Posted on 12/13/2021 10:52:09 AM PST by karpov
We definitely need to get tougher on sentencing looters and store robbers, but we should exempt those criminals from prison time if they loot one of the big corporations that helped spawn this epidemic of shoplifting to begin with.
Last week, the Retail Industry Leaders Association, representing 20 major retailers, sent a letter to Congress asking legislators to deal with the growing theft, shoplifting, and “smash-and-grab” mob attacks on retail stores. The corporations represented include giants like Target, Best Buy, Nordstrom, Home Depot, and CVS.
"As millions of Americans have undoubtedly seen on the news in recent weeks and months, retail establishments of all kinds have seen a significant uptick in organized crime in communities across the nation," said the letter.
The group’s solution is to push the Notification and Fairness in Online Retail Marketplaces for Consumers Act, which attempts to help inform consumers and online platforms about the sale of illicit products on the market. But that is treating the symptoms, and not even the most evident ones stemming from the crime wave acknowledged in this letter. Why not treat the problem?
The reason is that the problem is not a natural disaster. It began around 2015, when states began passing “criminal justice reform” at the behest of these very companies. They are now learning the hard way that when you call theft a low-level crime and essentially decriminalize it – at least in terms of incarceration – well, you will get more theft. These companies have funded the policies, organizations, and politicians behind the decriminalization and de-incarceration laws.
According to a 2020 survey of 61 retailers by the National Retail Federation, organized retail theft skyrocketed by nearly 60% since 2015 and cost stores an average of $719,548 per $1 billion dollars in sales. What changed around that time?
(Excerpt) Read more at theblaze.com ...
Weird how that works.
They got what they paid for. What’s the problem?.....................
They asked for it, they got it!!
And it ain’t no Toyota...
Follow the money. Who benefits? Amazon, owned by big Dem supporter Bezos.
I don’t understand how the cities allowing rampant crime are going to continue to finance themselves because sales tax receipts have got to be hurting with the store closures, shorter hours and people flat afraid to go to stores.
Amazing...pay off criminal organizations, sponsor efforts to gut crime laws, then watch crime soar and the criminals go after you! Why, it just isn’t fair.
So unexpected!!
$719,548 per $1,000,000,000 is still only 0.07%. The bigger problem is the effect it has on the staff and customers. No one wants to work or shop in a store that is subjected to that kind of activity. And it tends to be concentrated in inner city stores. Real shoppers avoid the stores, and employees become demoralized. If the retailers close the store, they face charges of redlining and racism.
Irony of ironies...the “crime reforms” made crime soar, stores close, and the very people it was meant to help are hurt the most.
It sure has made shopping more difficult. The local Home Depot just revamped their locked tool cages. Their first effort at locking up tools was so-so and the thieves could use crowbars in the tool section to pry them open! The new locked cages are much tougher to get into. So now you have to search out an “associate” to open the cage.
I’ve been to a Walmart where you have to search out an “associate” three or four times for an ordinary shopping trip. Razor blades, cold medicines, and laundry detergent are all locked up requiring you to find a different “associate” multiple times.
I can see in the near future those items won’t be displayed at all or will be an exhibit-only container in a permanently locked case. You will be forced to place your order online, prepaid, then pick up your merchandise. At that point, why go to the store at all? Just buy online and have delivered...assuming you can keep the rampant porch pirates at bay.
Simple civilized things we took for granted for so long are crumbling everywhere. It’s way past time to bring back shame and really tough sentencing laws.
Reminds me of the idiot leftists who were cheering on the riots last year until the rioters started hitting their neighborhoods.
Sucks to be them.
But it won’t stop them from pouring money into BLM.
Notice how no book stores are on the list.
I knew this from a very young age, surprised that all the smart companies don’t: Lie down with dogs, and you’ll wake up with fleas.
They are selling them to rope to hang them with.
# Notice how no book stores are on the list.
... or work boots.
What’s scary is where this all leads. Once it becomes impossible to raid stores (either due to super-tight security measures and/or the stores simply closing), what will the Flash Mobs do? All I can think of is moving into homes (hopefully top-end).
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