality in the country. To summarize: more poor people, more burglaries. Take the reverse, robberies are primarily carried out by poor people. > They aren't hungry at all. Your view is just incredibly naive. I would say your view is naïve about some inherent evil of people from a moralistic perspective directed at the poor. You seem to think its that people are greedy - sure, everyone is greedy to a point. Who are the most greedy in society? Who gets the longest prison terms? A white collar criminal embezzling a million dollars or someone who takes a coke from a convenience store? My view is its a condemnation of our extremely rich society that people must resort to shoplifting. I'm not an idealist, I'm a realist. Broke people are gonna steal more often - that shouldn't be controversial. The study above, shows that places where EVERYONE is poor people steal less. In places where some are very poor compared to the richest, people steal more. You will see some anecdote about some band of merry professional thieves who live in a nice apartment somewhere - that is the outlier, not the norm. Just like the idea of the "welfare queen", its time to stop thinking along jingoistic terms about criminal justice in the US. Again, we have 25% of the prison population IN THE WORLD.