Meet career criminal Robert Brown, 38, who spends his time stealing things up and down Independence Blvd., sometimes getting arrested, and always being cut loose by the Mecklenburg County court system.

Police say the system keeps kicking Brown out of the system because he keeps his crimes at a misdemeanor level.

One day officers said they caught Brown shoplifting in Best Buy with a calculator to make sure he didn’t go over the felony limit.

But by all means, let’s keep pushing for a $35 million public subsidy for Uptown baseball. Robert Brown is counting on it.