One of the groups behind this in LA was released during the pandemic and continued their work... They know they won't be put back.

The group caught in San Diego (caught with a house full of catalytic converters) were only charged for having a slide they'd stolen from a local park. Slap on the wrist.

A lot of non violent crime is not being pursued at this time, besides these thefts. It's a broader trend.

Taxes go up, services go down. Why? Just never enough money to govern somehow in California...

Clearly, it's an impoverished state.

(If we measured by more than money in common thinking, that isn't even sarcasm)

First sentence is correct. Second sentence does not reflect reality on the ground. Police budgets in LA were slashed last year. LAPD cut around 10% of their cops. Measure J? redirects 10% of the LA county budget towards anything but police, which is essentially a massive cut to the county police department. At this point non-violent criminals in LA only go to jail if they walk themselves in.

Nah, the progressive DAs are really reluctant to prosecute property crime, this discourages the police from making a case for prosecution.

I know a filmmaker in Oakland who had thousands of dollars of electronics stolen from their car (and receipts/insurance to prove the value of the electronics). One of the items stolen was an iPad that was phoning its location home, the filmmaker tried to direct the Oakland police to the house with the stolen iPad (itself worth >$950 dollars) but the police said they didn't think the case would stick and declined to go address the situation.

It may be 'in fact' that theft over $950 is a felony that police should take seriously, but in practice, it's really rare to see a thief prosecuted.