Posted on 12/04/2024 9:41:15 AM PST by grundle
CNBC just reported the following:
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/12/04/amazon-sued-by-dc-ag-over-excluding-areas-from-prime-delivery.html
Amazon sued by DC attorney general for allegedly excluding neighborhoods from Prime delivery
December 4, 2024
Washington, D.C.’s attorney general sued Amazonon Wednesday, accusing the company of covertly depriving residents in certain ZIP codes in the nation’s capital from access to Prime’s high-speed delivery.
The lawsuit from AG Brian Schwalb alleges that, since 2022, Amazon has “secretly excluded” two “historically underserved” D.C. ZIP codes from its expedited delivery service while charging Prime members living there the full subscription price. Amazon’s Prime membership program costs $139 a year and includes perks like two-day shipping and access to streaming content.
“Amazon is charging tens of thousands of hard-working Ward 7 and 8 residents for an expedited delivery service it promises but does not provide,” Schwalb said in a statement. “While Amazon has every right to make operational changes, it cannot covertly decide that a dollar in one zip code is worth less than a dollar in another.”
Amazon spokesperson Steve Kelly said in a statement it’s “categorically false” that its business practices are “discriminatory or deceptive.”
“We want to be able to deliver as fast as we possibly can to every zip code across the country, however, at the same time we must put the safety of delivery drivers first,” Kelly said in a statement. “In the zip codes in question, there have been specific and targeted acts against drivers delivering Amazon packages. We made the deliberate choice to adjust our operations, including delivery routes and times, for the sole reason of protecting the safety of drivers.”
I see two main issues here:
1) Amazon is committing fraud by not giving Prime customers the delivery time that they paid for.
2) The city of Washington D.C. has failed to do its job of protecting people from criminals.
Here’s my proposed solution to each of these two things:
1) Amazon should give refunds equal to 10 times the amount that these customers paid for their Prime membership.
2) Amazon should start a major advertising campaign asking why the city is not protecting its employees from criminals in these two zip codes. Amazon should cite all of the times that these serial criminals have been arrested and released, instead of being locked up.
As part of that second part, I’d like to point out to Amazon’s advertising division seven examples of how the people who run Washington D.C. are not protecting people from crime.
For my first example, I’d like to point out that on January 17, 2023, the Washington Post reported that the Washington D.C. Council had voted to
“reduce the maximum penalties for offenses such as burglaries, carjackings and robberies.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/01/17/dc-crime-bill-council-override-veto/
That makes it very clear that the people in charge of punishing criminals in Washington D.C. have chosen to avoid doing their job. Amazon should make sure that every one of its customers in the city is aware of this fact.
For my second example, I’d like to point out this photograph to amazon’s advertising division:
I got that photograph from this news article:
Additional information about this incident can be found at this other news article:
The guy in that picture is named Amonte Moody. He fired 26 shots from an AR-15, at a car full of people, in a busy public street. Police found the AR-15 inside Moody’s home.
Despite the strong forensic evidence, District of Columbia Superior Court Judge Lloyd U. Nolan believed that it would have been wrong to lock Moody up in jail while he was awaiting trial.
So instead, Judge Nolan decided to let Moody walk free.
Judge Nolan calls himself “woke,” supports Black Lives Matter, donates to a George Soros charity that helps violent criminals stay out of jail, and thinks that an electronic ankle monitor will keep the public safe from a guy who fired over two dozen rounds at a car full of people along a busy street.
If Judge Nolan really did believe that Black Lives Mattered, he wouldn’t have allowed Moody to walk around free in a city where 40% of Moody’s potential victims are black.
For my third example, I’d like to point out this video from January 2024, where Washington D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb said the following about crime:
“We cannot prosecute and arrest our way out of it”
https://x.com/JCNSeverino/status/1752780344347009168
https://x.com/JCNSeverino/status/1752780344347009168
Here’s a news article about Schwalb’s statement:
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/dc-ag-residents-city-cannot-prosecute-arrest-crime-crisis-madness
Here is my fourth example of how Washington D.C. does not lock up violent criminals. A guy named Ruben Arthur Camacho slammed a female police officer against a wall and punched her in the face, but was sentenced to community service instead of prison:
Example number five. The city of Washington D.C. refused to lock up this serial armed carjacker, even though he had been stealing several cars per week, and had been arrested multiple times.
Fortunately, this second article about the same serial armed carjacker reports that one of his would-be victims was an off duty law enforcement officer, who, acting in self defense, killed the serial armed carjacker.
For number six, this next article shows that, for all practical purposes, carjacking in Washington D.C. has been decriminalized:
Rise in DC carjackings linked to repeat juvenile offenders, police data shows
November 16, 2023
Carjackings are up 104% in D.C., and police say that volume is overwhelming.
Alarming statistics show more than 800 have occurred so far in 2023, compared to a little over 400 at the same time in 2022.
Lieutenant Scott Dowling of the Metropolitan Police Department is in charge of the D.C. carjacking task force.
Dowling told FOX 5 that there are often a lot of repeat offenders.
“For juveniles, specifically, it depends on what their record is and if they’re going to get detained or not, and if it’s their first or second offense, they won’t get detained, and they’re out there. If they choose to do it again, that’s why they choose to do it.”
D.C. police data reveals that 66% of arrests involve juveniles.
The current D.C. law makes it difficult to hold young people accountable for their actions.
Seven the hard way. In February 2023, Democratic U.S. Congressional Representative Angie Craig from Minnesota made the following statement after she was assaulted:
“I got attacked by someone who the District of Columbia has not prosecuted fully over the course of almost a decade, over the course of 12 assaults before mine that morning… And so I think we have to think about how in the world can we make sure that we’re not just letting criminals out… I mean, it wasn’t even in every instance that he got 10 days or 30 days. Many times, the charges were completely dropped before any justice was achieved at all… I was assault number 13 on his record… And I’m gonna do everything in my power to make sure there’s not a 14, a 15, a 20… If you throw somebody in jail for 10 days and think, ‘There’s your punishment, and we’re gonna let you right back on the street,’ what the hell do you think’s gonna happen?”
This other article about Representative Craig says that before she was assaulted, she had had ties to the “Defund the Police” movement, she had supported the Minnesota Freedom Fund (which pays bail for violent criminals), she had said cities should “fund counselors, not cops,” and that once, in response to crime in New York City, she had said, “Burn. It. All. Down.”
Prime Time is vary hard to avoid when you order from Amazon. If you don’t read each screen to ensure that you did not sign up for it, you’re going to sign up for it by default.
I don’t like that.
Always read the fine print.
“...Amazon has “secretly excluded” two “historically underserved” D.C. ZIP codes...”
Those zip codes are “underserved” for a reason.
Protecting drivers from attacks is racist.
I’ve had packages delivered same-day to my house.
Then, again, I don’t live in a place where delivery drivers are in great danger.
I live just outside of DC. There’s no problem like this in our area, but we often don’t get packages within the time promised anyway. I think it’s simply not possible, given the volume they handle.
The AG should be doing something to fight criminals instead of Amazon. I am sure there are many companies that do not serve these zip codes for the same reason.
Our Prime orders come early or on the day expected in almost every case. The money saved and traffic risks avoided make it very worthwhile.
Not for our house!
Our Prime delivery is ABSOLUTELY TERRIBLE over the last year or two> What was 2-3 days, is now in most cases a week.
WTH?, the prime fee isn’t getting any less as well. Longer delivery times, more prime fee!
I do not blame Amazon one bit. There are neighborhoods in the city in which I live where I would not go in broad daylight with a police escort.
I am so sick of Washington DC problems. Keep the small federal core of DC federal. Everything else is returned to the State if was carved out from.
"Hard-working"??!!! Wards 7 and 8? Bwahahahah!!! Worst part of the city. I knew it was all about that shithole east of the Anacostia. The government is paying for their Amazon Prime.
My daughter lives in an area that, while a decently sized city (120,000 population), is a bit isolated. So even though she has a Prime account, her purchases arrive in 4-6 days. We have adjusted when we’re sending things to her. It just takes longer to get there. Lots of mountains and winding roads.
Um, I use Amazon Prime all the time. Could not be happier with the service. Everything arrives on time or early. Exactly as ordered.
Amazon should just pull out of DC entirely.
Prime Access costs just $6.99 a month (50% off the standard monthly cost) but comes with all the benefits of a regular Prime membership.
Prime Student is another lucrative Amazon membership deal at $7.49/month, with all sorts of perks not available to the full-fare Amazon Prime paying members.
“two “historically underserved” D.C. ZIP codes”
Those ZIP codes are historically OVERserved with criminals.
If I’m not mistaken, the USPS can choose not to deliver to dangerous areas, but have people, instead, come to the post office to pick up their mail. If I were Amazon, I would contract with the post office to have them be responsible for deliveries. They have done so in many areas, and not just because of crime. The postal service delivers Amazon in our town, but not for crime reasons. It’s unfortunate that in high crime areas, people who have transportation problems or who are otherwise housebound cannot get deliveries, but I would guess most of them have someone who could go and pick up their merchandise for them at the post office.
We’ve been very happy with it too; and we mainly have it for the free shipping/delivery. Occasionally we get something on the same day as ordered; most things take two or three days; but if they take a little longer, as Marketplace items often do, it’s no big deal.
I delivered pizza for Domino’s in 1982 while a full college student. There were neighborhoods in Pascagoula, MS that we refused to deliver to for the reasons stated in this article. There had been many ‘incidents’ but what garnered the ban was a driver being rob and beaten severely.
As usual, the left aims at the wrong target. Want equal treatment and services? Jail the criminals.
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