Because people are perceiving a higher rate of visible crimes within a reasonably short time after the "reduce punishment" button was pushed.

Of course, going back to the old ways without any real progress on anything else is going to put us back to the old problems. (Costs of incarceration are high, concerns about fairness, concerns about conditions, etc)

> I think I'd steal too - mostly from large corporations, because I don't really care if Disney or Walmart profits go down.

I don't necessarily care about their profits per se, but if Walmart (or maybe a chain store you dislike less) leaves my community because of theft, that makes my life harder.