At the end of October I wrote a post posing the question:
In that post, I commented: “Blurred boundaries inevitably change attitudes and are often the thin end of the wedge. The argument that because many people already choose to use cannabis, therefore it should be legalized or decriminalized, is a very weak one. Follow that to its logical conclusion and it won’t be long before we’d be under pressure to legalize other classes of drugs, running red lights and who knows what else.”
Our government has determined that it wants to reduce the jail population. An excellent idea except that they will achieve it by leaving “petty” criminals on the streets where they have plenty of incentive to remain petty criminals or graduate to become serious criminals.
What an outstanding idea. Let’s reduce the jail population by arresting fewer criminals or even making some crimes not crimes. That’ll work!
Being soft on crime can only deliver one result: Much more of it.
California Dreaming Becomes California Sleazing
They did it in California. They introduced Proposition 47, because somehow, someone decided that “poor people have a right to live too” and if that means taking stuff from others well, that’s not their fault. Thefts are up by 61% in Los Angeles and 50% in San Francisco. Oh and guess what. The thefts are increasing in the poor areas that can least afford them because the crims can’t afford to travel far from home to enrich themselves.
This brilliant, trendy lefty, idealist nonsense from California has determined that shoplifting less than $950.00 worth of goods is only a misdemeanor. No prizes for guessing what the favourite criminal pastime has become. There’s even a reported story of a shoplifter turning up in store with a calculator to make sure he didn’t go over his limit.
Think about this: If just one shoplifter lifts $950 worth 4 times a week, that’s $3,800 which over a full year comes out to $197,000. Totally unscientific statistics granted, but let’s just for the hell of it play along and crunch a few numbers. California’s population is just under 40 million. Shall we assume that 2% of them might be bad buggers (or poor) and do some shoplifting. That would mean 800,000 people lifting somewhere around $197,000 worth of goods a year would amount to a mere $15.7 billion.
Bet they hadn’t thought that one through – the unintended consequences of having no boundaries. And it gives us plenty to look forward to here.
And that by the way, is just the cost to retailers for goods stolen throughout the state. Remember that retailers factor in a cost for shoplifting which the customer pays for. It’s estimated that each household in California forks out an extra $400 a year to retailers for “shoplifter insurance” without knowing they’re even doing it.
Isn’t it great that our government wants to follow the same pathway and reward people for not working, for stealing and alongside that for indiscriminate breeding.
Thank God Simon Bridges plans to ask gang members to declare their ill-gotten gains before they’ll be eligible for a benefit. #Sorted.