Looters ransack San Francisco Neiman Marcus in broad daylight (Video at link)

Looters were captured on video Monday ransacking a Neiman Marcus in San Francisco as thefts continue to plague businesses in the area.

At least nine suspects smashed display cases, snatched handbags, and jetted out of the building before law enforcement arrived to the scene at about 6 p.m., according to footage. The suspects were seen running out of the store with their hands full of merchandise before entering an apparent getaway car that sped off down a busy intersection.

A man was caught on video in June filling a garbage bag with what appeared to be hair products before leaving the drugstore on his bicycle. A security guard, who was recording the incident, tried to grab the individual, though he eluded custody.

Walgreens shuttered 17 of its stores in the San Francisco area in the past five years, and the company said thefts in the area are four times more likely than anywhere else in the country as executives budgeted 35 times more for security personnel to guard the chains.

Target executives in the city also decided to limit business hours in response to an uptick in larceny.

Shoppers can no longer buy products in the chains after 6 p.m. after once being permitted to shop until 10 p.m.

"For more than a month, we’ve been experiencing a significant and alarming rise in theft and security incidents at our San Francisco stores," a spokesperson for Target said at the time.

San Francisco Police Lt. Tracy McCray faulted District Attorney Chesa Boudin's "criminals first agenda" for the uptick in theft incidents.

"What happened in that Walgreens has been going on in the city for quite a while," she said in June. "I’m used to it. I mean, we could have a greatest hits compilation of people just walking in and cleaning out the store shelves and security guards, the people who work there, just standing by helplessly because they can’t do anything."

"The 'criminals first' agenda from the district attorney [is to blame] because he's not prosecuting any of those crimes as felonies [or] as a commercial burglary. [Criminals realize,] 'This is gonna get slapped down to a misdemeanor,'" she continued.

Thefts under $950 are considered a misdemeanor in McCray's area of operation, she added, and suspected criminals are often issued citations instead of spending time in jail ahead of their court date. In some cases, she said, thieves will have their case thrown out if they skip their court appearances.

Neither the San Francisco Police Department nor Neiman Marcus immediately responded to requests for comment from the Washington Examiner.

It predates those two things. Here is what triggered the retail crime wave.

Back in 2014, California voters passed ballot initiative "Proposition 47: The Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act." Crimes that were once considered felonies were reduced to misdemeanors including:

Shoplifting or grand theft, if property stolen is valued under $950;
Receiving stolen property, if value of the stolen goods is under $950;
Forgery, fraud or bad check writing, if the forged check, draft or other document amounts to less than $950; and
Personal use of most illegal drugs.

This classified the "non-serious, nonviolent crimes" listed above as misdemeanors unless the perpetrator has prior convictions for rape, murder, gun crimes or specified sex offenses; allowed 10 thousand prison inmates found guilty of the above felonies to be resentenced; required an assessment of those inmates who may be eligible for resentencing to determine whether or not they may or may not pose a risk to the public; establish the Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Fund (SNSF).

"Safe Neighborhoods and Schools" -- what a freaking joke. Things are more unsafe than they ever have been due to the passing of this law.

Californians were stupid enough to pass this based on the name of the proposition.

How did it turn out? Here's the liberal Wikipedia short analysis through 2019. It has gotten MUCH worse since then, especially with COVID...

Numerous media outlets have continued to report an increase in retail theft related to the passage of Prop 47. Large retailers Safeway, Target, Rite Aid and CVS pharmacies reported in 2016 that shoplifting increased from 15 percent to (in some cases) over 50 percent since voters approved Proposition 47. The Los Angeles Times reported in 2017 that the California Supreme Court ruled that a person convicted of a felony for stealing a car may have that conviction reduced to a misdemeanor if the vehicle was worth no more than $950, and in 2018 that researchers found Prop 47 contributed to a jump in car burglaries, shoplifting and other thefts. The San Francisco Chronicle reported in 2018 that Prop. 47 led to a rise in the larceny theft rate of about 9 percent compared to the 2014 rate.
By 2019, organized retail theft was on the rise; police and store owners attributed it to Prop 47. Fox News reported that post Prop 47 both shoplifters and fencers operated openly and with impunity, with both criminals and storekeepers aware that selective enforcement policies mean police largely ignore reports of shoplifting, or respond too slowly. President of the California Retailers Association Rachel Michelin stated that thieves will bring in calculators to ensure that they do not go over the $950 limit and that "one person will go into a store, fill up their backpack, come out, dump it out and go right back in and do it all over again." She also reported that out-of-state crime rings use children as they are even less likely to be prosecuted, and that even when police make arrests, charges are dropped or downgraded by the district attorney.

Will Californians wake up and repeal 47? Will they put the 10,000 criminals released (probably a LOT more than that) back in jail?

Yep. Here in Houston, I was in a Best Buy electronics store and watched a black guy walk in, proceeded to the music area. Picked out a CD or CD’s and began removing the security wrapping. I’m standing right next to this idiot.

So, I walked away, went to the front where the security dudes were standing in their bright yellow security dude shirts and said,”Hey guys, there is a guy back there...oh wait, here he comes. He is stealing merchandise”. They stood there as the thug approached, walk right by them and out the door.

I said,”you guys aren’t going to stop him?” They said, naw it’s too late. lol Couldn’t believe it.

Happens so much, they just let it go.

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