"The judicial branch of California explains on its page about Prop 47 that the new law “reclassifies certain theft and drug possession offenses from felonies to misdemeanors.” Thanks to Prop 47, shoplifting offenses involving property valued at less than $950 are prosecuted as misdemeanors, not felonies, but they are still prosecuted. Such offenses are punishable by up to six months in county jail."
Get your facts straight before spreading disinformation.
That's a nice unattributed quote you've got there. Now for some actual data that say the exact opposite:
"The numbers show the prosecution rate for shoplifting cases involving a misdemeanor petty theft charge for a loss of $950 or less fell under [San Francisco DA Chesa] Boudin, from 70 percent under former District Attorney George Gascon in 2019 to 44 percent in 2020 and 50 percent as of mid-June
2021.
Prosecutors filed charges in 116 of 266 cases presented by police involving petty theft in 2020, compared to 450 of 647 cases in 2019, according to the data provided by the District Attorney’s Office."
Using data from two years without accounting for any confounders (a pandemic??) has approximately zero statistical rigor. Have you:
1. Considered the prosecution rate in other cities?
2. Controlled for other independent variables that might affect the prosecution rate?
3. Performed a statistical test to determine whether the decrease in prosecution rate is within normal historical variance?
If the answer to any of those questions are no (which, from the article, they all are no) your claim is not intellectually honest.
> "In an interview with The Examiner, Boudin said the decline in prosecution rates for shoplifting cases is a reflection of the “difficult choices” his office had to make during the pandemic, when the Hall of Justice closed most of its courtrooms and city officials decided to largely empty the jails, in part to prevent an outbreak."
The problem is crime is skyrocketing and people who think they can fix it just by busting heads with more cops really haven't a clue. The increase of crime is a symptom of wicked inequality that is perpetuated and even cherished by the upper class. This is just a side-effect of greed. More cops won't solve it.
It doesn't matter what the judicial branch says on paper. What matters is the process. In California, the decision to prosecute a misdemeanor must happen within 24 hours of that misdemeanor happening, otherwise it won't be pursued? Reclassifying something as a misdemeanor, when combined with other policy choices around misdemeanors, means that a fraction of them are actually prosecuted. So, you get your facts straight, please.
Also worth noting that California's felony threshold is still much lower than most states (i.e. it's easier to get charged with a felony), including conservative ones that are usually "tough on crime." And the Bay Area's cost of living is higher as well.
There are quite a lot of folks in this thread claiming that they are not prosecuted at all in SF. As in police don’t even bother showing up. I’m not living there so I’m not sure what the on-the-ground situation is, do you mean that this is not the case?
Wrong. Wrong wrong wrong.
"The judicial branch of California explains on its page about Prop 47 that the new law “reclassifies certain theft and drug possession offenses from felonies to misdemeanors.” Thanks to Prop 47, shoplifting offenses involving property valued at less than $950 are prosecuted as misdemeanors, not felonies, but they are still prosecuted. Such offenses are punishable by up to six months in county jail."
Get your facts straight before spreading disinformation.