What's the root of why in 2022, only 327 people were responsible for a third of all shoplifting arrests in NYC?
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/15/nyregion/shoplifting-arre...
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/15/nyregion/shoplifting-arre...
> Some engage in shoplifting as a trade, while others are driven by addiction or mental illness
> Mr. Filpo said he had become accustomed to escorting people out of the deli who are shoplifting, many of them homeless. Cleaning items like laundry detergent, priced from about $8 to $11, are the items that are stolen most often, he said.
> Shoplifting is a crime of poverty, said Arielle Reid, supervising attorney of the Decarceration Project at the Legal Aid Society, New York’s largest provider of criminal and civil services for indigent clients. It can’t be solved by a continued reliance on “the heavy hand of law enforcement,” she said.
6,000 catch and release arrests is a massive waste of resources. Not arresting them at all with effectively legalize shoplifting, which is the end of retail, so it seems like the logical solution is to stop slapping these people on the wrist who clearly don’t care about another meaningless arrest on their record.
Doing nothing and continuing to release these people to do it again, is quite silly.