{"id":5009,"date":"2021-04-21T20:30:57","date_gmt":"2021-04-21T20:30:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=5009"},"modified":"2021-04-21T20:30:57","modified_gmt":"2021-04-21T20:30:57","slug":"the-supermarket-sweep","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=5009","title":{"rendered":"The \u201cSupermarket Sweep\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\n\n“\u201cFrom Seattle to Los Angeles, a \u201cshoplifting boom\u201d is hitting major retailers, which deal with thousands of thefts, drug overdoses, and assaults each year<\/a>. Since 2010<\/a>, thefts increased by 22 percent in Portland, 50 percent in San Francisco, and 61 percent in Los Angeles. In total, California, Oregon, and Washington reported<\/a> 864,326 thefts to the FBI last year. The real figure is likely much higher, as many retailers have stopped reporting<\/a> most shoplifting incidents to police.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Drug addiction is driving this shoplifting boom. In recent years, West Coast cities have witnessed an explosion in addiction rates for heroin, fentanyl, and meth; property crime helps feed the habit. According to federal data<\/a>, adults with substance-abuse disorders make up just 2.6 percent of the total population but 72 percent of all jail inmates sentenced for property crimes. Addicts are 29 times more likely to commit property crimes than the average American. Furthermore, as the Bureau of Justice Statistics found, \u201c[39 percent of jail inmates] held for property offenses said they committed the crime for money for drugs\u201d\u2014the most common single motivation for crime throughout the justice system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, as West Coast cities grapple with an addiction epidemic, the shoplifting boom has only accelerated because of decriminalization. California\u2019s Proposition 47, approved by nearly 60 percent of voters statewide in 2014, reclassified many drug and property felonies as misdemeanors, effectively decriminalizing thefts of $1,000 or less.  Many criminals now believe, justifiably, that they can steal with impunity. For example, in San Francisco, police reported 33,000 car break-ins last year; the city now leads the nation in overall property crime<\/a>. In Portland, a repeat offender nicknamed the \u201cHamburglar\u201d stole $2,690 worth of meat in one year. He bluntly told police officers<\/a>: \u201cI know the law. I know the rules. I know what I can and can\u2019t do . . . I\u2019m never going to get over $1,000 at any store.\u201d The Portland Police Department, which doesn\u2019t assign officers to retail theft cases, admits that official statistics vastly underreport actual crime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some retailers have adopted a policy of private decriminalization, in many cases prohibiting their security guards from physically apprehending shoplifters. Liability losses, they believe, outweigh property losses. When I asked the manager of Seattle\u2019s 96,000-square-foot Target if employees followed a \u201cno touch, no chase\u201d policy, he responded: \u201cOfficially, I can\u2019t tell you our policy, but if you watch our front door for an hour, you\u2019ll see pretty clearly what\u2019s happening.\u201d According to reports<\/a>, the store likely has ten to 40 \u201csecurity incidents\u201d a day, including a dramatic incident last year when a drug-frenzied man went on a 15-minute rampage<\/a>, destroying displays and merchandise, only to walk out the door with duffel bags full of goods. Police never arrived.The shoplifting crisis isn\u2019t limited to the West Coast. Retailers across the nation report<\/a> $16.7 billion in losses to shoplifting. In many cases, they simply pass along the cost to consumers, with one study<\/a> suggesting that this \u201cshoplifting tax\u201d costs the average family $400 a year. In Seattle, the shoplifting boom has forced some retailers to close stores<\/a> in the downtown commercial district, citing massive losses and the threat of violence against employees. Another store, Outdoor Emporium, called 911 more than 200 times last year, but the city prosecuted<\/a> only one of the incidents. Other retailers have stopped reporting shoplifting altogether\u2014in a recent survey<\/a>, downtown Seattle businesses reported \u201cless than 5 percent of the daily crime they experience.\u201d\u201d”
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nhttps:\/\/christopherrufo.com\/the-supermarket-sweep\/\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“\u201cFrom Seattle to Los Angeles, a \u201cshoplifting boom\u201d is hitting major retailers, which deal with thousands of thefts, drug overdoses, and assaults each year. Since 2010, thefts increased by 22 percent in Portland, 50 percent in San Francisco, and 61 percent in Los Angeles. In total, California, Oregon, and Washington reported 864,326 thefts to the FBI last year. The real figure is likely much higher, as many retailers have stopped reporting most shoplifting incidents to police.<\/p>\n

Drug addiction is driving this shoplifting boom. In recent years, West Coast cities have witnessed an explosion in addiction rates for heroin, fentanyl, and meth; property crime helps feed the habit. According to federal data, adults with substance-abuse disorders make up just 2.6 percent of the total population but 72 percent of all jail inmates sentenced for property crimes. Addicts are 29 times more likely to commit property crimes than the average American. Furthermore, as the Bureau of Justice Statistics found, \u201c[39 percent of jail inmates] held for property offenses said they committed the crime for money for drugs\u201d\u2014the most common single motivation for crime throughout the justice system.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, as West Coast cities grapple with an addiction epidemic, the shoplifting boom has only accelerated because of decriminalization. California\u2019s Proposition 47, approved by nearly 60 percent of voters statewide in 2014, reclassified many drug and property felonies as misdemeanors, effectively decriminalizing thefts of $1,000 or less. Many criminals now believe, justifiably, that they can steal with impunity. For example, in San Francisco, police reported 33,000 car break-ins last year; the city now leads the nation in overall property crime. In Portland, a repeat offender nicknamed the \u201cHamburglar\u201d stole $2,690 worth of meat in one year. He bluntly told police officers: \u201cI know the law. I know the rules. I know what I can and can\u2019t do . . . I\u2019m never going to get over $1,000 at any store.\u201d The Portland Police Department, which doesn\u2019t assign officers to retail theft cases, admits that official statistics vastly underreport actual crime.<\/p>\n

Some retailers have adopted a policy of private decriminalization, in many cases prohibiting their security guards from physically apprehending shoplifters. Liability losses, they believe, outweigh property losses. When I asked the manager of Seattle\u2019s 96,000-square-foot Target if employees followed a \u201cno touch, no chase\u201d policy, he responded: \u201cOfficially, I can\u2019t tell you our policy, but if you watch our front door for an hour, you\u2019ll see pretty clearly what\u2019s happening.\u201d According to reports, the store likely has ten to 40 \u201csecurity incidents\u201d a day, including a dramatic incident last year when a drug-frenzied man went on a 15-minute rampage, destroying displays and merchandise, only to walk out the door with duffel bags full of goods. Police never arrived.<\/p>\n

The shoplifting crisis isn\u2019t limited to the West Coast. Retailers across the nation report $16.7 billion in losses to shoplifting. In many cases, they simply pass along the cost to consumers, with one study suggesting that this \u201cshoplifting tax\u201d costs the average family $400 a year. In Seattle, the shoplifting boom has forced some retailers to close stores in the downtown commercial district, citing massive losses and the threat of violence against employees. Another store, Outdoor Emporium, called 911 more than 200 times last year, but the city prosecuted only one of the incidents. Other retailers have stopped reporting shoplifting altogether\u2014in a recent survey, downtown Seattle businesses reported \u201cless than 5 percent of the daily crime they experience.\u201d\u201d”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[330,744,439,1269],"class_list":["post-5009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article-share","tag-addiction","tag-crime","tag-drugs","tag-shoplifting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5009"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5009\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5010,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5009\/revisions\/5010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}