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Comment by ErikVandeWater | Hacker News Reader

My guess is it's the same situation as Seattle; Prosecutors in California refuse to prosecute these cases, meaning the cops refuse to waste time trying to apprehend them.

Here's an excellent clip about a famous criminal living free in Seattle that happily expounds on his illegal activity: https://youtu.be/bpAi70WWBlw?t=868

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This guy went on to kill is girlfriend then (possibly accidentally) himself. https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/crime/too-much-jai...

wow, that article is actually a really interesting take on the whole situation, and how there are no easy answers (both in this case and, i suspect, in many others (in sf and beyond)). these sorts of tragedies really highlight the need for a society-wide rethink on how to balance freedom/liberty with the ticking time bomb of negative externalities that certain, highly-justice-system-involved (especially when serious drug abuse issues are in play) offenders represent. at what point is someone "broken" enough from the pov of the rest of society that the humane solution necessitates a more interventionist approach? (not that forcible commission is at all a panacea, or even necessarily a viable/effective approach, of course). i think everyone would agree that letting these sorts of problems fester until they get bad enough that we can justify locking them up and throwing away the key is not a good solution for anyone.

There are plenty of things about my state that get hated on all the time, and deservingly so, but I'll never get how the West Coast is happy driving productive people away and coddling those that have no intention other than to fuck over society.

> how the West Coast is happy driving productive people

The evidence for this happening in economically-meaningful numbers is scarce. What we do see happening is those productive people disengaging from that broken society—civically, physically and emotionally.

The evidence for this happening in economically-meaningful numbers is scarce.

It doesn't take numbers meaningful to California to have a meaningful effect on other states, where housing costs are massively skyrocketing due to an influx of new residents.

What does that have to do with crime? Could be people just getting priced out. Land in the western US is still more expensive and still getting more expensive than elsewhere, clearly it is in demand even more than it is not in demand.

I grew up in Colorado, and complaints about housing costs and traffic increases due to the influx of Californians has been a constant since the 1970s. At least.

I'm going posit that it's perception more than any actual changes due to fleeing 'fornians.

Could be, but one hears of a multiplying effect: numbers of households moving from California times the absolute housing price differences, in terms of money flowing into local housing markets.

Prices are rising in California too, so an exodus can’t be the explanation, probably inflation and investors driving prices up?

I grew up in Washington, where people were whining about Californians moving there and driving up property prices since at least the 80s, but I'm sure long before.

This doesn't prove someone's opinion that criminals are being coddled and productive people are being driven away.

I mean about a decade ago I would have loved to live on the West Coast. I'm sure I'm no great loss to you but there are a lot of people that you just will never get. Not to mention, compared to a decade ago, the cities in my home state are starting to adopt these policies.

I don't see how not prosecuting repeated offenders is not coddling, as pointed out, the guy ended up murdering. There's very much a cultural difference.

In what world is 500,000 people moving into the greater Seattle area over the past decade and raising housing prices into the stratosphere called 'Driving productive people away'?

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