Go Easy On Shoplifters: Conservative Police Watchdog In Britain Argues Leniency

[G.L.R.]

Legalize Shoplifting? Officers Should Use 'Discretion' with Stealing Suspects, Argues Police Watchdog



Police officers should use "discretion" when deciding to prosecute people for shoplifting in Britain due to the cost of living crisis, the recently installed head of a police watchdog has argued.

In response to the likely uptick in poverty and therefore criminality, the police watchdog told the left-wing Guardian newspaper that police officers should be lenient on those stealing from shops. "There's always individual cases where you can use your discretion that doesn't necessarily result in a prosecution but is dealt with in the best way possible. And the shoplifting one's a good example, isn't it?" Cooke suggested. "What they've got to bear in mind is what is the best thing for the community, and that individual, in the way they deal with those issues. And I certainly fully support police officers using their discretion – and they need to use discretion more often."..."There is a difference between a first-time offender who steals bread, cheese or milk to eat, and someone stealing to feed an addiction."...

In California, for example, left-wing voters passed Proposition 47 in 2014, which states that stealing items up to $950 in value will not be considered as a felony. Big retail stores in the city of San Francisco have been particularly hard hit by the loosening of laws on shoplifting, with retail outlet Walgreens closing dozens of stores in the Bay Area due to the rise in theft making the locations unprofitable. ... El Dorado County's district attorney Vern Pierson said in December: "We cannot function as a society where we have told people over and over again that there is no consequence for stealing other people's property." Retail groups estimated loses from smash and grab theft and shoplifting amounted to tens of billions of dollars in losses annually across the United States.

Legalise Shoplifting? Officers Should Use 'Discretion', Argues Watchdog
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2022/05/20/legalise-shoplifting-officers-should-use-discretion-with-stealing-suspects-argues-police-watchdog

[Br.IanVonTurpie]

It's dumb to try steal from anybody in the US as you could expect to get shot by potentially anybody!