This week, a video from a San Francisco Walgreens went viral on Twitter. The video depicted a man standing next to his bicycle, loading up a garbage bag with products. The man then rides his bicycle down the aisle, past a security guard, who limply throws out a hand to try to grab the bag; the shoplifter simply brushes past him, then rides out the door. (See below)
This sort of thing has become exceedingly common in San Francisco. In late May, Thomas Fuller wrote in The New York Times, “At a board of supervisors hearing last week, representatives from Walgreens said that thefts at its stores in San Francisco were four times the chain’s national average, and that it had closed 17 stores, largely because the scale of thefts had made business untenable.” Employees at Walgreens had been told to stand aside as shoplifting took place because security officers had been assaulted repeatedly.
This just happened at the @Walgreens on Gough & Fell Streets in San Francisco. #NoConsequences @chesaboudin pic.twitter.com/uSbnTQQk4J
— Lyanne Melendez (@LyanneMelendez) June 14, 2021
All of this is the result of a 2014 California ballot measure that reclassified nonviolent theft as a misdemeanor, so long as the thief took less than $950 worth of material. Thieves quickly hit on a strategy: Hit up different stores for less than $950 worth of stuff. Then, amid the Black Lives Matter protests and riots of 2020, San Francisco decided to crack down on the police. Mayor London Breed announced that booking photos would no longer be released, lest the prevalence of Black and brown faces lead to stereotyping; she announced a $120 million cut to the police and sheriff’s department over the next two years, in the interest of “prioritizing investments in the African American community”; in the first six months of 2020, 23 officers resigned from the force.
Property crime has skyrocketed. It’s not just shoplifting: burglaries increased nearly 50% year-on-year in 2020, and car theft jumped 34%. Meanwhile, the streets are littered with garbage, and have been for years thanks to lax law enforcement. In 2018, a survey of 153 blocks in downtown San Francisco showed trash on every block, 41 blocks “dotted with needles” and 96 blocks with open human feces.
This form of governance has become all too common. Los Angeles, my former hometown, has steadily declined in terms of livability. Suburban areas have been inundated with homeless vagrants, often openly shooting up, while the police have been directed to do nothing; Venice Beach has become an enormous open-air homeless encampment. Seattle has morphed from the Emerald City into a refuge for those living on the street, regardless of the risks to other citizens.
There is a reason why Americans are fleeing America’s major cities. The problem predated COVID-19, and it will post-date it, too. Americans like having a Walgreens in their neighborhoods. They enjoy being able to walk down the sidewalk without severely mentally ill homeless people — who should be in institutions where they can receive actual care — urinating on curbs. They should not have to instruct their children to hop over used needles on street corners.
Yet the governance of “compassion” continues. So does the migration away from such foolhardy policy. The top outbound states in America, according to North American Moving Services, were all deep blue: Illinois, New York, California, New Jersey and Maryland. The top inbound states were all red or purple: Idaho, Arizona, South Carolina, Tennessee and North Carolina.
At some point, there will be no more Walgreens in San Francisco. Then we will undoubtedly hear about how this is the product of systemic racism and white privilege; we will hear tell of the brutality of American capitalism. The truth is far simpler: Where Leftist governance reigns, criminality thrives. And where criminality thrives, Americans flee.
Now try lifting items from your local CBS station…since they're supportive. https://t.co/cRZUjLybvP
— Tim Graham (@TimJGraham) June 16, 2021
Ben Shapiro, 37, is a graduate of UCLA and Harvard Law School, host of “The Ben Shapiro Show,” and editor-in-chief of DailyWire.com. He is the author of the New York Times bestsellers “How To Destroy America In Three Easy Steps,” “The Right Side Of History,” and “Bullies.” To find out more about Ben Shapiro and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.
And blue city governance can’t figure out what is going on.
THEY know full well, what is going on. AND THEY APPROVE.
The dishonorable, dishonest, unethical, immoral, traitorous, Democrat Party’s agenda:
“RULE and RUIN”
Why do these Fools keep voting for the dishonorable, dishonest, unethical, immoral, traitorous, socialist Democrat Party?
AND why do stores, KEEP HIRING security guards, WHEN THOSE GUARDS are then told “DO NOT interfere in what thieves are doing, do not try to apprenhend them. Do not stop them fleeing with stolen goods”..
WHAT THE HELL IS THE POINT in keeping guards there, if they can’t do a DAMN THING about it all?!
Their government school teachers taught them from Day One that the only unforgivable sin is to vote for anyone else.
Change the name of the store to “Everything’s a Thousand Dollars!” and mark every single item in the store at $1,000.00. Put up a sign that says “Discounts at Checkout!” and let the barcode retrieve the discounted price. Then, prosecute the shoplifters trying to get out of there with tens of thousands of dollars in merchandise. Problem solved.
Let’s think your ‘solution’ through.
First, the security guard would have to stop the thief and the stores do not allow them to do that.
Then the police would have to arrest the thief and the mayors do not allow them to do that.
Then the DA would have to file charges and a Soros DA will not do that.
The stores will have to close and only do business in Republican states. The people who want law enforcement will have to move to Republican states and cities like San Francisco, in states like California, can go to hell on a sled. The path is already well greased.
,
THING IS as we’ve already seen happen.. WHEN THESE libtards ‘flee’ to redder states, THEY BRING THEIR INSANE LIBERAL Ideologies with them, to CORRUPT THE STATES they move to…
Close ALL retail stores in these democrap run cities. Let the criminals try to rob Amazon.
They will hijack and loot the Amazon delivery trucks. Eventually every truck will need someone riding “shotgun”.
If the truck looters are armed then the person riding “shotgun” can use deadly force for protection. Before long there will not be any looters left. Better yet, have the person/persons riding “shotgun” ride in the back of the truck. SURPRISE!!!
Someone riding shotgun sounds like an excellent idea, so long as that person is up to defending himself, his driver, and the property on the truck. Of course out there in la la land the person defending themselves would be brought up on criminal charges by the left wing loonies running the cities and the state.. Too bad we can’t expel California from the United States and then put up a real fence to keep them out of the rest of our country.
Seeing how even, some armored truck companeis, do not let their guards, shoot robbers, i highly doubt “any shotgun riders’ would be.
They could rob Pelosi of her ice cream but make sure is less than $950. Is her security also suppose to stand down or Newsome? Maybe if they start getting robbed then the nonsense would stop.
Porch Pirates will then be everywhere…not so good.
This is why i wonder, WHY DO DELIVERY COMPANIES< still ship to those areas where all this theft is going on at?!
Liberal politicians equals the destruction of society, no law and order, crime, drugs, child molestation and no prosecution of the evil perpetrated onto society, by the politicians. These liberal politicians, who are destroying our society should be thrown in prison, with hard labor, for the rest of their lives.
“Mayor London Breed announced that booking photos would no longer be released, lest the prevalence of Black and brown faces lead to stereotyping;”
Wake the F up Mayor. Walgreen’s and every other Retailer and Citizen under your Tyranny has a right to peaceful and quite enjoyment of its business as a taxpayer and you have a duty to defend. You’re failing miserably. Until these thugs, whether black, brown, white, yellow, or any shade in between are roped in and prosecuted in some meaningful way, your city is going to continue being the cesspool that it is until there is no one left to turn the lights out but you.
I agree, and it’s those smart citizens that have had enough of all the “peaceful” riots, looting and burning of both public and private property by the phony blm and antifa criminals, are the one’s leaving.
UNTIL THE LOCALS wise the hell up, and STOP RE-electing these leftist mayors, NOTHING WILL change though.
The stores should make videos of EVERY such theft and then when they close the store compile them into one long video to show EXACTLY why the stores are being closed.
The kicker in all this is that the vast majority of people of color don’t steal, they want to have nice stores in their area, they don’t want their kids to be jumping over needles and feces on the sidewalk, they don’t want mentally ill people screaming at them or their kids, etc. They want to live lives that are peaceful. However, a certain element is making that impossible. The city government is making it worse. Where is the compassion for the average, law abiding, people of color?
THING IS< as we saw in one town, EVEN WHEN the store's that close, show WHY (cause of all the theft) the whiney leftists will rant "ITS BECAUSE OF RACISM!"
I watched a video the other day that decried the “food deserts” in some minority communities. There are no grocery stores, drug stores, department stores, etc., within a mile or more of many of them.
Can anyone guess why that is?
“YOU reap what you sow!!!”
I forgot where i saw it, but one suggestion i saw, was that the shopper comes in and hands a list to the folks in the store of what they are wanting, then the clerk goes GETS IT.. Unlocking cabinets to get the goods out, and locking them back up when they are done..
TO ME THAT would solve a lot of those ‘grab and dash, thieves..
“Then, amid the Black Lives Matter protests and riots of 2020, San Francisco decided to crack down on the police. Mayor London Breed announced that booking photos would no longer be released, lest the prevalence of Black and brown faces lead to stereotyping . . .”
I see. Mug shots reveal that persons of color are committing the most crimes, therefore, don’t show the mug shots.
What a load of bull’s alimentary exhaust!!! Here’s the Merriam-Webster definition of ‘stereotype:’ “—something conforming to a fixed or general pattern especially : a standardized mental picture that is held in common by members of a group and that represents an oversimplified opinion, prejudiced attitude, or uncritical judgment.” Prejudice: “An adverse judgment or opinion formed unfairly or without knowledge of the facts.”
So my question to Her Dishonesty, the Mayor is this: How in h3ll is drawing conclusions from photographic evidence to be considered ‘stereotyping’ or ‘prejudiced?’ I gotta say that you Leftists are truly masters at twisting s**t around!
Cause “White supremacy!”
RHHEEEEEEEEEEE!
The cost of doing business in a blue city or state. Is it any wonder why businesses and people are leaving blue state for red states? JUST LEAVE THEIR DUMMYCRAT VOTING BEHIND IN THE BLUE STATE!!
BUT unfortunately as we see in many states where they flee to, THEY DO NOT LEAVE their dimbocrack idiocy behind.
“Mayor London Breed announced that booking photos would no longer be released, lest the prevalence of Black and brown faces lead to stereotyping…”
…because the only thing worse than watching your city devolve into a cratered war zone, would be to make real-world evidence available that elevates a stereotype to an established _fact_ …