[dundarious]

Interesting passages, but why think the poverty-crime issue is a simple binary at all? There's ample evidence that imporverishment does lead to increased criminal activity. No reason to think solving poverty would eliminate crimes of theft either. Specifically on the LA rail thefts, as with the retail theft panic, there is likely far more to the story.

> However, one major development that may be directly correlated with the rise in theft has continuously been left out: In September of 2020, due to pandemic-related budget cuts, Union Pacific laid off an unspecified number of employees across the railroad system. Including members of its railroad-only police force.

> The Union Pacific Police department has jurisdiction over the 32,000 miles of track Union Pacific owns. Many of these “special agents” used to patrol this now infamous stretch of track. According to the source, the number of patrolling officers has been cut from 50 to 60 agents to eight, which the worker thinks has led to an increase in train robberies.

https://www.lataco.com/union-pacific-theft-police-laid-off/

I'd rather just leave any commentary on the incident (mine or yours) out of the discussion of this article, though.