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A comment on The Number of Youth in Juvenile Detention in California Has Quietly Plummeted. Parent comment

Re:The Number of Youth in Juvenile Detention in California H... by nostrademons on Monday September 17, 2018 @02:36PM (#18008676)
Property crime is rampant in a lot of the Bay Area. Violent crime has hit historic lows. I've learned to never keep valuables in your car and always lock your doors, but I also feel safe walking around in a number of places that historically have had really bad reputations, like even the Tenderloin.

I wouldn't be so quick to blame changes in laws, though. In my experience, property crime is up because the police don't do anything when they get a report of a theft or burglary. If there's a fight, drug deal, or even just a drunk person stumbling around, the police will be out in force. If somebody got robbed, well, good luck, they'll take your statement and then you're on your own.

Now, perhaps that has to do with incentives and the police knowing that the offender isn't going to jail even if they pick him up for burglary. But it seems like there could still be a healthy middle ground where property crime offenses still result in fines, restitution, community service, and probation without needing to lock kids up in prison.

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Re:The Number of Youth in Juvenile Detention in California H... by dwaltrip on Monday September 17, 2018 @03:16PM (#18009040)
What incentives cause police to care about stumbling drunk people but not petty theft or property crimes?

Are they rewarded for arresting drunk people?

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Re:The Number of Youth in Juvenile Detention in California H... by manfredo on Monday September 17, 2018 @03:34PM (#18009209)
The city refuses to enforce property crimes. Even if the police make an arrest, nothing comes out of it. Many residents consider it to be "criminalizing poverty", thus it is socially unacceptable to enforce property crimes. Sure, there are specific roles (e.g. the District Attorney) that have control over this, but they answer to city hall, and they respond to voters' desires. Ultimately it's on us residents for how property crime became de-facto legal.
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Re:The Number of Youth in Juvenile Detention in California H... by erikpukinskis on Monday September 17, 2018 @07:05PM (#18010882)
I think it starts with the fact that being penniless is illegal. You can’t poop, you can’t build shelter. You can’t vend small items like snacks or clothing. All of that is illegal. So poverty truly is illegal in SF.

So, the poor will be criminalized regardless of whether they steal, what’s their incentive not to steal? From their perspective, they’re already criminals for not being rich, why not act like it?

Add to that the fact that most plots of land were illegally seized and resold. So from a moral perspective the landowners in SF are criminals too.

The city needs to take those issues seriously before they can reasonably expect the poor to cease their mischief. Without a navigable legal framework for the poor to subsist, and without a property court committed to restitution of stolen land, I don’t see how we can in good faith demand people refrain from stealing iPhones.

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Re:The Number of Youth in Juvenile Detention in California H... by manfredo on Monday September 17, 2018 @08:50PM (#18011478)
Not all of the people committing property crimes are homeless. For example: https://www.insideedition.com/inside-wave-smash-and-grab-car...
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Re:The Number of Youth in Juvenile Detention in California H... by erikpukinskis on Thursday September 20, 2018 @06:02PM (#18035798)
Did I suggest they were?
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Re:The Number of Youth in Juvenile Detention in California H... by UpshotKnothole on Monday September 17, 2018 @06:27PM (#18010661)
As far as I can tell California is right in the middle of 50 states in terms of property crime (a little below actually at 26th-27th) [1] so I’m not sure where this doom and gloom is coming from. Well, I did find a few laughable articles from mass media claiming that prop 47 had some impact, it itmdoesnt hold up when looking at demographics across the country and over a long time.

http://www.ppic.org/publication/crime-trends-in-california/

In 2016 it looks like property crime actually decreased.

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_California

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Re:The Number of Youth in Juvenile Detention in California H... by throwaway5839 on Tuesday September 18, 2018 @12:55AM (#18012561)
The parent was talking about San Francisco. Obviously in a huge state like California, some areas are good and others are bad.

SF has the highest per capital property crime rate among the nation's top 50 cities: http://sfist.com/2016/04/25/sf_now_has_highest_per_capita_pr...

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Re:The Number of Youth in Juvenile Detention in California H... by pvarangot on Monday September 17, 2018 @06:19PM (#18010615)
So if I get mugged and want the police involved I'm incentivized to actually act with reasonable force (like, for example, trying to force my stuff back from the assailant) in order for the police to get involved and me get my stuff back?
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