alt Hacker NewsThe article is really bad. The writer doesn't bother to argue the actual issues, he just hand waves all off them away and presents his beliefs as fact. He calls the shoplifting epidemic going on in California a "panic", as if it's not real. Of course it is, because shoplifters currently face basically no consequences.
>The evidence of the root causes of interpersonal harm—like that marshaled by the Kerner Commission, which studied U.S. crime in 1968 and recommended massive social investment to reduce inequality—is ignored.
A good point, but criminals still must face consequences for their actions.
>And the cycle continues: moral panic is followed by calls for more police surveillance, militarization, higher budgets for prosecutors and prisons, and harsher sentencing. Because none of these things affect violence too much, the problems continue.
That's just nonsense.
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People have been shoplifting for millennia. The very first shop ever created by a caveman probably got stolen from. And people have been caught and getting away with it at some probability forever, too. Why has it all of a sudden generated such a panic?
"In its 2024 report, Retail Theft: A Data-Driven Response for California, the Commission found that despite a recent uptick, reported retail theft remains at roughly the same level as during the 2010s and lower than it was in earlier decades."[1] (not sure why they had to post it as a PDF)
1: https://lhc.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/Retail_Theft_Fact-Shee...