Shoplifting In California Sky Rockets After New Law Goes Into Effect, And Police Don't Care

San Francisco, among other things, has become a hotbed stealing and shoplifting. They are now an everyday occurrence in San Francisco ever since a proposition which was passed 5 years ago essentially incentivized and gave people permission to steal.

The shoplifting has gotten so bad that it's actually become a well-organized black market operation where people are walking right into stores, stealing their desired merchandise, and turning around and reselling them on the street.

What happened with the proposition is that theft of merchandise and drugs with a value under $950 was downgraded to a misdemeanor charge. What makes matters worse is that local police enforcement won't even respond to these complaints of stealing because they need to prioritize more important crimes going on in the city. This has all but given them the go-ahead to take what they desire under that amount.

According to Fox News,

Over in the City by the Bay's famous Tenderloin district, Cassie, a 21-year-old mother of two and a former heroin junkie, told Fox News that when times were tough, she too has stolen from stores.

"If my babies need diapers or formula, who is going to get that for me? No one. I have to do it," she said. "They ain't out here arresting people for (shoplifting) and everyone knows it."

Proposition 47 is seen by critics as one of California's biggest blunders. Supported by the state Democratic Party and championed by the American Civil Liberties Union, the referendum was passed by a wide margin in 2014. The idea behind it was to reduce certain non-violent felonies to misdemeanors in order to free up resources for cops and prosecutors to focus on violent offenders.

California is quickly becoming the worst state to live for a slew of reasons at this point. This just really adds one more reason for people to leave before they forbid you from doing so.