earlier this week I wrote about how prosecutors are getting around California's emergency $0 bail schedule by charging people with "looting" for regular theft to make sure defendants go to jail (where they have a much higher risk of getting COVID) https://www.huffpost.com/entry/california-zero-bail-loopholes-covid-19-jail_n_5ec43219c5b65d2546d98503

i just learned about bike bait case in LA, where cops left a bike out to be stolen, arrested the guy who stole it, took him to jail, and asked for a felony looting charge — 1 of 13 charges that is exempt from the $0 bail policy

the LADA's office, to their credit, did not charge the case as looting. instead they filed a grand theft charge, which the judge reduced to a misdemeanor and the defendant pled

i just cannot understand how ~ in the middle of a pandemic and economic collapse ~ LAPD thinks it's a good use of resources to trick people into stealing bikes!!