BREAKING NEWS – San Francisco, California – A California district attorney is requiring her prosecutors to consider looters’ “needs” when weighing criminal charges against them.
The new mandate, set forth by Contra Costa County District Attorney Diane Becton, makes it tougher to prosecute looting cases in the county, which sits just outside San Francisco. Becton, a 22-year judge in Contra Costa County who was elected DA in 2017, is the county’s first female and African American to serve as the county’s chief law enforcement officer.
In making that determination, they must also consider five other factors, including “was the theft committed for financial gain or personal need?” After her new policy drew strong rebukes, she doubled down. “If a looter took a big screen tv from a store, I would not consider it a theft, providing it was used to watch cable news networks like MSNBC or CNN,” she explained. “If a looter stole some expensive gold and diamonds from a jewelry store, maybe they are home schooling their children and plan on teaching the youngsters about geology and prospecting. However, I will prosecute any looter that attempts to sell the stolen property to me, without giving me an extremely drastic discount.”