New York City Mayor Eric Adams recently released his Crackdown On Shoplifting Plan For NYC, a soft-on-crime enablement platform for thieves. The “plan” seems more like a late-night comedy sketch than anything based on reality:
- Give first-time offenders intervention programs instead of prosecution.
- De-escalation training for retail employees.
- Establish neighborhood retail watch groups to share theft information.
- Install kiosks in stores to connect would-be thieves with social services programs.
The Crackdown on Shoplifting Plan aims to cut down on the brazen crime spree in New York City, which has “inexplicably” risen by 44% in the past year alone.
“This plan aims to reassure our store owners that we know they are essential to our city, and we have their backs,” Adams unironically stated.
Twitter has been unhinged following this “anti-shoplifting” plan’s revelations.
“This shoplifting crackdown plan released by @NYCMayor reads like a parody of what a blue-city mayor would propose,” reads one tweet.
“The way Eric Adams works the new plan will ask the shoplifters to make a wish list, and he will have the items delivered to their door,” observes another poster.
New York City has now joined the ranks of other shoplifting-friendly cities, including San Francisco. Recently, a video of a thief riding a bicycle through a Walgreens and filling a garbage bag with goods made its rounds on social media, with the thief riding out of the store and past a security guard who was recording the incident.
San Francisco is in trouble. In May, Walgreens officials stated that thefts in its Frisco stores quadrupled their national average. The losses forced 17 stores to close their doors, and the retail pharmacy is not alone. Rival CVS closed two stores in San Francisco, with an official noting the city is now “the epicenter of organized retail crime.” Per the official, 85% of CVS profit losses were due to retail crime.
Organized retail crime (ORC) is a phrase used to describe shoplifting committed by a shoplifting ring or multiple people who typically steal goods from multiple locations in an organized effort. “Organized retail crime is one of the top challenges facing the company,” Walgreens noted in 2021. Per an official at Walgreens, the crime “has evolved beyond shoplifting and petty theft to the sale of stolen and counterfeit goods online.”
This observation naturally brought the fury of New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez raining down on the affected stores and the police who attempt to enforce the law. “A lot of these allegations of organized retail theft are not actually panning out,” Ocasio Cortez told the Washington Times in late 2021. “I believe it’s a Walgreens in California cited it, but the data didn’t back it up.”
Her statement was met with stunned disbelief by the Retail Industry Leaders Association, who responded, “Respectfully, the Congresswoman has no idea what she is talking about. Both the data and stack of video evidence make fairly clear that this is a growing problem in need of solutions. If she is not concerned with organized theft and increasingly violent attacks on retail employees, she should just say that.”
She continued with her misguided fantasy throughout 2022 when she noted, “It’s much easier to frame people who steal baby formula and medicine as monsters to be jailed than acknowledge our politics and economic priorities create conditions where people steal baby formula to survive.”
AOC has a warped idea of what people “need to survive.” Shoplifters stole high-dollar designer items like Jimmy Choo shoes, Gucci handbags, and Oscar de la Renta clothing. Thieves also pocketed eye creams, hair serums, and products made by high-end manufacturers for resale on the black market. They peddle stolen baby products in the black market, contrary to AOC’s belief that impoverished parents are the only ones stealing baby formula and diapers.
Mayor Adams may or may not have been smoking substances made legal in 2021 when he concocted the Crackdown On Shoplifting plan, but he wasn’t alone in its creation. “I want to thank the nearly 100 stakeholders from the public and private sectors who participated in our summit last year and who contributed to drafting this report for bringing forward their innovative solutions to tackle this critical issue,” Mayor Adams said.
There’s no telling how much shoplifting will increase in New York now, but the most popular items on a New York shoplifter’s list will be backpacks and luggage to help carry their loot.
