CluedIn » April 13th, 2019, 8:49 am wrote:The Dallas County DA has announced they will no longer prosecute crimes involving theft of necessary items, up to $750.
"Criminalizing poverty is counter-productive for our community’s health and safety. For that reason, this office will not prosecute theft of personal items less than $750 unless the evidence shows that the alleged theft was for economic gain."
He then goes on to clarify what necessary items are: “Maybe I should say consumption items. Maybe we should have put that word in there,” Creuzot said. “We're talking about food and formula that people need to live. Maybe I didn't put enough words in when I said personal items. Maybe I should have said personal consumption items.”
http://www.fox4news.com/news/business-o ... w-policies
I represented someone about 6-7 years ago on a theft case. She had several priors (for theft), and was looking at 24 months in “State Jail” for stealing an assortment of items from Walmart.
My pitch to the prosecutor went something like this—“well, she’s guilty, but, that’s pretty steep, considering the total value was like $75 dollars. Plus, it was mainly items of necessity, like soap, deodorant, and fungus cream.”
The prosecutor was following along, and just as I thought my point was landing on sympathetic ears, he looked closer at the file and said, “and I suppose the movie
Hot Tub Time Machine is a necessity now?”
I was like, “okay, fair point, I didn’t see the DVD in there (the report). How about 10 months?”
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But, back to the story at hand—even if that’s the DA’s view—it’s a horrible idea to announce something like that.
Next you’ll probably see businesses respond with something like, “items for consumption no longer for sale in Dallas County.”
The Law of Unintended Consequences . . . always at work.