• Wilco@lemmy.zip
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    15 hours ago

    No, it is because pickpocketing can be argued as being an assault in the US. If you catch someone pickpocketing you it is legal to defend yourself and your property.

    • Nalivai@discuss.tchncs.de
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      10 hours ago

      …and that’s why they start with maximum violence out of the bat. If for you as a criminal the outcome is the same, why risk it and start with random pickpocket, when you will be tried as if you assaulted a person, start with an assault, safer for you, same risk.

      • M0oP0o@mander.xyz
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        7 hours ago

        I am flabbergasted you think that a petty assault charge for pickpocketing is even in the same building as pre meditated murder with a lethal weapon.

        The us is bad sure, but not the only nation with a similar system (I know here someone will take a swing at a pickpocketer) and yet the murder rate is not higher then average in the world.

        • Wilco@lemmy.zip
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          1 hour ago

          I was thinking the same thing. Try and pickpocket someone and get caught/punched and the thief might get a few months in jail. Going straight to assault/murder over a wallet is straight up crackhead mentality.

      • Wilco@lemmy.zip
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        1 hour ago

        Definitely. My city has a huge yearly street festival and the police stand on the roofs of buildings to watch for pickpockets. Each year we will see a few getting caught by the “victims”, most of the time there will be four or five people beating on the thief by the time the police get there. All the police do is haul the pickpocket away. So it seems like a legal “gray area” where I am from.