In California, thieving is officially okay.

No, no, they won't say it is.  But it is, nonetheless.  For if what a person steals is worth less than nine hundred and fifty bucks, it goes pretty much unpunished.  Maybe there'll be a fine.  Usually not even that.  Thieves like this.  The victims of the thefts, usually not so much.

This past week, a young couple who had just few months back moved into a new home in the small city of Visalia, Calif. were arrested — for doing something that the state of California's legal codes still sees as a no-no and punishes.  They beat several people up with a baseball bat.

Having been the victims of theft their very first night in the community, and then again, the next, and then again and again, they decided to do something about it.  They placed an unchained bicycle in their yard, and then they lay in wait.

When a thief appeared — as they knew one would — they jumped out of hiding and beat him with that bat.  Then they did the same thing again and again, night after night.  And each time, they made a video of their actions and posted it on YouTube.

Earlier this week, the two were arrested and charged with assault with a deadly weapon and conspiracy.

Cory Cornutt and Sacannah Grillot mug shots.
Visalia Police via New York Post.

None of the thieves was arrested.  That, the police say, was because the couple never made an official report of the crimes.

Is there a lesson in this?  Yes, I think there is.

Laws, at least in theory, are put into place to protect the law-abiding from the criminal.  Such allows the non-criminal to go on with their lives safe in the knowledge that The State is looking out for them.

When a state does what California has done — and that other states are today doing — it allows theft to go unpunished while tightening the screws in one way after another on the law-abiding, and "law" in its customary sense is turned upside-down.

The results of doing this are what we see above.

Whom, as you read that story above, did your heart naturally root for?  The homeowners?  Or the thieves?

Yeah, me too.

Ah, California!