Free Republic

Retailers across New York state say there’s no end in sight to the rising epidemic of organized shoplifting rings — and warn it could lead to more store closures, increased costs for consumers and threats of violence against store employees. Store owners said they lost $4.4 billion last year as a result of retail theft — which they say adds to the urgency for Gov. Kathy Hochul to crack down. However, Hochul vetoed a bipartisan bill last week — to the chagrin of store owners — that would have created a task force to combat organized theft. ... The Retail...

According to this news video from ABC7 News Bay Area, the San Francisco government is knowingly and deliberately allowing a major fencing operation to buy and sell stolen goods just one-and-a-half blocks from a police station.The TV station interviewed a victim of a car break-in. He had put GPS trackers in his items that had been stolen. He used them to track his stolen items. When he told a police officer, the police officer said they already knew about the fencing operation, but didn’t do anything to help the guy get his possessions back.The police don’t care. The government doesn’t...

• Corporate America is finally waking up to the fact that woke policies on crime are costing them billions. Organized shoplifting efforts and flash mobs of robberies across the country caused businesses $100 billion in losses in 2021 and have only gotten worse since then according to the National Retail Federation. As former Home Depot CEO Bob Nardelli recently put it, Biden’s America has become a "lawless society." And a lawless society is bad for business. Big companies, from Whole Foods, Walmart and Walgreens to Nordstrom, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Lululemon and more have all suffered. Mom-and-pop businesses have suffered too....

A surge of Romanian illegal migrants has been recorded at both the southern and northern borders of the U.S., many of whom were apprehended and found to have criminal histories.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom clarified this week that when he called criminals accused of stealing packages from cargo trains in the state "gangs of people" he wasn’t implying the thefts were gang-related. This is not one-off," Newsom said in a news conference near Union Pacific Railroad tracks in Los Angeles on Thursday, according to the Washington Times. "This is organized theft. These are organized gangs of people that are coming out." "Forgive me for saying ‘gangs,’ that’s not a pejorative," he clarified. "They’re organized groups of folks that move from site to site."

During an interview with The New York Times “Sway” podcast released on Monday, White House Chief Medical Adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci said there is an “organized effort” to attach the truth, such as “people who think that January 6 was a friendly visit to the gift shop at the Capitol.” And people “who absolutely have no idea what they’re talking about with virology are talking about furin cleavage sites,” which have been cited to argue in favor of the lab leak theory. Fauci said, [relevant remarks begin around 22:50] “I know several of my colleagues are now reticent to talk...

Minneapolis was transformed into a fortress over the weekend, as a tense city braced for a verdict in the trial of Derek Chauvin - the white police officer accused of murdering George Floyd - this week. More than 3,000 members of the National Guard have been drafted into the city, in addition to 1,100 officers from public safety agencies across the state as part of what has been termed Operation Safety Net. In the early hours of Sunday, two members of the National Guard were injured in a drive-by shooting.

Activists from Seattle group “Riot Kitchen” were arrested in Kenosha, Wisconsin, after they filled up multiple gas cans, prompting law enforcement officials in unmarked cars to take them into custody, according to police and video footage.

A friend of former FBI director James Comey who leaked sensitive FBI memos to The New York Times in the wake of Comey’s firing in 2017 now claims to be Comey’s personal attorney. Daniel Richman, a law professor at Columbia University, told The Federalist via phone on Tuesday afternoon that he was now personally representing Comey.The revelation comes in the wake of news that Comey was interviewed by the special counsel’s office last year. According to The New York Times, the line of questioning from the office of special counsel Robert Mueller focused on memos that Comey wrote and later leaked...

The sheriff looking like he was going to have a nervous breakdown yesterday, the 28 year old survivor of the massacre saying that there was more than one shooter found dead, and now this.

(Videos at site) Venezuela kicks off two days of military drills on Saturday in response to US President Donald Trump's threat of military action and newly announced sanctions on the crisis-stricken nation. Trump warned on August 11 that the United States was mulling a range of options against Venezuela, "including a possible military option if necessary." His Vice President Mike Pence later played down the threat, insisting that Washington was prioritizing a diplomatic solution and economic sanctions. National security advisor HR McMaster followed suit, saying "no military actions are anticipated in the near future." But tension only surged again when...

CHARLOTTE, NC (WWBT) - A veteran of the NASCAR circuit and his daughter are recovering at a North Carolina hospital after they were allegedly attacked outside a concert in Charlotte. According to a post shared by former NASCAR driver Kenny Wallace on Twitter, his brother and fellow NASCAR driver Mike Wallace, along with Mike's daughter Lindsay were beaten as they were leaving a Rascal Flatts concert in Charlotte at the PNC Amphitheater Friday evening. Kenny went on to say that the men "continued to kick Mike in the face while Mike was 'knocked out'" in a series of tweets Sunday...

OKLAHOMA CITY - You may have heard of civil asset forfeiture. That's where police can seize your property and cash without first proving you committed a crime; without a warrant and without arresting you, as long as they suspect that your property is somehow tied to a crime. Now, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol has a device that also allows them to seize money in your bank account or on prepaid cards.

Hillary Clinton has secured enough delegates to win the Democratic presidential nomination, according to the Associated Press, emerging from a long and bruising primary season to become the first woman to lead a major party in the race for the White House. A bitter nomination battle that Clinton was once expected to win in a walk ended abruptly late Monday, as she claimed exactly the number of delegates needed to secure victory in her contest against Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, according the AP’s latest tally. Clinton was widely expected — even inside her own campaign — to clinch the...

In August 2008, William Lesinski walked into a Car Credit City in Bridgeton and made a decision that would be far more expensive than he ever imagined. Wanting to buy his son a car as a high school graduation gift, Lesinski put $1,750 down and drove off the lot in a 2003 Ford Mustang. The loan for the car was $11,367, and it carried 29 percent annual interest over nearly four years. His son would make the payments, but the loan was in Lesinski’s name. After paying the balance down to a little more than $10,000, his son, who had...

Senior Hillary Clinton aide Jake Sullivan and former tech support staffer Brian Pagliano each signed agreements with the government pledging not to disclose classified information, according to government documents released Thursday by Republicans. Both men signed the nondisclosure statements swearing to protect ´marked or unmarked classified information, including email communications,´ according to documents released by the Republican National Committee. (Photo) The document each of them signed is called a form 312, which requires federal employees to swear, under potential criminal penalty, that they won´t mishandle classified information. Sullivan is a senior campaign advisor who served as Clinton´s direct of policy...

Hillary Clinton posted and shared the names of concealed U.S. intelligence officials on her unprotected email system. Federal records reveal that Clinton swapped these highly classified names on an email account that was vulnerable to attack and was breached repeatedly by Russia-linked hacker attempts. These new revelations — reminiscent of the Valerie Plame scandal during George W. Bush’s tenure — could give FBI investigators the evidence they need to make a case that Clinton violated the Espionage Act by mishandling national defense information through “gross negligence.”

It only took two sentences for Edward Snowden to eviscerate Hillary Clinton over her use of a private email server Wednesday morning. The former National Intelligence Agency contractor could face decades in prison for breaking laws governing the handling of classified government information, and he expressed confusion on why Hillary Clinton doesn’t share his fate.

A forestry company filed a civil Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) lawsuit against Greenpeace Tuesday for misrepresenting the company’s environmental record to raise funds and promote its agenda. Greenpeace knowingly and deliberately made false claims about the company while fundraising, and fabricated evidence of Resolute’s alleged environmental malfeasance, according to the forestry and paper company Resolute Forest Products. RICO is an anti-mafia law designed to combat organized crime. Greenpeace’ is a global fraud,” states the 124-page legal complaint. “For years, this international network of environmental groups collectively calling themselves ‘Greenpeace’ has fraudulently induced people throughout the United States and...

Part of a fee that motorists pay to a road and bridge fund is being used for transit projects across Colorado, and Senate Republicans don't believe that's right. As a result, the Colorado Senate gave preliminary approval Tuesday to a bill that would change that. ... "The intent of this bill is to ensure that the money paid by citizens for the improvement of roads and bridges when they pay their vehicle registration fees is actually used for roads and bridges," Neville said. "The definition of a fee is that it should be utilized for those who are paying the...