from Hacker News

Union Pacific Addresses LA Cargo Thefts; Problem Requires Collective Effort

by samename on 1/17/22, 3:49 AM with 166 comments

• by vondur on 1/17/22, 5:02 AM

  Here's the problem from the article: "Criminals are caught and arrested, turned over to local authorities for booking, arraigned before the local courts, charges are reduced to a misdemeanor or petty offense, and the criminal is released after paying a nominal fine,” said the letter. “These individuals are generally caught and released back onto the streets in less than 24 hours. Even with all the arrests made, the no-cash bail policy and extended time frame for suspects to appear in court is causing re-victimization to Union Pacific by these same criminals.”

  The letter goes on to say criminals are boasting to Union Pacific officers that charges will be pled down to simple trespassing – which bears no serious consequence."

• by topspin on 1/17/22, 6:20 AM

  While one can appreciate the candid and not at all surprising UP explanation as to the effective abrogation of justice in our coastal la la land, this is also a cop-out: train looting isn't some unexpected phenomena that started earlier this month; here is video of this happening in Chicago at least two years ago[1]. These operators are not taking the necessary measures to protect cargo; they're wallowing in the hope that this is an aberration because any other approach will cost money. Unfortunately our increasingly 'low trust society' has a cost and UP et al. need to figure this out and adapt accordingly.

  [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hB6lIqYoamo

• by rdtsc on 1/17/22, 6:25 AM

  > Union Pacific agents have made hundreds of arrests, but less than half are booked

  > charges are reduced to a misdemeanor or petty offense, and the criminal is released after paying a nominal fine

  So how does that affect statics? If they are not booked, and charges are dropped to a petty offense, it would look like the crime stats are trending down and the area is improving. “Look, burglaries and serious offenses are going, our policy is working so well!”

• by baskethead on 1/17/22, 6:17 AM

  Gascon is the type of DA that you would see in a Batman movie, that is working for the villains. The decisions he has made on behalf of the criminals is shocking. It's as if he's trying to do as much damage as possible. The one that drew the line for me was the machete attack in Malibu by a homeless person where someone lost an eye and was disfigured. The assailant had months previously attacked someone with a knife, but Gascon only charged him with a misdemeanor so he was out and about.

  As far as I'm concerned, Gascon is working with the criminals to maximize their damage on our society. The same is going for Boudin, but it seems that he will lose his job soon.

• by Osmose on 1/17/22, 6:28 AM

  I'd love to see how much revenue was lost from these thefts vs the average taxpayer cost of imprisoning all the involved folks for however long Union Pacific wishes they were locked up for. Ignoring the obvious slippery slope / long term effect objection, it'd be wild if it was actually cheaper to just pay the losses back and prosecute no one.

• by zamfi on 1/17/22, 5:30 AM

  *UP, not Up

  This is about Union Pacific, the railroad.

• by throwaway73838 on 1/17/22, 6:57 AM

  Anyone who believes that more severe penalties and a more potent criminal justice system has never been to Singapore. There’s a reason they have almost no crime there.

• by slivanes on 1/17/22, 5:45 AM

  https://youtu.be/nQrTORBS-co

  Terrible looking ghetto, video of the result of train looting.

• by paul7986 on 1/17/22, 6:23 AM

  Social justice (“While we understand the well-intended social justice goals of the policy...”) doesn't seem to be working with the smash and grab thefts and now this seen in California.

  Is this same type of crime activities happening in other cities and do they too have the same lax laws?

• by pmdulaney on 1/17/22, 9:45 PM

  'The letter urged the District Attorney to reconsider the policy applied to these cases: “While we understand the well-intended social justice goals of the policy, we need our justice system to support our partnership efforts with local law enforcement, hold these criminals accountable, and most important, help protect our employees and the critical local and national rail network.”'

  I don't understand the "well-intended social justice goals of the policy". And I don't think Union Pacific does either; they are forced by the prevailing social justice social norms to say that they "understand" these goals.

• by siruncledrew on 1/17/22, 7:51 AM

  The longer this problem goes on at this level of severity, the bigger of a shitstorm the UP and DTLA are going to face.

  Customers, companies, and the government are going to be pissed if trade and distribution of important supplies gets impacted because UP and DTLA are playing the passive blame-game and not stepping up to put resources to address the problem.

  They can lie and say they are doing something, but where’s the effort when there’s videos of this happening and just a ton of garbage all over the place.

  This is turning in an environmental disaster at this point as well.

• by pea on 1/17/22, 11:58 AM

  Showing my naivety, but could someone explain to me how these sort of things are becoming partisan left/right issues?

  I am based in Britain. I'm presuming London's mayor (Sadiq Khan) and many others comparable figures are significantly more left-leaning -- both economically and socially -- than their US counterparts in these cities. Yet, I can't imagine the London Metropolitan police would not come down on this sort of thing like a ton of bricks. It's not like socialist or communist countries haven't prosecuted or penalised theft historically.

  Similarly, I keep reading on Twitter that the left in the US wants to ban calculus. How is this a leftist policy? I am pretty sure Soviet Russia streamed students based on ability.