Wisconsin College Admin: Police Shouldn’t Prosecute Shoplifters

The Libertarian Republic reports:

An administrator at the University of Wisconsin-Madison suggested at a recent roundtable conversation that, in order to combat “overpolicing” in the community, police should no longer respond to shoplifting claims at large stores such as Wal-Mart, and shouldn’t agree to prosecute people caught stealing.

“I just don’t think that they should be prosecuting cases … for people who steal from Wal-Mart. I just don’t think that, right?” said UW-Madison director of community relations Everett Mitchell. “I don’t think [with] Target or all them other places, them big box stores that have insurance, they should be using justification, the fact that people steal from there as justification to start engaging in aggressive police practices, right?”

Everett’s remarks were made Tuesday as part of a UW-Madison panel on the topic of “Best Policing Practices.” Everett argued that community police shouldn’t prioritize enforcing the law, but instead should focus on achieving “safety” as it is defined by a local community, even if that definition includes allowing some stores to be robbed with impunity.

“We have got to a place where we are not longer able to define what safety means for us,” he said. “It is now being redefined over and over again in terms of what they think we want them to defend for us.”

Comrade Blake used to work at the Dane County District Attorney's Office as a assistant district attorney! Anyway , check out the video down below. In fairness to Comrade Black: what is the difference between Social Security and shop lifting? At least Comrade Blake is intellectually consistent unlike many supporters of the Welfare-Warfare State. Just imagine how much lower tuition could be if University of Wisconsin didn't have positions like " director of community relations".