[greggman2]

This is one of those crimes I'm curious why the police in certain areas don't do more to stop. SF is the worst place I've been for this. You can literally walk down Folsom street or around Dolores Park and see that every 2nd or 3rd car window was smashed the night before. Leave anything showing and your car will be broken into. It's so common it's hard not to notice the glass everywhere from previously broken windows. Given it's so common it seems like the police could just put a few honey pot cars out and the problem would be solved but they don't care to solve it.

LA is also bad though not as bad as SF. I've had my car broken into 6 times and stolen once. One I installed a removable stereo, forgot to remove it first day, windows smashed, stereo gone. Got a new one, it lasted 2-3 months. After that had to use a cheap portable boombox (no money for new car stereo). That lasted a few months until someone bust into car in my apartment's garage and apparently tried to steal the car. The steering column was jacked up and the car repair said that was from trying to steal the car. Those were in West LA. My car itself was stolen in Costa Mesa. The replacement was a used Samurai Suzuki (all I could afford). It had a $10 cheapo radio that was stolen in Huntington Beach (no need to break into the car for that). The 2 times, one time I think I forgot to take down the dash cam. Another I forgot to lock it, there was nothing showing but apparently someone was just checking for unlocked cars.

Then again maybe I'm just used to living in a country like Japan where breaking into cars is mostly not a thing and so you can leave stuff in your car and you can have nice non-removable car stereos and not have to worry about your car getting broken into and getting stolen.

It's funny/sad to me how having grown up in the USA I just took it for granted than having your car broken into and/or stolen was just a normal part of life in the world. Luckily I learned it's not though it can be also be sad to have your eyes opened just how messed up your country of origin really is.

[Shivetya]

the police do not have incentive to do anything and because of lawmakers, especially in California, they are hampered by the very system. from raising the dollar amount to what is a felony vs misdemeanor to requiring proof a car was locked before you can charge someone with breaking and entering; yes even if the window is smashed it still requires proving a car was locked which is more difficult that it is worth to them.

we bemoan all the time we have too many people in jail when what we have is the wrong people in jail; namely anyone with personal use drugs and failure to pay fines. then to top it off we have a system where politicians daily tell people how they have been cheated or that other people cheated them to get what they have which just gives too many the excuse they need. after all, it isn't fair someone has nice things. people fail to understand how years of this talk messes with a population. divide by fear, divide by envy, divide by race, divide by class, well the payoff is this type of behavior.

[ALittleLight]

I would not impute this level of criminality to the whole of the USA.

[greggman2]

Good point. I would love to know why it's not a solvable issue. Not saying it's easy and I'm sure there's multiple reasons, some maybe unsolvable.