It's not whataboutery in the context of limited policing resources and public attention. Accusations of tu quoque get thrown around way too quickly on the internet.

There’s limited resources. How is it whataboutism?

Arresting pickpockets may be an overall gain if tourists feel safe to go out and therefore spend. And rampant wage fraud also ought to be tackled, again possibly a net overall gain if that increases tax revenue. If your country cannot fund a police force that could do both these things then you have much bigger problems.

Is there evidence that pickpocketing is such a problem in the United States that it is making a dent in tourism spending? Is there evidence that policing it in this way makes a dent in the incidence of pickpocketing?

> If your country cannot fund a police force that could do both these things then you have much bigger problems.

Underfunded local institutions are the reality in most of the world, not the exception. I'd rather have bodies investigating people who are witholding wages and illegally paying below the minimum wage then spending their day pretending to be a tourist in the hope that someone pickpockets them.

It's odd - it seems among this class of HN commentator-cum-policymaker, evidence driven policy is an unknown concept.