This belongs in the "You're kidding!" bin

I really wasn't kidding about a crime wave due to this economic disaster. According to Matthew Collins, crime does pay:

As it appears that the rule of law may already be breaking down in the U.S.

Perilously underfunded, the District Attorney of Contra Costa County – not to be confused with Solano County…the home of Vallejo – made a tough decision when faced with a shortage of manpower…

They won’t be prosecuting misdemeanors like assaults, burglaries, and minor drug possession. So if you’ve been caught for any of those crimes in Contra Costa…you might actually be off the hook.

Now, to be sure, the cops are still hard at work. They made a point of insisting to the media that you can still get arrested for things like blowing through stop signs or getting into a street fight. But when they wrap your case up and forward it to the DA, it may or not end up being prosecuted…depending on the DA’s cash flow situation.

Now again, this situation in Contra Costa is not to be confused with the highly publicized bankruptcy of Vallejo, in Solano County. I’ve even personally made that mistake in the past…making the naïve assumption that there was only one nightmarish breakdown of law and order in the state of California. But apparently it was more of a trend…and indeed, something stinks about California – the world’s sixth-largest economy.

Contra Costa fell victim to the same “who coulda seen that comin’?” virus that racked Vallejo. Home to just over a million mostly mild-mannered folks, Contra Costa’s government minimized its costs back in the '70’s and '80’s by promising lavish health and retirement benefits…so that city workers would accept lower wages at the moment.

No actuarial tables…no real planning…and no real concern for what they could actually afford, Contra Costa’s government threw good money after more good money at their employees. But all pipers demand payment, and this one was no different. Turns out Contra Costa’s government had to keep all those promises when their employees went to retire.

And then there was an entirely different set of promises they had to keep when the housing bubble fell apart. Promises of unemployment benefits, social services, etc. WHAMMY! As the sportscaster says…and suddenly the tiny municipality is out of money.