Is anyone watching this Trump press conference???

But again - how is it the fault of our justice system that the thieves aren't locked up if they're not being caught in real time? We have the same issues with shoplifting here in my red state, so whatever California is doing isn't really relevant. To your point, we've seen what happens when store employees try to apprehend shoplifters - they're often hurt and it's a huge liability for the store. Even way back in the 90s when I was working retail, we were instructed not to mess with shoplifters. Just let them go and make a report. So this isn't a new issue. I worked in an outlet mall and watched thousands of dollars of kids' clothing walk out of the store a few different times. Conservative rural area, BTW. Not a big, blue city.

Your friend up there says they keep stealing because we're not throwing them in jail, but jail clearly isn't even an option. So what now?

Of interest - in other countries I've visited, everything of value in a drugstore is behind the counter. So you have to wait in line, ask for your razor blades or whatever, and pay for them before you leave the counter. This is clearly a theft deterrent but likely one most Americans wouldn't accept. Grocery stores are also smaller and set up in such a way that it would be super difficult to get out with a lot of stolen goods. Big box hardware stores like Home Depot simply don't exist and/or aren't set up in the same way.

To some extent, our shoplifting problems are brought on by the shopping culture we've created where everything is out in the open and available in huge quantities. We want our goods easily obtained and we want them right now, no waiting. Changing to a system like other countries use might be helpful. But would you accept a different way of shopping?

Thanks for this book rec.  Just got the Audible version, hoping DH will listen with me in the evenings.

The shoplifters and other criminals aren't being charged or convicted of their crimes when they are caught.  Nobody wants to fill the jails with these criminals so they let them go. Bottom line.  Then the retail stores have to charge higher prices for their goods which isn't good for everyone. 

our shoplifting problems are brought on by the shopping culture we've created where everything is out in the open and available in huge quantities.
I completely disagree with this. These crimes are brought on by the criminals having no respect for other peoples property, having no respect for authority, no fear of retribution or consequences and the narcissistic behavior that "I want what I want, when I want it and I don't care who gets in the way of me getting it". Stop allowing these people to get away with these "petty" crimes.  Start building some more prisons and start locking criminals up for their crimes. 

As I mentioned to your friend above, the US already has the highest rate of incarceration among our peer countries and the highest raw number of prisoners in the world. Second place isn't even close. So that argument doesn't really hold water. Thieves are charged and convicted when they are caught. They spend time in our prisons.

So now what?

I had several retail jobs in my younger years. In college, in the early 80s, I worked as a cashier in a grocery store. We were told to never approach or confront a shoplifter. We would get fired if we did.

Later in the 80s, I managed a nice women's clothing store in a mall in a largish city in Iowa (RED state by the way), and we were also told to never confront a shoplifter. We were to watch them as closely as we could, note as many details as we could, then call mall security the second they left the store. There was one woman who every store knew about. She wore big clothing withe some kind of contraption underneath where she would literally take the clothing on the hanger and shove it under her clothes. We would follow her around talking to her, and she would still manage to get things. Everyone in the mall knew her, but we as store employees could do nothing, and she knew that, and she hit us up all the damn time. By the time we could call security, she was long gone. I worked for that store from 1987 until 1990, so this is NOT a new problem, and it has nothing to do with blue or red cities/states.

As for ridding DC of criminals, sounds great in theory, but who wants the military walking around our cities? Not me. And what exactly is Trump going to actually DO with the homeless that he says he is going to rid the city of? I've not seen an answer to that anywhere.

She ended up dropping the alleged suit because it was untrue. 

You are incorrect.

Whataboitism is when someone makes a statement — “Trump is a fascist” and the reply isn’t logical but rather a deflection — “yeah, what about Obama?”

That is the meaning of whataboutism, not suggesting that something would have happened to someone if they lived in a different location.

I actually remember when he said that. He actually BRAGGED about walking into the dressing room of the Miss TEEN USA pageant. He laughed as he said it.

Ugh, he’s so gross.

That's just him showing us he has "balls", girls! That's what REAL MEN do, they use positions of power to burst in on undressed teenage girls and laugh about it later.

Because the topic of this thread is about Herr Trump sending agents and the NG to DC to “clean it up.” It is not out of line to suggest that theft prevention might be in their wheelhouse. Whataboutism is changing the subject to deflect. Deflecting a question, for example. Or deflection can be used against criticism. Parents of teenagers will be very familiar with this type of whataboutism.

Talk about a delayed reaction cindosha. You wished me a good day, LOL!

I guess you needed time to pull out the whataboutism accusation. This was not whataboutism. I didn't interpret your comment as any kind of accusation and I didn't counter any accusation by deflecting to a different issue. It was the same issue throughout the exchange all leading from morecowbell asking me about policies on thievery. When I responded to you I clarified my original statement because you attempted to "misunderstand" thinking that I was talking about her actual experience and not what could have happened should she lived in a Trump militarized zone. Hopefully we can all agree that the National Guard policing a community is military action. Department of Homeland Security is posting videos bragging about how aggressively they are handling people who haven't committed any kind of violent crime. You can see it for yourself. Fear of aggression in DC now is not a leap.

But in no way, shape or form was this whataboutism. By any definition, including the one you posted:

Because her testimony is very much in line with what others have said happened on Epstein's properties, and because we all know what happens to women in this country who accuse powerful men.

Your turn to answer the questions.