The costs of repairing the damage vastly exceed the earnings obtained by the criminal. The article gives the example $85k in damage incurred to repair damage that yielded $394 in scrap. This destruction of wealth harms overall welfare, and deprives the government of resources, which hurts poor people especially. In other words, even if you only care about people who live in poverty, you should support a crackdown that will deter crimes like this.
You never have to prosecute the crimes you deter. And if you don’t deter at all the crimes will just keep increasing. A city where only gated communities have electricity is not good for the poor.
