Organized Retail Theft

The insurrection is ongoing. It has moved beyond the rioting and arson and has become a fact of everyday life in retail stores. That is, smash and grab robberies are considered to be the new normal in retail establishments across America-- that is, across America’s big blue cities.

But, don’t call it an insurrection. Don’t call it justice. Compared to the monstrous crime of sending 50 illegal migrants to Martha’s Vineyard, it pales. And don't let's get started on January 6. While gangs of thieves attack the basis for urban businesses, the enabling left is in a snit about Ron DeSantis and January 6.

Have you ever gotten the impression that the American mind has been rendered terminally stupid. Well, while America’s mayors, like Lori Lightweight in Chicago and America’s governors, like J. B. Pritzker in Illinois are in the highest dudgeon about the arrival of a few dozen illegal migrants, to the point where they are calling out the National Guard, these same leaders are perfectly insouciant about a wave of urban violence that is engulfing their cities. 

If it doesn’t bother them, one can only conclude that they believe it to be just.

Now, organized retail crime, as it is called, has advanced to the point where gangs are in charge. Since the gang members belong to minority groups, blue district attorneys have turned their backs on the perpetrators. It keeps the crime statistics down.

Bryan Jung explains in The Epoch Times:

These crimes have hurt thousands of businesses and have contributed to higher prices for consumers and loss of key retailers in many communities, as countless stores have closed to due to lack of security.

“The factors contributing to retail shrink have multiplied in recent years, and organized retail crime is a burgeoning threat within the retail industry,” said Mark Meadows, NRF vice president for research development and industry analysis.

“These highly sophisticated criminal rings jeopardize employee and customer safety and disrupt store operations. Retailers are bolstering security efforts to counteract these increasingly dangerous and aggressive criminal activities.”

While most shopkeepers do their best to avoid violent confrontations with gang members, this is not always the case.

Jung continues:

A sudden increase store violence is another growing area of concern, such as random attacks on store personnel, robberies, and ORC gangs.

The majority of surveyed retailers reported a 89.3 percent increase in violence and a 73.2 percent uptick in shoplifting.

The reported incidents of both ORC and employee theft rose 71.4 percent, much of it involving organized crime or for the gangs’ own benefit.

The NRF said that respondents reported that ORC robberies have risen 26.5 percent since the onset of the pandemic.

The most targeted store items fall under the acronym CRAVED: concealable, removable, available, valuable, enjoyable,  and disposable.

Items under CRAVED include apparel, health and beauty, electronics/appliances, accessories, food and beverage, footwear, home furnishings and housewares, home improvement, eyewear, office supplies, infant care, and toys.

In search of solutions, retailers are boosting spending on theft-prevention measures.

The NRF survey showed that 60.3 percent of retailers are increasing their security budgets.

Increased security increases costs. And increased costs are going to be passed along to consumers. Unless, of course, you shop at Amazon, in which case you have nothing to worry about… yet.

Isn't it interesting, at a time when shopkeepers are being put out of business by Amazon and Walmart, that criminal gangs are picking through the carcasses.

I don’t need to tell you where this is taking place. And I do not need to explain who is responsible. Apparently, the problem is endemic to places where rich liberals live.

Jung continues:

Wealthy liberal enclaves throughout the country with district attorneys thought of as “soft on crime” appear to be the regions most affected by the crime wave and which has only grown worse since the pandemic.

The top five metropolitan areas affected by store bandit gangs in the past year were the Californian cities of Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Oakland; New York; Houston, Texas; and Miami, Florida.

Retailers across the country are calling for stronger legislation, especially at the federal and state level, along with better enforcement of existing laws to quell increasing acts of violence and theft, which are hurting their survival.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce demanded earlier this year that Congress take action to address the rise of ORC crimes, calling them a “national emergency.”

“Retail theft is becoming a national crisis, hurting businesses in every state and the communities they serve,” said Neil Bradley, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s chief policy officer, in a letter to Congress in March.

“We call on policymakers to tackle this problem head-on before it gets further out of control. No store should have to close because of theft.”

We see the pictures every day. And we shrug our shoulders. Doesn’t this suggest that in our minds, we think that the criminals have a right to take what they have not earned? Aren’t we telling them not to bother to work to earn?

But, stores will close. Aisles of products will be and are now locked down. Prices will rise. People will lose jobs. Consider it a testimony to the arrant stupidity of leftist pro-crime policies.