What happens to some stolen cameras in San Francisco

[pRICE cUBE]

https://petapixel.com/2022/04/18/this-is...francisco/

Noyes was contacted by a local resident who has spent the better part of a year watching the illicit transactions take place outside his home window. The man, who wishes to remain anonymous, started recording the street when he realized what was going on. Since he started his watch, he says he has seen large amounts of high-value products bought and sold, including laptops and cameras.

He has also watched the buyers of the stolen goods take bags to a nearby trashcan and throw away everything they don’t see of value, which has included passports, vaccine cards, personal files, and more. In one case, he recovered plane tickets and a visa from the trashcan and was able to return them to one of the victims, a businessman who was visiting the city from Mexico. He did the same with a passport and bag he recovered on another occasion and, in that case, it had been stolen no more than an hour previously.

Particularly damning is that the resident shared this information, including photos and videos that contained detailed descriptions of all the suspects, with the San Francisco Police Department last year. The result? Nothing that he can see.

[gadje]

I was recently in SF and the rental car people told me to not leave anything of value in the car. Coworkers told me the same thing, their car got broken into a few weeks earlier.

This is not acceptable.

[Speedy]

Petty theft. Cops don’t care unless the stuff turns up in a big haul.

[N-OS X-tasy!]

Speedy wrote:
Petty theft. Cops don’t care unless the stuff turns up in a big haul.

FTFY.

[Racer X]

In Seattle, you can file a police report for a non-violent crime on-line. So they don't even have to look you in the eyes and pretend to care.

[lost in space]

Police departments all over the country are overwhelmed with petty thefts. Same thing here in our little corner of paradise. Drug addicts and homeless trying to survive.

[mrbigstuff]

What would be the outcome of the victim having a weapon here and using it? Since there was a weapon brandished by the thieves? (Not saying it would be a wise idea, just curious about that hypothetical.)

[Racer X]

Then the perp would be an armed robber threatening with a deadly weapon. It's up to the individual to decide what is warranted, and justified at that point.

[vision63]

I can count two DSLR's, Lenses, Video Cams, 2 laptops among the haul.

[RAMd®d]

What would be the outcome of the victim having a weapon here and using it?


This was an armed robbery.

However CA is not a stand your ground state and the victims were out and about, so the victim would have to demonstrate that his fear of harm to himself or someone else. at that time, was reasonable.

It looked to me like a victim was struck at the very beginning of the video, but I'm not sure.

A suspect has already brandished a weapon which carries implied threats, whether or not this suspect made any additionally.

If that's the case, the use of deadly force by another victim would likely be found justified.

The other side of that coin is that since nobody was really hurt, and the bad guys were just thieves, it's just as well they weren't shot, because it's just property.

That's not a view I generally accept, but that's me.

However, any crime where a victim isn't severely injured or killed is a near win, in my book.

Then there's the practical side of responding with a firearm.

Drawing or retrieving a firearm to use against someone who's already brandishing theirs is a very risky proposition, with some obvious potentially dire consequences if one isn't fast and accurate.

This precludes brandishing one's one firearm in self-defense.

If one pulls, they have to put the suspect down or be put down.

Yes, that's an individual call, and one a lot of people couldn't make work.

In that situation, should the victim prevail he would likely not be criminally charged.

CA law maintains one cannot be criminally punished for justifiable homicide.

That doesn't preclude civil liability in a wrongful death suit.

A court case is very often not about facts or the truth, but what a jury believes, for good or bad.