Back in 2019, Nevada passed Assembly Bill 219, loosening many laws and decreasing or eliminating prison sentences for various property crimes. The minimum value for retail theft to be treated as a major crime was more than doubled and jail time was largely eliminated if the perpetrator paid a small fine and agreed to complete an online course. The bill’s sponsors described as an effort to do away with Nevada’s “lock ’em up and throw away the key” culture. One of the leading proponents who testified in support of AB219 was state Attorney General Aaron Ford. But the AG is back in the news this week, calling for parts of that law to be pulled back. The reason? Retail theft is “out of control.” Who could possibly have seen this coming? (Free Beacon)

Nevada attorney general Aaron Ford says the state’s rising retail theft rates must be curbed. He should know—in 2019, the Democrat testified in support of a law that made it harder for prosecutors to jail retail thieves.

Ford on March 2 presented a bill that would allow his office to “investigate and prosecute organized retail theft crimes.” The measure, Ford said, is “necessary” given the rise in retail theft crimes seen in Nevada—last year, for example, the state saw a 15 percent increase in property crimes and a staggering 39 percent increase in drug-store thefts on the Las Vegas Strip. While Ford used the bill as proof he’s mounting a proactive push to reverse that trend, critics say he’s to blame for the problem in the first place.

This is just a rerun of what we saw in California over the past few years. The Golden State also decriminalized most retail theft. As a result, San Francisco quickly surged to lead the nation in retail theft, though District Attorney Chesa Boudin continued to insist that the crime rates had “nothing to do” with his policies or the changes to the legal code. (Perish the thought!)

Nevada’s nearly 40 percent surge in drug store thefts also mirrors the situation in California, where most Walgreens stores have shut down and are relocating out of the state. People stealing as much as $1,000 worth of merchandise are routinely released without bail and not given a prison sentence. There is very little disincentive to commit such crimes and the aspiring criminals in Nevada know it.

While Aaron Ford scrambles to reinstitute the retail theft laws, his critics are having none of it. He’s being accused of trying to hide from his decriminalization past and his soft-on-crime policies. Ford has a bit of history along these lines himself. It turns out that he was arrested for theft in 1994, though the charges were eventually dropped after he paid restitution to the tire store where he reportedly failed to pay his bill.

And yet he was still somehow elected to the state senate. While serving there, he gave a speech where he said he didn’t know “what larceny even means, frankly.” But now he’s suddenly the tough-on-crime guy? People don’t seem to be buying it. (For good reason.)

How many times do we need to see this nonsense play out before “bail reform” and “justice reform” politicians begin to get a clue? There are certain people who are likely to commit crimes for whatever reason if they think they can get away with it. Criminal codes exist to punish those people and serve as an object lesson to others. When you remove or severely decrease the penalties for such behavior, you will see more of that behavior as a result. This isn’t rocket science. Perhaps Aaron Ford is finally learning that lesson. Hopefully, others will take note and learn it as well.