[MichaelCollins]

> People are safer on the street.

Only if you narrowly define 'people' to mean the tiny minority of people who are thieves, and exclude the overwhelming majority of people who aren't thieves. Thieves are safer on the street but everybody else is safer with thieves off the street. You've got your priorities skewed.

[public_defender]

This is a reasonable comment if you're talking about stabbings or murders but not shoplifting. Allowing people to steal from retail stores with impunity doesn't make anyone unsafe.

Realize that I'm not arguing for impunity, just that incarceration should be off the table.

[LawTalkingGuy]

Allowing people to commit any forceful or violent crime makes everyone feel less safe but also encourages the crime to escalate.

> just that incarceration should be off the table.

Nope. Nobody takes options off the table or the opposition adjusts. If we say we won't imprison people for X then X becomes a freebie. You see it in SF where shoplifting under $1k isn't pursued, in Vancouver where vandalism isn't pursued and you can pitch a tent up against someone's building, etc. Without involuntary incarceration you can't even force someone into detox or rehab.

We should try to have better options but we've got to stop the sabotage of our system. If you can't present a better alternative to incarceration (for everyone holistically) then you can't complain.

California is starting to clean up its DAs, a bit, British Columbia is cracking down. Eventually we'll have the use of our legal system again.

[thehappypm]

What? If I was shopping and a gang busted in and stole a bunch of stuff, I would feel extremely unsafe..