Basically in LA County the elected DA isn’t prosecuting anything but the most serious crimes and even then is taking an approach of extreme leniency even in particularly heinous cases of violent crime.

https://www.city-journal.org/effort-to-recall-los-angeles-di...

This is precisely why "3 strikes you're out" laws were written.

They have their own issues, but now you can properly judge between their need and their issues.

3 strikes doesn't have to end in a life sentence - I think that is what was controversial, 3 felony convictions automatically resulting in a life sentence [1]. 3 train thefts and then you spend a week behind bars, or maybe compulsory rehab if the offender is an addict, is probably a reasonable deterrent. The present situation is drastically overreacting to older laws.

1. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-strikes_law

I agree that 3 strikes ending in a life sentence is excessive, but a week for 3 train thefts is absurdly short. Most of these cases will go unsolved. The expected reward for stealing from a train (or anything else) needs to be more than a few hours in jail. It's literally a well paying job to steal from a train for living at that rate.

No, unfortunately that’s not how it works at all. See my comment elsewhere in this discussion (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29963965) for examples of how it actually plays out.

Can’t see your comment, it’s been flagged/removed/censored

That’s unfortunate. I did notice my comment had a little notice saying ‘flagged’ almost immediately after I posted it, but I thought that people could still access flagged content with a direct link. I’m not sure how these secret features of the website work.

Your early-on blame towards George Soros (a magnet for conspiracy theorists, and with an article from 2016) does not help your comment. It’s fine to disagree with progressive prosecutors, but support for them has not been growing from a single person’s political campaign contributions.

But that is also why I included a source for that note about Soros in my original comment. Commentary on George Soros is often labeled as conspiracy theory, but the reality is that organizations (PACs) funded by him have made campaign contributions to the very DAs that have implemented restorative justice policies. This isn’t a conspiracy theory - election law requires public disclosure of their campaign contributions. Both left-leaning (https://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-prosecutor-ca...) and right-learning (https://nypost.com/2021/12/16/how-george-soros-funded-progre...) news outlets have covered Soros’s investments in getting progressive DAs elected.