Seattle has decriminalized shoplifting. (drugs, attorney, racist, cost)

[travis t]

https://crosscut.com/2019/10/whats-s...nothing-really

Uwajimaya is a longtime Asian grocery chain in the Seattle area.

Uwajimaya’s flagship location in the Chinatown-International District referred 261 theft cases to authorities through the Retail Theft Program during much of 2018. .. Cops don’t bother filling out the paperwork and forwarding cases for less than that [$25] because it falls below the threshold used by Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes for prosecuting shoplifters.

When you add it all up, of the original 261 cases in which the shoplifter was caught or recorded on video, eight cases went forward....

According to store manager Alan Hamada, one [thief] stood outside the store, asking customers to write out a list that the shoplifter would go in and “get” for them — for a fee.

Another longtime retailer, Bartell drugs, has announced that it will close its store at 3rd and Union in downtown, citing theft issues. They will pay the remaining lease on an empty store, which they calculated to be cheaper than continuing to operate it.

I've heard from chain retail employees I know that they are now being trained to just ignore shoplifters. Theft is decriminalized.

[shiftymh]

Now they’ll complain they’re in a ‘food desert’ and have no healthy options.

[rjshae]

Yes, Seattle is a bit of a mess right now, for various reasons. It will make the upcoming city council elections interesting to watch.

[StillwaterTownie]

So from the conservative side, Oklahoma imprisons more women than any other state largely because it's been easier to get a felony from shoplifting. However, recently the amount to where it becomes a felony got raised to $1000.

[engineman]

Glad I never lived there.

[heart84]

Criminalizing shoplifting is racist and white supremacist. Possibly Russian too.

[t206]

I had no idea it was getting so bad in Upstate San Fran.

[TwoByFour]

This is somewhat related to the decriminalization of hard drug usage in Seattle. I am not necessarily in favor of criminal penalties for using drugs, but if you are going to take that away you still have to prevent the damage that users do to the community, like theft and homelessness and Seattle didn't do that - they say it is OK to use drugs and they let the users wreck the damage on the community.

[T-310]

So the cost of everything else goes up.

[Pilot1]

I think drug usage should be decriminalized, but NOT theft. What they are doing is choosing not to enforce existing laws. People need to make it clear to the politicians that is a harmful policy.