[Pugchief]

Originally Posted by ThirdOfFive

True words.

I think we see examples of that here in and around TV on a daily basis. Some of read asteriskasteriskasterisk
asteriskasteriskasteriskasterisk and nary a day goes by when there ISN'T a story about some guy being stopped for unreadable license plate, stopping at a stop sign with tires over the solid white line, burned out tail light, or whatever; K-9 gets called and "alerts" to the possibility of drugs in the vehicle or on the person, a search ensues and bingo! Another drug bust. The other biggie is petty theft: you can count on at least four stories per week where someone (or several someones) are caught at Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Winn-Dixie, etc. with shoplifted items, arrested and processed for dollar amounts that seem puny to many of us. One of my favorites is a well-dressed, somewhat older lady who was caught on Wal-Mart store surveillance at one of those self-service checkouts not paying for her stuff. From the looks of it, it appeared that it was more a case of absentmindedness than theft. She left the store, got into a blue golf cart (surveillance had that on tape too) and left. I don't recall the dollar amount but I believe it was under $100. The interesting thing was that the cops asked, through the reporting publication, that anyone with knowledge of this woman contact them! That the cops would actually do that is remarkable. In cities and areas where many if not most of us come from, that is a belly laugh on the part of the cops rather than a track-down and arrest.

The cops around here know who the troublemakers and keep the pressure on. There is a fair amount of petty crime around here, but almost never anything major.

Exactly. If you look at what has turned made some large cities like SF LA and Chicago virtually uninhabitable, it is forced soft policing combined with DAs who refuse to prosecute. If criminals know there are no consequences, they will act accordingly.