When bottom feeding goes too far….

The stealing of things like plumbing or wiring out of buildings is what I would call “bottom feeder” crime, because it is the lowest form of crime. So-called “scrappers” do incalculable damage by making houses completely uninhabitable and shutting down power for entire communities.

It cheered me to see that occasionally cops will devote genuine resources to catching them, as they did recently in Missouri:

A southwest Missouri sheriff’s department says deputies have worked hundreds of overtime hours to catch suspected copper thieves who’ve been disrupting phone service for months.

Five men from Springfield and nearby towns are now under arrest in Greene County on suspicion of stealing copper telephone wire. All of the arrests took place this month, with one of the men arrested twice.

Thieves have hit unincorporated areas of Greene County roughly 50 times since March, mainly targeting AT&T phone wires to sell the copper to recyclers.

Two of the men were arrested July 9, after a resident reported his phone suddenly went dead. More than 600 customers lost phone service from that incident.

It would be nice if something actually happened to the accused. The problem is that in many of these cases, nothing happens, because the criminals turn out to be illegal aliens. For some reason, public policy dictates that aliens should generally be allowed to break the laws with impunity. If they drive without registration or insurance, nothing is done if they are stopped, and if they have an accident, they simply walk away, buy another car for cash, and start the process over. If they father children, dead beat dad laws don’t apply. Law abiding Californians I have talked to are furious, because police don’t hesitate to enforce laws against them, while ignoring violations by aliens. Not only are laws for the law abiding, but the police would rather enforce laws against people inclined to obey them, and who can be depended upon to show up for court dates, with lawyers, ready to make deals, pay fines, etc. Much neater and tidier.

I can’t blame them. Were I a cop, I would only want to police the law-abiding and arrest middle class criminals who have gone astray. Hopeless miscreants who steal copper (to say nothing of smelly homeless people) are an annoying and unproductive waste of time. Better to focus on raising revenue than worry about quality of life issues.

But I’m glad to see that at least bottom feeder crime that results in shutting down utilities is seen as going too far. (Even if stealing catalytic converters from cars is seen as an issue for insurance companies….)