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Comment by Mindless2112 | Hacker News Reader

One thing this article fails to mention is that Albuquerque is the property crime capitol of the US[1]. APD needs all the help it can get.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_cities_b... (sort by total property crime)

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In my experience, the police deal with property crime by showing up a few hours later, writing a police report, and suggesting that you move to a less shitty neighbourhood.

I don't think they need much help with that sort of thing, it seems to be pretty throughly figured out.

If we wanted to solve property crime, we would probably do two things - arrest the fences who buy stolen goods, and give addicts free drugs.

While that was our experience in Oakland 30 years ago, it's what I expected; we would need a police report for an insurance claim.

First home after college, we didn't own anything worth more than ten bucks, minimum wage it was crazy. But someone broke in and gave it a go anyway.

It felt awful.

Felt better after the police arrived, but seriously what else are they going to do?

> but seriously what else are they going to do?

The police should arrest the fucking fences and openly advocate giving addicts drugs.

Seriously, the fences aren't hard to find: they openly do things like sellobviously near-new and second hand cordless drills with battery but no charger, while at the same time advertising a rather odd collection of other random items.

People are doing carriable item theft for only handful of reasons: fun, or they need the cash.

Edit: typo and grammar errors galore!

You can't just arrest people for selling things on the street if you can't prove that its stolen. There's a reason they don't arrest them.

The police can and do arrest anyone for any thing at any time, and charge them willy-nilly. Sometimes they even shoot people. In the back. For no reason.

But whatever, mate.

Arresting an obvious fence and charging them with possessing stolen properly wouldn't be a complete waste of resources like half of policing already is.

I agree highly with the point you're making and I would put it by rephrasing the famous words: "Nobody gets fired for arresting a black person".

They can seize all the property for sale like they do when they see someone driving a car they want.

It's almost like you're asking the police to investigate crimes and gather evidence to prove the items are stolen.

But no, that's too hard. They've got their hands full choking people to death for selling loose cigarettes.

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