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AWildLibAppeared's avatar

First of all, the shoplifting and smash-and-grab panic has been greatly blown up by the national and local media, because fear gets eyeballs.

Many states have a higher threshold for felony theft. Texas is over $2,000. Our current level of $950 is actually surprisingly low. I personally do not want people to get locked up years for dumb, minor offenses.

The real problem in the state is a lot of conservative DAs refusing to prosecute crimes because they only want to pursue charges that give people big sentences. Those DAs absolutely could set up systems or programs to prosecute lower level offenders, but they choose not to. The problem is the DAs in some of our biggest counties, many of whom are actually still Republicans or ex-Republicans.

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