Coordinated crime sprees forcing retailers to close stores, limit hours
EDITORIAL: One retired police officer only a few days ago PREDICTED this problem. He said the following was the cause:
- Police are demoralized because of the defund the police movement and the removal of official immunity from police in the aftermath of the George Floyd protests.
- In response to the George Floyd violence, California and other jurisdictions like New York, softened their larceny laws so that if the amount stolen is less than $950, then its no longer a felony and police can’t even be called about the incident. Thus, stores get ABSOLUTELY no protection from police of the city for the larceny mentioned in this article.
- Stores therefore can’t and don’t call the police and the only response they can have beyond that point is to CLOSE STORES in large numbers in places where this problem persists.
- In this situation, the government is actually INTERFERING with property law enforcement. Thus, they create problems recruiting new officers because they are so mistreated. The above officer we talked with, who served over 35 years, said if he was young and just starting life, he would NEVER enter the police profession in the current climate.
Is it any wonder that this problem is now happening? When you are soft on crime, you always get more of it. This problem will get MUCH worst until the criminal laws on larceny are returned to what they were before the George Floyd riots. Even worst, places that soften the larceny laws like New York and California are doomed to become a literal MAGNET to attract criminals, who can STEAL with impunity.
If the larceny laws are NEVER changed back to the way they were before George Floyd, then we will become a third world country eventually. And once the stores are closed, all the people who are looting them will have even FEWER places to find work. They are pissing in their own drinking water, if you ask us. The video below describes WHY we will become a Third World Country:
The Hidden Reason for Poverty The World Needs To Address Now-Gary Haugen
https://www.ted.com/talks/gary_haugen_the_hidden_reason_for_poverty_the_world_needs_to_address_now
The above article identifies the cause of poverty as LACK OF LAW ENFORCEMENT. Whether that lack of law enforcement is caused by budget cuts or in essence LEGALIZING CRIME, as California and New York has done, the effect is the same: POVERTY.
This trend also explains why gun sales are at record highs. If police won’t do their job. the only choice they leave shop owners is to defend themselves with guns. To outlaw guns or make them harder to get in this scenario only makes this crime problem EVEN WORSE in the absence of law enforcement or even in the absence of laws that are tough on crime.
Lastly, the Feds NEVER have a shortage of protection ONLY for THEMSELVES. Biden DOUBLED the federal police budget. The mafia ALWAYS protects itself and only itself. The protection money you pay the mafia (IRS) never really protects you, but bribes them to leave you alone, essentially. Hypocrites!:
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Coordinated crime sprees forcing retailers to close stores, limit hours
11/14/2021 Coordinated crime sprees in major cities in California, New York and elsewhere are forcing retailers to close stores and limit operating hours, as packs of shoplifters regularly make off with hundreds of dollars-worth in merchandise to be resold online, at street markets or returned for gift cards.
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Amid a crime wave sweeping San Francisco, six Target store locations are reducing operating hours, closing at 6 p.m. instead of the usual 10 p.m., as managers seek to secure merchandise and employee safety, Forbes reported. Organized gangs brazenly steal branded items even with security present, as California raised the threshold for a felony charge from $450 to $950 in stolen goods.
San Francisco Police Chief William Scott told NBC Nightly News thieves calculate the worth of shoplifted goods to fall below the felony threshold, meaning officers cannot take action for misdemeanor theft and stores must be willing to hire security guards to make a private persons arrest.
Walgreens has closed 17 locations in San Francisco over the last five years citing this sort of theft, the San Francisco Chronicle reported in May. Jason Cunningham, regional vice president for pharmacy and retail operations in California and Hawaii, said at a hearing at the time that theft in Walgreens stores in San Francisco is four times the average of stores elsewhere in the country.
Walgreens spends 35 times more on security in San Francisco than other areas where their stores are in operation.
SHOPLIFTERS RULING THE ROOST AT BIG CITY STORES, PHARMACY CHAINS
Just last week, viral video from San Francisco showed a band of thieves running out of a Neiman Marcus in Union Square carrying designer handbags before jumping into waiting getaway vehicles. The latest incident prompted California Retailers Association President Rachel Michelin to call for a statewide approach to this organized theft, arguing local leaders can no longer afford to snub law enforcement.
“The answer is not what the mayor said last week, which was retailers just need to hire more security guards,” Michelin told KGO-TV. “That’s not going to solve the problem. Security guards are there to observe and report. They’re not there to stop crime. That’s law enforcement. We have to figure out a way in San Francisco for law enforcement and local officials to work together.”
Retailers reported a 60% increase in dollars lost since 2015 due to reduced staffing and lower morale during the coronavirus pandemic, new “hands off” store policies and lower penalties. Even low-cost items remain locked on the shelves in the Bay Area, and customers must ask for assistance to access everyday items, such as toothpaste, hair products and a six-pack of beer.
Besides just impacting the bottom line, theft is causing employees and customers to feel threatened.
In San Francisco, CVS and Walgreens employees are trained to be alert to prevent theft but are warned not to confront shoplifters who could grow violent. Security guards at the pharmacy chains have often been attacked, and some stores have opted to hire more costly off-duty police officers.
Speaking at the same hearing in May, Brendan Dugan, director of organized retail crime and corporate investigations at CVS, said professional crime accounts for 85% of the company’s dollar losses, describing San Francisco one of the “epicenters” for organized retail crime, also known as ORC. But San Francisco Deputy Public Defender Doug Welch pushed back on that criticism, arguing the majority of his shoplifting defendants were not organized criminals, but homeless people who need more services.