AMAC Exclusive – By Andrew Shirley
The nationwide crime spike, particularly robberies and retail theft, is accelerating at an alarming rate. A decades-old law enforcement strategy that helped clean up crime in New York City in the 90s might hold the answer to alleviating the problem – if only far-left city governments are willing to try it.
According to statistics released by the National Retail Federation this month, retail theft cost the industry over $100 billion in 2022. This is more than double the levels seen pre-pandemic, and the trend looks to be getting worse in 2023.
Many major retailers in urban areas throughout the country have been forced to close locations and lay off thousands of employees due to threats to public safety caused by the retail theft spree. In downtown San Francisco, AT&T, Banana Republic, First Republic, Starbucks, Target, and Nordstrom have all closed stores due to public safety concerns. Just this week, Target announced the closure of three stores in Portland, citing shoplifting and theft.
But the shoplifting epidemic sweeping the country isn’t simply lone actors subtly stealing a few items – it’s brazen, organized retail theft. In countless videos posted online, Americans have watched with shock and horror as a sometimes dozens of individuals in masks swarm a store and indiscriminately steal as many items as possible.
These bands of thieves usually take the items they’ve stolen to a “fencer” who sells them on online marketplaces like Facebook, Craigslist, or eBay.
Most of these retail theft gangs operate in cities with far-left district attorneys – many of them backed by liberal billionaire George Soros – who have virtually stopped prosecuting “minor” crimes like shoplifting. DAs like Los Angeles’s George Gascon have implemented policies that allow anyone under 18 to avoid any jail time at all for robbery, burglary, arson, and a host of other “minor” crimes.
Former San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin, who was recalled last year, went even further and supported a new city initiative that mandates any thefts of merchandise valued at less than $950 be charged as a misdemeanor rather than a felony.
Even with the predictable spike in crime, however, liberal DAs and lawmakers have continued to double down. In October, Los Angeles implemented a zero cash bail policy for most crimes. As a result, if a criminal is arrested for robbery, they are immediately released – meaning it’s essentially impossible to keep repeat offenders off the street.
The scale of the country’s retail theft problem is reflective of a legal system in big cities that simply doesn’t care about punishing offenders. Criminals know that they won’t face any consequences for stealing. Similarly, people who might otherwise have been dissuaded from robbing stores due to the threat of jail time are now encouraged to join in the lawbreaking.
To address the problem, many conservatives have suggested resorting to the principles of the “broken windows” approach to law enforcement.
The broken windows theory holds that if a neighborhood shows signs of neglect and decay, like broken windows that are not promptly replaced, then such disrepair sends a powerful signal of indifference by the authorities to growing public disorder. The result is a gradual increase in the severity of offenses as the criminal element in society is no longer deterred, but increasingly emboldened to try to get away with almost anything.
Conversely, by quickly addressing signs of public decay like repairing broken windows or removing graffiti from public spaces, as well as holding people accountable for petty crimes, law enforcement can create a climate of public safety and security, and criminals are deterred from committing crimes.
The massive reduction in crime that was achieved by then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani in New York City in the 1990s is attributed to successfully implementing policing strategies based on the broken windows theory. Democrats, predictably, have opposed the broken windows approach as “racist.”
But as the New York Post Editorial Board put it in a call earlier this year for the city to re-embrace the concept, “Broken Windows policing sends a vital message that there are consequences for even small crimes, so don’t even think about bigger ones. It also improves local quality of life, by cracking down on litterers, vandalizers, trespassers, shoplifters and others.”
They also noted, “Nearly half of city fare-evaders arrested this year had open warrants for other crimes, including at least one murder.” New York subway platforms are notorious for stabbings and other violent attacks.
Despite the clear failure of their strategy of “reimagining” (defunding) policing and not punishing criminals in the name of “equity,” however, Democrat-run city governments seem determined to plow forward anyway. It will likely take a serious change in leadership to return to the broken windows model or any method with a hope of solving the country’s crime crisis.
Andrew Shirley is a veteran speechwriter and AMAC Newsline columnist. His commentary can be found on X at @AA_Shirley.
