The amount of attention spent on Chesa Boudin and shoplifting is puzzling. Wage theft is by far the biggest form of stealing, and it’s rarely — if ever — prosecuted… but instead we’re worried about a small increase in petty larceny?
Police officers don't investigate wage theft, labor boards do. Not going after shoplifters, bike thieves and porch pirates doesn't free up any resources in order to go after wage theft, it just makes the area less safe and more expensive.
I don't understand why you're bringing this up when the TFA is about armed robbery. I do understand why someone would bring up SF in the first place, because SF decided to stop prosecuting "petty larceny". TFA is about what you'd also call "petty larceny", and the city seems to not care about it.
It feels like there’s a clear class difference. Almost all of these people are Hispanic/brown immigrants. If this was happening, and presuming it was worse than what the article described, what are the chances that you would know about it?
As a thought experiment, how long would it take for NYPD to respond if young, middle-class, college-aged joggers were being attacked with the same frequency at some dark Central Park corner.