Latest news with #HouseBill1689
Yahoo
24-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Stealing is already a crime. But Oklahoma Republicans want a whole new law for shopping cart theft
Rows of carts await shoppers at an Oklahoma business on March 16. (Photo by Janelle Stecklein/Oklahoma Voice) If you randomly happened to turn on the Oklahoma House legislative feed earlier this month, hoo boy, were you in for a treat. As Republican Rep. Danny Williams bluntly put it, the House's 'wonderful body of leaders' spent nearly an hour 'discussing the life and death of a shopping cart in a municipality.' Like Williams, I don't think I've ever heard any lawmakers so passionately waste time discussing the rights of thousands of Oklahoma shopping carts and the need to protect them from unscrupulous crooks. Instead of prioritizing serious problems, lawmakers squandered valuable time discussing the merits of really, truly criminalizing the theft of those baskets on wheels that we all rely upon when going grocery shopping. Ridiculous – and unfounded – phrases like 'cartels running shopping cart rings' were heard on the House Floor. In case you were wondering, it is already a crime to steal shopping carts — and any other property that one doesn't own — but some Republican lawmakers have decided shopping carts are so valuable that they need their own special carve out to specifically protect them from bounders. This was one of the bills I flagged as a cockamamie legislative idea heading into session. I was pretty certain that such ridiculous legislation would meet an early demise. But for some reason House leadership decided this is legislation that desperately needs to make it to Gov. Kevin Stitt's desk. They ultimately voted to send it to the Senate for consideration. House Bill 1689 seeks to make it a misdemeanor crime punishable by up to a year in jail, a fine of up to $1,000 or both to either temporarily or permanently remove a shopping cart from a retail establishment. The measure's author, Rande Worthen, R-Lawton, said a local Walmart has as many as 1,200 carts go missing each year. At a replacement cost of up to $250 per cart, he said the store spends about $250,000 a year to replace them. He hopes the legislation will lead to cleaner and safer communities that don't have shopping carts strewn about. Critics of the measure rightfully suspect this legislation is targeted at our state's homeless populations who utilize shopping carts to help transport their meager belongings. After all, if someone is using a shopping cart to tote around their belongings, they're obviously unhoused or on the brink of it. Now, I have some sympathy for businesses that can't manage to keep track of their carts. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has entered a grocery store only to discover with a sense of panic that there are no carts left, or one has only three working wheels or makes an unbearable squeaking noise whenever it's moved. But Oklahoma's apparent problem with shopping cart theft isn't because we don't have laws governing the issue, it's because those laws are apparently not being enforced. It turns out that law enforcement has bigger problems to deal with than trying to repossess shopping carts or terrorize homeless people who are just trying to survive — things like investigating murder, sexual assault and robberies. Implementation and enforcement of the criminal laws passed in our state Capitol are wisely left to local counties and municipalities. It's lawmakers' job to give local governments the tools they need, but it's up to the sheriffs and police departments to decide how to utilize them. It appears that our law enforcement entities have decided to focus on priorities other than AWOL shopping carts. I find myself unsympathetic to the fact that that apparently is irritating some Republican legislators who thrive on law and disorder. Creating an unnecessary new law isn't going to suddenly change those priorities unless lawmakers also deputize brigades of vigilantes to serve as the shopping cart police. One hopes they won't do that. If lawmakers don't like how laws are being enforced, the solution is not to carve out even more. We already have so many criminal offenses on our books that we've long had the worst incarceration rates in the nation. At one time, we were the top incarcerator in the world. Now, we're only fourth-worst, trailing behind Mississippi, Louisiana and Arkansas. Still we spent valuable tax dollars imprisoning 550 people per 100,000 residents, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Are we aiming to be No. 1 in that category again? Otherwise, why on earth would we want to lock people up for shopping carts? One thing is for sure though, Oklahomans face a lot of challenges ranging from high incarceration rates to poor educational outcomes to poverty. We're relying on legislators to pass policies that take those issues seriously. They have four months each year to do so. So maybe we shouldn't be wasting our time on do-nothing bills like these. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
12-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Bill headed to Senate seeks to clarify penalties for stealing Oklahoma shopping carts
Rep. Rande Worthen, R-Lawton, left, is the author of a bill that would specifically criminalize the theft of shopping carts. Worthen is pictured during the legislative session on May 30 at the state Capitol. (Photo by Janelle Stecklein/Oklahoma Voice) OKLAHOMA CITY — House lawmakers on Wednesday advanced legislation that would specifically criminalize the removal of shopping carts from businesses, a move that critics said targets homeless Oklahomans. House Bill 1689 would make possessing or removing a shopping cart from the parking area of a retail establishment illegal, whether 'permanently or temporarily.' It is already illegal to steal property, but bill author Rep. Rande Worthen, R-Lawton, said this legislation 'is clarifying that shopping carts are property and to take it is illegal.' Worthen said a Walmart in his community is losing 1,000 to 1,200 shopping carts, at a cost of about $250,000 per year to replace them. He said he hopes his legislation will lead to cleaner and safer communities without shopping carts discarded in ravines or along the side of a road. He said his legislation is not meant to target the unhoused, but the purpose of the measure still drew skepticism from House Democrats who said it will disproportionately affect the poor. 'This is not a problem of cartels running shopping cart rings,' said Rep. Michelle McCane, D-Tulsa. 'We're talking about impoverished people taking carts to either carry all of the belongings that they own because they are experiencing homelessness or to get their items from one place to another. … As someone who has spent a significant amount of their life in poverty, or close to it, and knowing that many of our constituents are much closer to homelessness than wealth, I greatly encourage a 'no' vote on this bill.' The penalty for stealing a shopping cart would be a misdemeanor with up to one year in county jail, a fine not to exceed $1,000, or both. The measure faced bipartisan questions about how law enforcement would enforce it and if Oklahomans could be prosecuted if they find and decide to keep discarded shopping carts. Rep. Danny Williams, R-Seminole, said lawmakers spent nearly an hour of their time Wednesday 'discussing the life and death of a shopping cart in a municipality.' Rep. Forrest Bennett, D-Oklahoma City, replied that discussion is one of the few instances that Democratic lawmakers have a say. 'This is an important one to discuss, because, as the author himself reiterated several times, this is already the law,' he said. 'And from our perspective, and the educator perspective of some of my caucus members, we know that this is a tool that will be used to target those experiencing homelessness.' Rep. Jared Deck, D-Norman, said he was 'born into a family retail business' and keeping track of the store's property is the responsibility of the owner. 'This is something that we should be taking care of in the private sector, and leave the government out of it,' he said. The bill passed 54-33, with bipartisan opposition. It heads to the Senate for consideration. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
