Michigan judge sentences Walmart shoplifters to wash cars in the parking lot

apnews.com Michigan judge sentences Walmart shoplifters to wash cars in the parking lot

A Michigan judge is putting sponges in the hands of shoplifters and ordering them to wash cars in a Walmart parking lot when spring weather arrives.

23 comments

I think shoplifting from Walmart should be considered a public service. I think minor criminals should be sentenced to 100 hours of community service, shoplifting from Walmart.
Fuck Walmart.

What's the penalty for being unskilled at washing the cars? Straight to jail?

How is it legal to wash cars in a parking lot? So the soapy runoff just goes straight to the watershed?
Don't you have laws requiring the water to be sent down the drain for treatment before discharge?
- There is far worse shit than a little soap draining off a huge parking lot.
  And no, you can't really treat storm drain runoff. There's no way to treat billions of gallons fast enough that it doesn't back up and flood the area.
  https://www.usgs.gov/special-topics/water-science-school/science/water-qa-how-much-water-falls-during-storm
  
  That's why you wash cars in special built lots that send the waste water to the sewers.
  Nothing else should be draining off the parking lot. If there is, fines should be assessed or cars should be impounded.

In before "cruel and unusual punishment".
For the record, nobody is in favor of cruel punishment. Unusual though? Why not get creative with it?
- This is not cruel or unusual punishment. Its just forced labor, but very specific.
  
  If they can decline this sentence and just take imprisonment instead it's not that different than any other community service sentence, at least as far as the convicted are concerned.
  However, the taxpayers of Arkansas are getting screwed when their criminal justice system is providing free labor to a private business like this. These people should be cleaning up public parks or roadways, not giving people an incentive to shop at this store.
- This 100%. Creative atonement doesn’t make it cruel.
- nobody is in favor of cruel punishment
  Yeah, I'm sure the people in charge of Abu Ghraib didn't think anything they were doing was cruel. Next you'll tell me that nobody's in favor of bad ideas.
  
  Pretty sure nobody who saw the Abu Ghraib photos was in favor of that. Failing to charge the Bush administration with war crimes was a huge lapse on the part of Nancy Pelosi at the time, and Obama after the fact. Their dereliction led directly to Trump.
  
  Most of Lemmy deserves to be sent to Gitmo
- I wouldn’t want anyone else but me washing my car, so I hope they have to get consent first.
  
  Oh, no doubt. At the same time, I don't see how running a free car wash = restitution either.
- Oh, I can guarantee you some evil, heartless right-wingers are for cruel punishment.
  The kind of conservatives that ought to be castrated and then fed it.
- The judge is participating in the sentence too.