CA smash and grab robberies

Isn't he being recalled?

Okay I guess it failed. Not enough signatures collected in time.

. "An effort to recall George Gascón from his position as the Los Angeles County District Attorney in California did not go to a vote in 2021. Recall supporters announced on September 16, 2021, that they had not gathered enough signatures to meet the October filing deadline.[1]

The recall effort began in March 2021.[2] To get the recall on the ballot, supporters would have had to collect 579,062 signatures from registered voters in the county by October 26, 2021.[1][3]

The notice of intent to recall said Gascón had abandoned crime victims and their families, disregarded the rule of law, weakened sentencing requirements for violent crimes, and reduced sentences on hate, gun, and gang crimes.[4] Gascón said his policies were aimed at correcting a racist system. He also said the recall was being funded by supporters of former President Donald Trump (R).[5]

Gascón was elected to a four-year term in the nonpartisan general election on November 3, 2020, defeating incumbent Jackie Lacey with 53.5% of the vote.[6]

"

And quit letting them out on unbelievably low PR bonds while they await trial, only to go out and commit more crimes. Huge issue here with that - and a lot of finger pointing as to whose fault it is. Meanwhile crime rates continue to increase.

Boudin, right? My sister used to live in Fremont and she and I used to talk about this. She’s a Dem, but my god, she was exasperated with the policies on crime of some of these DAs.

(ETA: forgot to say she worked in SF)

Lol.  Yes, I know it's Gascon.  Since you brought up SF, I said Boudin.  My sis used to work in SF and was disgusted at what was going on there.  No biggie.  Thanks.

Locking someone away because they can’t pay high bail is a problem. Bond reform is necessary. High bonds for non violent crimes incarcerate people who haven’t been convicted of anything. Crime is a multi dimensional issue that we ideally would be handling at multiple levels in our society. Unfortunately, there seems to only be a political desire for incarceration as a solution. If more police and jail time was the answer to crime, the US would be one of the safest places on Earth.

The locking up of items in stores will tell you how bad it is. It started with diapers and formula, now it’s deodorant, razors, and laundry detergent.
We went to nicer malls over the summer, and my son noticed something was different at the Apple store but couldn’t put his finger on it. And I noticed that locks were gone. Things were just powered, but not locked. I guess nice areas don’t have their stuff locked up. I imagine they will start doing it, and hiding small, affordable tracking devices. If poor areas can adjust to crime, so will the nicer stores.

In San Francisco, at least, crimes that were formerly felonies have been downgraded to misdemeanors. There's no reason for police to arrest someone when there is no penalty for the crime.

I loved San Francisco. I grew up nearby, worked in the city, and even after moving away, we visited often. But on our last visit in 2019, things had changed. The company put us up at the Four Seasons in the finance district, an historically upscale hotel/area. Outside the hotel sidewalks were lined with people leaning against the buildings, sleeping or shooting up. In broad daylight. We had to watch where we walked to avoid human waste and discarded needles on the sidewalks. We asked directions at the hotel and the concierge advised us to walk to a more distant BART station as the station closest to the hotel had become a homeless encampment. DH was walking to lunch with his business associates and a man walked up to him and spit in his face. San Francisco has always been my favorite city in the world, but I honestly don't know if I will ever go back.

In contrast, New York City famously lowered its crime rate by arresting petty criminals. Turns out the petty criminals were also the ones committing major crimes.

De-criminalizing crime is not going to lower crime rates. It's just going to embolden criminals.

All the above is my opinion based on my observations and experiences. YMMV.

I can’t blame people for questioning some of these policies.

Perhaps one of the solutions would be to stop the practice of electing state/local prosecutors. In my view, they should not be beholden to any party or any segment of society. Their duty is to serve all, meaning their policies should not be dictated or influenced by partisanship. If your justice policies are going to be too far left or too far right, then I don’t see how that helps.

If we truly want prosecutions to be fair and aboveboard, then all prosecutors should be independent, and by that I mean independent also of who might appoint them. We don’t elect federal prosecutors, so why do we do it for state (with the exception of about five states that don’t do this)? I don’t know of any other fully-developed nation that does this.