The above-displayed video, which reportedly shows two people shoplifting from a TJ Maxx in Granada Hills, is one of several videos that was circulated online in the summer of 2021 in support of the claim that crime was on the rise in California. However, San Francisco Police Chief William Scott said that the statistics don’t support that narrative, pointing to a mid-year report showing that burglaries were down 6 % in the first six months of 2021.
It should also be noted that California is not the only state that has raised the bar for felony convictions. Since 2000, at least 37 states have enacted laws that raised the threshold for what constitutes felony theft. In 2017, Pew Charitable Trusts examined how these laws impacted the crime rate and found that “raising the felony theft threshold has no impact on overall property crime or larceny rates.”
The cite? The same Snopes article I cited that clearly Maher did not read.
The issue here is that, as another tread showed, this item is the latest manufactured panic that the right wing is using, and it is targeted to influence many “moderates” like Maher. As I can see many right-wing sources are getting many moderate ones to fall for the misleading narrative.
I’m not quite sure what to make of your latest post. Are you suggesting that San Francisco (along with some other major California cities) is NOT experiencing a major shoplifting epidemic? Because they are, to the extent that some major stores are closing up and leaving. You must not be watching the news. From my previous cite:
“Representatives from Walgreens said that thefts at its stores in San Francisco were four times the chain’s national average, and that it had closed 17 stores, largely because the scale of thefts had made business untenable”
And more:
The Hoover Institution at Stanford has apparently also fallen for his lies, so I’m in good company. They used almost exactly the same words as Maher:
I’m well aware. I also don’t equate “conservative” – in the proper and traditional meaning of the word – with “bunch of liars”. Also aware of Condoleeza Rice’s involvement. Also aware that, per Wikipedia, during a Stanford faculty senate conference in 2021, she shared “statistics that show Hoover fellows contribute financially to both political parties on an equal basis”.
Some folks here seem to be on a mission to discredit everything and everyone that contradicts their prior beliefs. To bring things a little bit back on track, the bottom line to all the above is that, although Bill Maher has a few batshit crazy beliefs, and manages to express them with an irritating smugness, I think everyone should be given a fair shake, and some (some, by no means all) of the shit-flinging I see against Maher seems unfairly counterfactual.
Nope, the point, that Maher misses too, is that a change in the law is not the whole or main reason for the increase, that is a talking point to get the misleading point that “liberal” policies are the reason, so “vote Republican”.
The point here really is:
Do not fall for that being caused by policies coming from Democratic politicians. The truth is more complicated. This is, besides being a dog whistle, also a talking point setup as a wedge… as we can see.
What I see is that the conservative media is concentrating on what amounts to a post hoc fallacy and catching a lot of moderates. Like with what they did with vaccination, CRT and other manufactured panics, we need to be aware of what they are doing now in preparation to the next elections.
GIGO, you realize that all three of those are classic straw men: they are fine refutations, but of something that I never said, and that I don’t think Maher has ever said. If he had, I’d be on him like the rest of you.
Personally I tend to believe that if consequences were more severe for certain forms of petty larceny, especially for repeat offenders, and if there was a determined crackdown on shoplifting, the problem could be substantially mitigated. I’m not an expert on the sociological underpinnings of everything going on in San Francisco by any means, but enforcement of criminal law with appropriate consequences is a pretty standard paradigm for maintaining order, whatever else might need to be done.
Anyway, this argument has gone on long enough and my defense of Maher, limited though it was, is at risk of alienating good posters that I like, so I think I’ll just end it here.
So, the 2014 law caused an epidemic in shoplifting? Suddenly property crime surged?
Well, it has always been higher than the national average, but it started getting much higher in 2011. Years before the law that Maher blames had passed. In 2014, it actually dropped. And it has been going up and down each year since then. Almost as if that law had no influence.
Once again, you are defending him because you got suckered in by his lies.
Uh, we got here because as @Mijin reported, Maher claimed that San Francisco had basically legalized shoplifting.
So, not a strawman.
But other than that, I see that you are still ok, just remember why black guys talked about being Woke, it was to make others aware of injustices and talking points made to mislead.
I don’t think it could be covered under hyperbole, but anyway the whole rant is about how extreme the left has become. It seems the hyperbole conveniently gave him the whole basis for it.
As well as leaving his audience with a misapprehension.
This is clearly demonstrated to be false by the snopes link posted by GIGObuster. There are indeed some people who do and will believe that San Francisco legalized shoplifting. If your “hyperbole” exactly matches a right wing misinformation talking point, then you aren’t making a joke, you are are spreading right wing misinformation.
I think this is especially true if you’re a political pundit. I’ve never watched Bill Maher’s show, is he equally fast and loose when attacking right-wing policies?
They used almost exactly the same words as Maher: