Free Republic

The California Senate has passed legislation that prevents employers from requiring workers to confront active shooters or shoplifters. Passed May 31, Senate Bill 553 contains provisions prohibiting employers from maintaining such policies. “With growing awareness of workplace violence, California needs smarter guidelines to keep workers safe in the office or on the job site,” said Senator Dave Cortese (D-San Jose), in a CSA report. “Under my SB 553, employers would be prohibited from forcing their workers to confront active shoplifters, and all retail employees would be trained on how to react to active shoplifting. The legislation has other provisions that...

New York City's first public health vending machine giving out free crack pipes, condoms and Narcan, an overdose-reversing drug, was already empty less than 24 hours after being unveiled by officials. But eager city officials determined to keep residents in rich supply of clean drug apparatus were quick to revisit the site on Tuesday afternoon with more. Elan Quashie, the Opioid Overdose Program Director at Services for the Under Served, said: ‘We’re going to restock every day. Probably multiple times a day.’ He said he was not surprised that the items were taken so quickly, adding: ‘I kind of knew...

'These inhumane degenerates need to face real consequences' The three teens accused of killing and eating a beloved swan in an upstate New York village are refugees, the Washington Free Beacon has learned. Manlius Police reported Faye the Swan and her four cygnets missing from the town pond last Monday, which prompted horror from the Manlius, New York, residents. Locals flooded Manlius police with tips the next day, which ended in the arrest of 18-year-old Eman Hussan of Syracuse, New York, and two minors, aged 16 and 17. The posse are refugees from Myanmar and attend high school in the...

A San Francisco store owner has slammed the Dem-led city's officials for failing to control its out-of-control crime wave, after a gang of thieves smashed into his tobacco shop and stole $100,000 in goods and cash. Storeowner Zaid, an immigrant from Afghanistan, said lawmakers 'need to get a grip' on the city, feeling it has become 'worse than Afghanistan or Iraq'. 'At least in Afghanistan the Taliban will cut your hand off and people are afraid to commit such a crime,' he added to Fox News. His remarks come as the West Coast metro continues to spiral into lawlessness, with...

A Florida woman was shoplifting inside a retail store when she left two children unattended in a vehicle that burst into flames, police said. Alicia Moore, 24, an Orlando resident, is charged with aggravated child neglect and arson, FOX Orlando reported. On May 26, Moore parked her car outside a Dillard’s department store at the Oviedo Mall and left two children “who could not care for themselves” inside the vehicle, authorities said. She then went into the store and began shoplifting with a man, police said. After about an hour, Moore left the store and found her vehicle engulfed in...

SOUTH LOOP — A South Loop Walgreens has unveiled a renovated interior where most of the merchandise is kept away from customers — and some shoppers say the changes make them feel unwelcome. The new design at the Walgreens, 2 E. Roosevelt Road, places most of the merchandise in aisles behind staffed counters, with two interior aisles — covered by anti-theft detectors — where customers can browse and grab items themselves. The redesign was first reported by CWB. Customers walking in Thursday were greeted by an employee who directed them to a kiosk for digital shopping. A sign tells shoppers...

A Chicago branch of Walgreens has been redesigned with just two aisles where customers may shop for themselves, the rest must be done via a kiosk. The new 'anti-theft' store at at 2 East Roosevelt in downtown Chicago will trust shoppers to pick up 'essentials' for themselves in the two free aisles, but everything else must be ordered and picked up via a counter. The store, which took weeks to construct, opened to mixed reviews on Tuesday. One shopper told WBBM Newsradio their experience was positive: 'It is nice that, for the essentials, you no longer have to call security...

The United States lacks an effective tool to adequately combat widespread espionage and intellectual property theft being perpetrated by China’s communist regime, according to a U.S. Treasury Department official. Despite years of competition and ongoing IP theft, the United States has not developed the tools required to target and prevent the continued transfer of sensitive U.S. technologies to China, according to Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Paul Rosen.“We currently assess we don’t have an effective tool to target the money and sophistication with know-how that goes into these sensitive and most critical technologies into countries of concern,” Rosen said during...

Shocking videos have laid bare America’s $100billion-per-year shoplifting crisis with brazen thieves strolling out of stores including Home Depot and Ross Dress for Less.Surveillance footage shows a gang of crooks wearing masks wheeling shopping carts full of valuable goods out of a Home Depot store in New York.Another clip showed shoplifters loading up duffel bags and backpacks with perfumes and colognes from a Ross store in Colorado.

CHICAGO — During an earnings call with Walgreens investors earlier this year, the company’s chief financial officer opined that his fellow executives may have overstated the effects of organized shoplifting rings on its operations. “Maybe we cried too much last year,” James Kehoe said. Good luck balancing that cheery, non-crying analysis with what you see when you walk into the company’s freshly redesigned store at 2 East Roosevelt in downtown Chicago. In what was once a typical Walgreens, there are now just two short aisles of so-called “essentials” where “customers may shop for themselves.” If you want anything else—a bottle...

President of Giant Food, Ira Kress, has lamented the rise in shoplifting and violence, which has put a strain on the company's ability to do business in recent years. Kress said that the chain of over 150 supermarkets in the eastern United States would be taking aggressive steps to combat crime and made it clear that closing stores is the "last thing" he wants to do. "To say [theft has] risen tenfold in the last five years would not be an understatement," Kress said in an interview with the Washington Post, noting that violent incidents have also "increased exponentially" in...

A dispute that erupted when a schoolteacher in Tennessee snatched a cross necklace from a student before allowing the child into a book fair has been resolved with an apology from the teacher, and the school.The American Center for Law and Justice reported Monday on the resolution.The organization, known for fighting for religious rights across American and around the world, explained it was a "big win for religious freedom."And the message sent by the resolution was not to "mess with the faith of our kids.""Not long ago, we told you about a Tennessee middle school student who wore a cross...

One grocery chain is fighting hard to keep stores open despite rampant shoplifting and an uptick in violence forcing many retailers to leave major cities across the country. Giant Food, which operates 165 supermarkets in D.C., Maryland, Virginia and Delaware, has taken multiple measures to combat theft and keep stores safe, according to a report in The Washington Post. That includes limiting store entrances; hiring security guards; restricting the number of items at self-checkout stands; putting less high-value items on shelves; and securing razor blades in containers that make noise if opened. Company president Ira Kress said he's seen theft...

The trend has been called a retail exodus. In the past few months there have been more than a dozen store closures in downtown San Francisco. I’ve written about the closure of a flagship Whole Foods which made 568 calls to 911 over the 13 months it was open. A 300,000 square foot Nordstroms is closing as is Office Depot, Anthropologie, Saks Off 5th and many more. The SF Chronicle put together this map showing the recent closures.And last week another major retailer announced it was closing up. Old Navy will be shutting down its San Francisco store this summer.The...

The Supreme Court ruled 9-0 on Thursday in favor of a 94-year-old widow in her battle with a rapacious Hennepin County, MN, government which sold her home for a small tax debt and pocketed the change.The story starts in 1999 when Geralidein Tyler bought a condo in Minneapolis. In 2010, she decided, for a variety of reasons, to move into a retirement community. The financial strain of paying a mortgage, condo fees, and rent on her retirement apartment caused Tyler to fall behind on her property taxes. By 2015, she owed $2,300 in back taxes, onto which the county had...

Black Lives Matter bled cash and suffered blistering investment losses in 2022, according to a copy of its tax return obtained by the Washington Free Beacon. Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation ran an $8.5 million deficit and saw the value of its investment accounts plummet by nearly $10 million in the most recent tax year, financial disclosures show. The group logged a $961,000 loss on a securities sale of $172,000, suggesting the charity weathered a staggering 85 percent loss on the transaction. These troubles didn’t stop BLM from doling out seven-figure contracts to friends and family of its former...

Former Biden administration nuclear waste official Sam Brinton, who identifies as “non-binary,” is about to find out the hard way the rest of the world doesn’t cater to his gender delusions. The 35-year-old LGBT activist grabbed headlines over his penchant for wearing women’s clothing and lipstick as in his job at the U.S. Office of Nuclear Energy, where he was the deputy assistant secretary for spent fuel and waste. Brinton’s world came crashing down late last year when it was alleged he was into more than just wearing women’s clothing. People in three states said Brinton stole their luggage at...

The city of Baltimore is suing automakers Kia and Hyundai, claiming their vehicles are too easy to steal and have fueled a “vehicular crime wave” that has burdened the city. Baltimore joins Seattle, St. Louis and a number of other major US cities that have sued the companies alleging a lack of anti-theft technology in the vehicles has contributed to a surge in stolen cars. According to the city officials, car thefts are up 95% in Baltimore this year compared to the same time in 2022, with Kias and Hyundais accounting for 41% of all instances.

Former nuclear official Sam Brinton, who identifies as non-binary and who is facing charges of suitcase theft is set to be placed in a men's jail in Maryland while awaiting a transfer to Virginia. The Montgomery County Department of Correction and Rehabilitation has a policy of placing processed inmates in jails based on their biological sex. Sam Brinton, 35, was arrested at their home last week on Grand Larceny charges related to the alleged theft of a suitcase belonging to Tanzanian fashion designer Asya Khamsin from Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washington D.C. The suitcase contained dresses specifically created for...

Doorbell footage captured the moment a supposed Dollar General worker plowed her car into a man who was allegedly fleeing after having stolen from her store. The incident, which happened on May 11 at around 11.20am, shows the man on a bicycle cruising along a sidewalk in Fresno, California, when suddenly a woman driving a white Honda, said to be a Dollar General employee by the owner of the camera, swerved into the man and knocked him off his bike.