The Law Is An Ass-6

"Unlike the initial program, in which the props were worth at most a few hundred dollars, the bags are now salted with real American Express cards, issued under pseudonyms to the Police Department. Because the theft of a credit card is grand larceny, a Class E felony, those convicted could face sentences of up to four years. ... In dismissing one case, a Brooklyn judge noted that the law gives people 10 days to turn in property they find, and suggested the city had enough real crime for the police to fight without any need to provide fresh temptations. The penal law also does not requires that found items be turned over to a police officer. The Manhattan [DA's] office began to dismiss Lucky Bag charges", NYT, 28 November.

With tens of billions of dollars of fraud likely on Wall Street, the NYPD chooses to arrest a few peasants who found purses apparently lost in Macy's. Either the NYPD has too many cops or still suffers from Vincent Broderick Syndrome (VBS). VBS? VB was the NYPD's commissioner in the 1960s. When John Lindsay (JL) became Mayor in 1966, JL immediately fired VB. Why? Racism. Racism? VB said something to the effect that the NYPD could not investigate crimes anymore, it could only make summary arrests. Why? Because the NYPD's average IQ had fallen from 115 in 1949 to 99. It doesn't take brains to make "Lucky Bag" arrests. It takes lots of brains to investigate sophisticated crimes.