"But man those rims wuz a necessity"
Why announce it? Why not just quietly dismiss those cases and help those people avoid the situation in the future (maybe help them find food banks) under the label "pre-trial diversion?" I can see where he's trying to avoid putting desperate parents (or people who are in a desperate situation) in jail but by publicly announcing this he's just going to encourage the kleptomaniacs to test the limits.
Then it looks like the 2nd Amendment is back on the menu.