[gruez]

>you can write a great breathless article about him, but there's still only one of him.

Right, but even if 46 arrests in a year isn't representative of the median shoplifter, it's still an appalling example. Why is the justice system so ineffective that a shoplifter is allowed to be arrested 46 times in a year? You'd think by the 4th or 5th one he'd be denied bail.

[nostromo]

> You'd think by the 4th or 5th one he'd be denied bail.

Last year NYC passed a bail reform law which removed bail as an option for a whole list of crimes.

You can shoplift all day everyday now, and you will be back on the street without bail.

[woodruffw]

> You can shoplift all day everyday now, and you will be back on the street in a few hours without bail.

Again, silence from the civil libertarians on using bail as a form of infinite detention. But more to the point: the bail reform doesn't apply here, since he's a previous offender. There's nothing (other than court capacity) stopping a judge from issuing a bail for him.

[woodruffw]

> You'd think by the 4th or 5th one he'd be denied bail.

I don't think the article says, but I suspect that he probably hasn't had a bail hearing related to these arrests this year. The court system is badly backlogged, and the alternative would be indefinite detention (here is where I'd expect the civil libertarians to come marching in, but there's always curious silence when it's someone like this).

[Redoubts]

> here is where I'd expect the civil libertarians to come marching in, but there's always curious silence when it's someone like this

Have you considered mentioning age of consent?