When crime began to spike during the pandemic, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) made a predictably outrageous claim, as is her wont. “I do think that even when you talk about violent crime, I don’t think that poverty and economic desperation are separate from that,” she said.
Ocasio-Cortez and much of the rest of the Left would have us believe our society is no better than the fictional one portrayed in Les Miserables and that all crime is in some way related to that fact.
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But the retail thieves who have made shoplifting a profitable business would beg to differ.
Theft rates have exploded in America’s cities over the past few years, forcing many stores to install additional security features to protect merchandise, including locked chains around freezers, and others to shut their doors for good. “Smash and grab” robberies have become so common that the Department of Homeland Security is considering establishing a new unit just to investigate such crimes.
The National Retail Federation estimates shoplifting has increased by 90% since 2018, resulting in more than $94 billion in losses for America’s businesses. Many of the thieves are repeat offenders who know they won’t face any consequences thanks to lax prosecution policies in leftist cities. Many more are a part of organized crime rings that resell stolen items for profit.
In other words, retail theft is rarely a single act of desperation, as the Left likes to suggest. Rather, it is often a coordinated, deliberate decision to violate a business’s rights and break the law. Policymakers and prosecutors’ refusal to recognize this will continue to cost America’s businesses, and consumers, dearly.