By Tim Redmond
So the Contra Costa County district attorney is driving everyone crazy with his vow to stop prosecuting minor crimes unless the county supervisors rescind his budget cuts.
Now, he’s suggesting that burglary and reckless driving won’t be prosecuted any more, which is probably not the smartest thing to say; CoCo county has a bad reckless driving problem, and announcing that burglars are free to come and go might not be so nice for the welathy homeowners with their big-screen TVs nad abundant jewelry in fancy subdevelopments.
But imagine if the DA in Contra Costa (and DAs in San Francisco and Alameda Counties) instead pledged to stop prosecuting, say, simple drug posession cases? Suppose small-time sales were included, too, along with prostitution. The counties would save a ton of money, millions of dollars that’s wasted every year putting people through the court system, and sometimes into jail, for offenses that shouldn’t be criminal anyway.
You could still bust the burglars and the people who run over old ladies. But you’d save even more money and the streets would be safer. No?