Oklahoma’s House of Representatives recently advanced a bill that would increase the penalty for stealing a shopping cart. A person could end up in jail for a year and pay a $1,000 fine if House Bill 1689 were to become law. Oklahoma has a special connection to the shopping cart. It was invented here in 1937. But supporters of this bill aren’t trying to protect a piece of state lore. Instead, this bill is aimed at increasing punishments for those experiencing homelessness, some of whom use shopping carts to transport their belongings. Numerous studies and common sense have shown that further criminalizing homelessness doesn’t work. Lawmakers who voted for this bill can boast to their constituents that they stuck it to the homeless, which may be a winning strategy in some conservative districts. But ironically, they actually made homelessness a bigger problem. In the end, it would be cheaper to just buy each person experiencing homelessness a shopping cart than it would be to process the theft of one.
This article appears in OKC Ballet Shorts.