Jack,
Well, it isn't that we have low (real) crime... Wish that were the case. It's just that the police will be sued and charged with unlawful use of force if they arrest a rapist, an armed robber or a molestor. At least if they prosecute a regular citizen who threw a paint can or a CRT in the trash, they can fine him and steal his hard-earned assets. Then by means of criminalizing him, the state can gain control of his life & future.
Maybe a little exaggerated, but this is the way it is heading.
Earlier this year, a collector of vintage aircraft instruments was offered a below-market sum for his piece of property and his building in Burbank. He declined the offer, because he was retired and wanted to keep his warehouse to continue his hobby. Guess what happened next... A hazmat inspector said that his collection of aircraft instruments had radium dials and were dangerous. So they cited him, seized his warehouse and all the instruments. They sealed off the whole block for months while they had to "analyze and evaluate". After all that, they decided to steal his building and hire a special team to smash and bury every single instrument from his collection in the desert at a cost of (I recall) about $2,000,000. This story was in the LA Daily News for quite awhile. It was probably published so that any opportunistic neighbor could fake up a claim for damages to extort more money from the instrument collector. Now for the punchline: It seems that the developer who originally wanted that property (whose offer was declined by the owner) JUST HAPPENED to be the winning bidder at the state auction of the land after the $2,000,000 cleanup. Ofcourse the cleanup took every penny the old man had and title to his building, plus plenty from the taxpayers. Nice, isn't it?
I'll say it again: Next move, it's Texas or Bust!
But in keeping with this thread, I forgot to mention that I did once find a '54 CBS-Columbia 360 19" color set in a flood control catch basin in northern Los Angeles... It was clean! That was worth getting busted for, but I got away with it
Charles