You reap what you sow....

[GMDino]

So the answer is yes they are still prosecuting theft.

Quote:As videos of brazen retail thefts in San Francisco draw national attention, The Examiner has obtained new data showing that District Attorney Chesa Boudin is prosecuting far fewer shoplifting cases than his predecessor.


The numbers show the prosecution rate for shoplifting cases involving a misdemeanor petty theft charge for a loss of $950 or less fell under Boudin, from 70 percent under former District Attorney George Gascon in 2019 to 44 percent in 2020 and 50 percent as of mid-June 2021.


Prosecutors filed charges in 116 of 266 cases presented by police involving petty theft in 2020, compared to 450 of 647 cases in 2019, according to the data provided by the District Attorney’s Office.


On the other hand, the prosecution rate for certain organized retail theft cases remained between 81 and 84 percent under both Gascon and Boudin between 2019 and 2021.


The office charged 35 of the 43 organized retail theft cases presented in 2020, compared to 21 of the 25 cases in 2019.


The numbers come out at a time when San Francisco is facing a perceived wave of retail theft that has reportedly driven stores to close or reduce their hours. Mixed into the narrative, propagated by media outlets and on social media, is the belief that the progressive district attorney’s stance liberal stance on incarceration and prosecution has turned San Francisco into a lawless city.


While the crime trend seen in viral videos of thieves brazenly stealing goods from Walgreens or Neiman Marcus is not borne out by police data — reports of shoplifting have actually dropped since 2019 and remained relatively consistent over the last decade — Boudin critics say some retailers have simply stopped calling the cops.

The situation is further complicated by the fact that San Francisco has long been an epicenter of property crimes that are rarely solved by police, meaning the district attorney only has the opportunity to charge a fraction of the crimes committed. But critics say the numbers show Boudin is contributing to the problem.


In an interview with The Examiner, Boudin said the decline in prosecution rates for shoplifting cases is a reflection of the “difficult choices” his office had to make during the pandemic, when the Hall of Justice closed most of its courtrooms and city officials decided to largely empty the jails, in part to prevent an outbreak.


“We made an intentional decision to prioritize crimes involving violence, injury to human beings and use of weapons,” Boudin said.


The data comes with some caveats.


The statistics do not, for instance, include shoplifting or organized retail theft cases charged only as commercial burglaries or robberies since it would be difficult to parse out similarly charged cases unrelated to thefts from stores.


Also, the prosecution rates only consider charges being filed, and not other actions taken like motions to revoke probation or referrals to other agencies. The prosecution rates remain down for shoplifting when those numbers are included.

I'm sure there is a subset around here that wants every criminal found guilty and locked up/fined but it sure looks like there is a reason the prosecutions dropped for petty and misdemeanor cases.

This seems to be a far cry from they "stopped prosecuting" certain crimes and has slid into hyperbole.