Oakland director and hometown hero Boots Riley’s new film, “I Love Boosters,” pays homage to a complicated folk hero: the booster, a neighborhood figure who sells shoplifted goods at a steep discount. The topic feels particularly poignant in the Bay Area, where high-profile smash-and-grabs make headlines and drugstores put toothpaste behind lock and key.
But when asked about how crime trends influenced the film, Riley is quick to question their very premise, citing reporting on how drugstore executives overstated the effects of theft and police unions hire public relations firms to increase the perception of crime when data actually shows declines.
“It’s conspiracy theory, because people do conspire,” he told SFGATE. “What this does is to try to explain the problems of capitalism as the problems of the bad decisions of those impoverished.”…