☆ Are harsher petty theft laws antithetical to personal freedom?

Campaigns Committee chair of the SCC Libertarian Party Brian Holtz argues that AB23—which would reduce CA’s petty theft threshold amount by $550—complements a libertarian emphasis on individual liberty. While local gov’t overreach needs to be fought, residents’ property must be protected, valued, championed (recalling John Inks’s maxim “don’t take or mess with [people’s] stuff”).

Libertarians support the defense of property rights, even against petty theft.

Since news coverage of AB23 tends to cite large smash-and-grab shoplifting rings, one might easily suspect the motivations behind the proposal. The real issue here is probably more about prosecutorial discretion, but putting this issue before the voters might send a clear signal to prosecutors how citizens feel about brazen petty theft.

The Libertarian Party of San Francisco in 2021 decried “the mini-panic over SF shoplifting,” but their argument rested on false dichotomies. We can walk and chew gum at the same time. We can demand both 1) better prosecution of property crimes and 2) elimination of abuses of the government’s power to police and tax.

In particular, we should always advocate that property owners have the right to armed self-defense. Just as one video of brazen shoplifting can create lots of fear, one video of successful armed self-defense can create lots of deterrence.

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