Prosecutor declares open season on criminals’ prospective victims.
Jesse Walker at Hit & Run points out the problems with the decision of the cash-strapped District Attorney of Contra Costa County in California to no longer prosecute most misdemeanors, and with his decision to announce that new policy to all the world. Scott Greenfield of Simple Justice had also questioned the wisdom of this DA’s public announcement. Crimes that will no longer be prosecuted include shoplifting, trespassing, burglary, simple assault, lewd conduct, vandalism, and drug cases involving smaller amounts of narcotics.
But it’s not just the incentive effects on the behavior of criminals and the criminally-curious (who now won’t have to worry that their venture into shoplifting will result in an embarrassing criminal record) that makes this policy and the announcement of it ill-advised. The government monopolizes the use of force and retribution, and justifies this monopoly with the notion that it is better equipped to dole out justice than private citizens using self-help (see Hatfield v. McCoy). No one would be hurt and very few would complain if the government were to stop prosecuting not only drug cases “involving smaller amounts of narcotics” but all drug cases and all victimless “crimes.” On the other hand, if somebody keys your car, burglarizes your shop, or beats you up, it’s natural to want some satisfaction. Contra Costa County is now telling its subjects that it will no longer provide such satisfaction, but it’s not telling them that they can now secure their own satisfaction through self-help either. They just have to suck it up, I guess.
On the bright side, I suppose that so long as your privately-administered retribution does not go beyond trespassing and simple assault, with maybe some vandalism thrown in for good measure on your way out, you should be okay. But if you don’t have the muscle to pull this off, it looks like you’re out of luck in Contra Costa County. And if you don’t have the cash on hand to hire some, I doubt the County will refund to you any of the taxes they took from you on the pretense that they would take care of this kind of thing.
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