DC decriminalizes theft

Not really.

But they did waive the criminal charge that comes with evading fare on the city's Metro system.

American Thinker, by Taylor Lewis.

Lewis begins with the term "legalized theft" a term libertarians used talking about taxation and a metaphor used by reformers of civil asset forfeiture and a phrase constitutionalists used to describe eminent domain.

The article evolves to a discussion on race since 91% of offenders are black. Males, presumably, they're very good jumpers. The discussion goes into some depth.

What’s wrong with asking everyone to pay the price for a public service? Singling out blacks as incapable of not skimming off the top doesn’t put the race in a great light. It excuses malefaction, contradicting Frederick Douglass’s plea to view black Americans as equal, morally autonomous individuals and to “give [them] a chance to stand on [their] own legs!”

And then on to the greater dissolution of honorable mores that once governed our private sector, and the preventative enforcement power whittled away to the point of sanction. Lewis evokes Saul Bellow's Mr. Sammler's Planet describing a Holocaust survivor observing social degradations in Manhattan.

You had to be strong enough not to be terrified by local effects of metamorphosis, to live with disintegration, with crazy streets, filthy nightmares, monstrosities come to life, addicts, drunkards, and perverts celebrating their despair openly in midtown. You had to be able to bear the tangles of the soul the sight of cruel dissolution.

Some more at the link.

The really interesting thing over there is, the commenters are all very good. They take this article as base and build on it beautifully. The whole thing is a very good read.