We've done so many stories in the past couple of years on the effect the Soros DAs and loosened criminal penalties have had on retail crime. States were raising the minimum stolen goods thresholds to qualify for felonies so high that they practically begged thieves to walk out with thousand-dollar purses. With many progressive district attorneys purposefully not charging criminals when they were arrested, it's been a free-for-all in the retail sector in states like California, New York, Pennsylvania, and Illinois.
Stores in some locales have been looted so often that they've been forced to close because they can no longer sustain the loss rate.
...There’s a fair amount of skepticism being expressed, too, about how much “theft” Target had at the location. But if you read into this tweet ranting about the closure, it seems to validate what Target is saying about the store. The OP is calling Target liars because everyone knows you can’t steal anything there – it’s all “locked up – even the lotion“!
And, of course, racist.
There's a healthy mix of criminals, too. From unrestrained, high-spirited 'young people' swarming stores and running out with the contents of a Wawa in Philly...
“A Wawa in Philadelphia is in shambles after dozens of young people…”
That’s how this news report starts out. “Young people.” That’s so quaint, isn’t it? Like Tommy and the Rugrats got a little boisterous in the juice-box and fruit roll-ups aisle. But no. Not like that at all. These “young people” did it Philly style on Saturday night:
…Police say officers arrived on the scene and observed roughly 100 juveniles causing damage to the store.
No injuries were reported, but residents Action News spoke with expressed outrage over the incident.
One woman who did not want to be identified says she often thinks twice before entering the store.
“Sometimes I’m afraid to stop, it’s a shame,” she said....
...to organized cartels running retail theft mobs - often filled with agile young people - who hit, say, the Yves St. Laurent in Glendale.
...The scene is hardly unique in America in 2023. Near Charlotte, N.C., hammer-wielding thugs recently bashed in a Kohl’s jewelry display in broad daylight. In Glendale, Calif., 30 robbers committed a “flash mob burglary” at a Yves Saint Laurent store, stealing $300,000 in merchandise.
All told, shoplifting mobs and smash-and-grab robbers are costing retailers $100 billion in losses in what law enforcement calls organized retail crime (ORC). Shoplifting today isn’t teenagers sticking a few beers in their jackets or stealing party supplies at the Food King. Instead, many robberies are executed by some of the most dangerous criminal cartels in the world. The profits from retail theft in New York and Chicago help fund drugs, prostitution, and human trafficking in Mexico and Central America.
All enabled and encouraged by permissive attitudes in the very places that are often the most victimized.
Turning retail stores into fortresses is expensive, time-consuming, and off-putting to consumers who have to wait to, say, get a bottle of shampoo out from behind locked glass. And for all the security, the shoplifting numbers still were horrible.
...Major retailers have responded to rising theft since 2020 by locking up merchandise, upgrading security cameras, hiring private security firms and even closing stores.
Still, the report indicates that shoplifting remains a stubborn problem.
In Chicago, the rate of reported shoplifting incidents remained below pre-pandemic levels throughout 2023 — but surged by 46% from January to October 2024 compared with the same period a year ago.
Shoplifting in Los Angeles was 87% higher in 2023 than in 2019. Police reports of shoplifting from January to October 2024 were lower than in 2023. Los Angeles adopted a new crime reporting system in March 2024, which has likely led to an undercount, according to the report.
In New York, shoplifting rose 48% from 2021 to 2022, then dipped slightly last year. Still, the shoplifting rate was 55% higher in 2023 than in 2019. This year, the shoplifting rate increased by 3% from January to September compared with the same period last year.
But there appears to be change in the air, mostly driven by voters disgusted with the state of affairs.
As you all know, CA voted in tougher retail theft laws in November, for once going against the express wishes of their oleaginous, progressive disaster of a governor. They also managed to recall some of the most egregious Soros DAs. Gascon in LA springs first to mind. Good riddance to bad rubbish.
Those new felony limits are already paying dividends in some of the most unexpected and hilarious ways, as once-petty retail criminals - who were used to snapping up goods and walking out - find themselves on the hook for felonies.
They are shocked, surprised, and dismayed by the news. Aghast, even.
The Seal Beach Police, on the other hand, thought it made great viewing material.
WATCH: A California shoplifter was shocked to discover she could face a felony charge after “new laws” targeting low-level theft, according to police video footage.
— Los Angeles Magazine (@LAmag) December 27, 2024
The Seal Beach Police Department in Orange County released a video compilation featuring security, dash, and body… pic.twitter.com/cXmZYfN33B
It's not so much fun being part of a flash mob robbery gang anymore.
RETAIL THIEVES BUSTED: 117 ARRESTED IN CALIFORNIA SWEEP
— 🇺🇸 Pismo 🇺🇸 (@Pismo_B) December 25, 2024
California law enforcement just handed shoplifters their holiday “bonus” – 117 arrests in a single day.
Stealing is a felony now in California
pic.twitter.com/mO9iPPVRkR
CA businesses have lost $15B in just the past two years to theft.
Not only has the dollar value been lowered. The penalties have also been stiffened, and police now have the latitude to snatch these people up.
Starting today, thieves who steal from stores three or more times will need to think twice because they could spend up to three years in jail. Prop. 36 that overwhelmingly passed by California voters is taking effect. It makes retail theft a felony crime on the third offense. pic.twitter.com/yKFmoRUU3h
— Tori Apodaca (@tori_apodaca) December 18, 2024
Surprisingly, another crime-riddled blue city notorious for loosey-goosey coddling of criminals is also in the midst of a sea change regarding their treatment of offenders.
At the beginning of the month, I told you about the retired appellate judge who'd won the election to replace infamous Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx and what she was promising to do if elected.
...Starting today, there's a new sheriff in town. A retired appellate court judge who beat a Democratic party machine candidate to take the Cook County State's Attorney seat formerly held by the risible and reviled Kim Foxx.
This woman is talking the talk as if she knows all about what the walk is fixing to be.
...Saying the state’s attorney’s office under Kim Foxx “isn’t working for victims, defendants, advocates, law enforcement, and ordinary citizens,” retired Appellate Court Justice Eileen O’Neill Burke beat her Democratic primary opponent, Cook County machine candidate Clayton Harris III, by just 1,571 votes in March. She went on to win the November election handily by attracting 66% of the votes.
Burke promised to “seek pre-trial detention for each and every violent crime” saying people charged with attempted murder or murder “require detention,” not electronic monitoring. She also vowed to reverse one of Foxx’s cornerstone decisions by charging retail theft as a felony if the stolen goods are worth $300 or more. Foxx ignored state law by reserving felony charges for habitual offenders and those accused of stealing $1,000 or more.
Welp.
HUGE: Felony theft charges in Chicago surge by 154% this month after O'Neill Burke took over Soros DA Kim Foxx.
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) December 27, 2024
$1,000 threshold is now $300. pic.twitter.com/rVWT2gHeb6
My friends, she's been as good as her word.
Felony shoplifting cases surge 154% under new state’s attorney
Shoplifters in Chicago are being slapped with felony charges 154% more often under Cook County’s new state’s attorney than they were under Kim Foxx’s administration.
Retired justice Eileen O’Neill Burke took office on December 2 and immediately followed through on her campaign promise to adhere to state law by pursuing felonies against people who shoplift merchandise worth more than $300. Foxx ordered prosecutors to withhold felony charges unless the value exceeded $1,000 or the accused shoplifter had ten or more previous convictions.
Three weeks into O’Neill Burke’s administration, the results of the rule change are already apparent.
O'Neill Burke hit the ground running and immediately announced her prosecutors would be seeking pre-trial detention for anyone accused of crimes like violent offenses, etc. This was a rare occasion in the Kim Foxx era. With her in the office, they walked.
Just moments after being sworn in as Cook County's new state's attorney, Eileen O'Neill Burke announced a change to the county's policy involving the controversial SAFE-T Act.
O'Neill Burke announced that prosecutors must now seek pre-trial detention for anyone accused of certain crimes, particularly violent offenses, domestic violence cases and sex offenses or crimes against children.
"Under the SAFE-T Act, the state must file a petition to detain an offender before the court can consider it. A judge can no longer hold someone pretrial absent a prosecutor requesting it," O'Neill Burke said in a release.
So, Burke is already ensuring there are fewer criminals on the street to begin with.
So many of Chicago's perps are repeat offenders and out on bond, no bail or some mental health release deal when they're caught next and released again.
A man has been charged with robbing an on-duty Chicago Fire Department ambulance crew on Monday morning. Jaylin Brewster, 20, will appear in court on Christmas Eve to face charges of robbery and aggravated battery.
...Court records show Brewster pleaded guilty to robbery and aggravated battery of a peace officer on January 24 in exchange for two years of mental health probation.
Looks like 'lather, rinse, repeat' might be history in Chicago, and alrighty then.
There should eventually be some videos of surprised career Chicago shoplifters, too.
That can only be a good thing, leading to better things.
Keep the change.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member