No, but we should criminalize people if they commit crimes. Laws exist for a reason, and they must be enforced to be effective.
As Anatole France said, "In its majestic equality, the law forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, beg in the streets and steal loaves of bread."
I just had my bike stolen out of my back yard here in the Mission two days ago. I'm still mad. But odds are that it was some homeless addict, and enforcing the law and putting him in jail for a few weeks will be no more effective in solving the problem of petty theft than not enforcing the law.
I would certainly like to see the cops arrest the people up the stolen goods chain, the people who actually have something to lose. Crime shouldn't pay. But the way to stop people stealing to survive is to help them find some more productive way to survive.
I agree with this completely – ultimately, you have to find a better and more sustainable solution.
But right now, some people know they can commit crime in San Francisco, and see it through with relatively few consequences, causing a concentration of crime in the city. It provides an incentive to crime… and ultimately, ignoring it won't make it go away either.
Those are the kind of people stealing bikes, and they deserve judicial action:
https://www.reddit.com/r/sanfrancisco/comments/4fcy9y/sparks...
Christ, I have personally chased down a bike thief to help a friend get her bike back. I saw the guy up close. I saw the scabby meth face. I felt the addict skinniness under my hand when I grabbed him.
Yes, I know that professional bike thief rings also operate in my city. But they aren't the ones stealing 8-year-old bikes out of back yards, bikes that were worth $500 new. They are stealing things with resale value.