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>> What is this article supposed to be telling us? Put a few people in jail and you can have nice things again?

• pclmulqdq 4y ago
  Other people will step up to fill the void. As long as the costs of crime are low and the rewards are high, people will do it. Crack down on Amazon for distribution of stolen goods and a lot of these convenience store thefts will stop.
  • colechristensen 4y ago
    But it’s not like the shoplifter job is full and arresting existing ones opens up a spot. More like there will be a continuous flux of people entering and leaving the habitual shoplifter role and to keep numbers low you have to keep enforcing.
    • pclmulqdq 4y ago
      To some degree, the shoplifter job is full like that. If these guys hit a few stores every week, those stores can't really be hit for the "good" stuff until the next week (or whenever they restock). There are only so many easy stores to hit. As I understand it, the shoplifting operations in big cities are actually pretty organized and have a constant flux of low-tier thieves, but a few ringleaders who set things up and really do shoplift for a living. It's not inconceivable that if one of these guys is a ringleader and gets arrested that someone will come "fill that position." If they are affiliated with organized crime, they may even have job interviews.