“Nearly a third of all shoplifting arrests in New York City last year involved just 327 people”
New York Times Shines Spotlight on the Repeat Offender Problem in New York City:”Collectively, they were arrested and rearrested more than 6,000 times, Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell said.”
Rising crime is undoubtedly a huge problem in big Democrat-run cities across America like San Francisco, Seattle, Washington, D.C., and New York City—despite what “leaders” in those cities try to tell people.
In some cities, it’s so bad that businesses are closing their stores because it’s no longer profitable to keep them open and it’s not worth the risk to employee safety.
Relatedly, blue states like California and New York have seen a steady exodus of residents to red states like Texas and Florida, where fighting crime is a priority and the cost of living is cheaper.
Compounding the crime issues these cities and states face is the repeat offender problem, which the New York Times highlighted in a Saturday piece detailing that a third of all thefts/shoplifting incidents in the Big Apple are allegedly being committed by the same people (archive link):
New York City’s storefront businesses, already weathering inflation and an uneven recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, are also contending with what the police say is a dramatic increase in shoplifting. But statistics also reveal a startling reality: A relative handful of shoplifters are responsible for an outsize percentage of retail crime.
Nearly a third of all shoplifting arrests in New York City last year involved just 327 people, the police said. Collectively, they were arrested and rearrested more than 6,000 times, Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell said. Some engage in shoplifting as a trade, while others are driven by addiction or mental illness; the police did not identify the 327 people in the analysis.
The victims are also concentrated: 18 department stores and seven chain pharmacy locations accounted for 20 percent of all complaints, the police said.
So a lot of New York’s problems are quite fixable if they just keep like 500 people in jail. https://t.co/PzooArLxyq
— Jarrett Stepman (@JarrettStepman) April 15, 2023
Authorities seem to be doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. Isn't that a definition of something? https://t.co/b50J6GWZaU
— Brit Hume (@brithume) April 15, 2023
What if we had a place to confine these criminals for the protection of society? https://t.co/PxSrKsuTGn
— Phil Kerpen (@kerpen) April 15, 2023
The story also noted that while soft-on-crime groups a.k.a. “criminal justice reform advocates” claimed such crimes were born out “of necessity,” the law enforcement community begged to differ:
But law enforcement and trade groups have blamed a proliferation of organized shoplifting crews, repeat offenders and the new state bail law that they argue has enabled such offenders to avoid jail time.
The Times also pointed out that the same year the NY state legislature passed bail reform is when the city began experiencing a sharp rise shoplifting offenses:
By the end of 2022, the theft of items valued at less than $1,000 had increased 53 percent since 2019 at major commercial locations, according to a new analysis of police data by researchers at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
The crime issues plaguing NYC that are happening in part due to bail reform have caused infighting between prominent Democrats in the state as well, with Mayor Eric Adams and NY Gov. Kathy Hochul both lobbying for Democrats in Albany to amend the bail reform law and the state legislature “firmly pushing back” in response, according to the Times report.
In other words, don’t look for any changes to the bail reform law anytime soon—if at all. Which undoubtedly suits politically motivated, Soros-funded district attorneys like Alvin Bragg and violent repeat offenders like Pedro Hernandez, who was the poster child for bail reform advocates, and serial robber Charles “You can’t stop me!” Barry just fine.
Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C. a police staffing shortage has emerged as a crisis for the Democrat-controlled city:
The size of the D.C. police force has shrunk to a half-century low as officers leave faster than they can be replaced, according to the agency’s chief, forcing the department to spend millions on overtime while it struggles to combat gun violence and carjackings.
[…]
Police departments in the D.C. region and across the country are struggling to hire and retain officers, competing with each other to offer financial and other incentives in hopes of swelling their ranks. Experts say that fewer people want to work as police officers because of fatigue over crime and civil unrest, heightened scrutiny, low pay and a lack of interest in government service.
Considering the fact that the DC U.S. attorney’s office “chose not to prosecute 67 percent of those arrested by police officers” in 2022, it’s hard to imagine that these “reform-minded” D.A.’s don’t contribute to the recruiting problems these cities face.
From WP: 'D.C. police staffing reaches half-century low as homicides rise.' And when they do solve a case, the US Attorney won't prosecute it. https://t.co/jFta6OjTO8
— Byron York (@ByronYork) April 15, 2023
As I’ve said before, crime is once again emerging as a major issue for Democrats headed into the 2024 elections and for good reason. Sadly for leftist politicos, no amount of bogus spin and convenient posturing from Joe Biden is going to make it go away.
— Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym “Sister Toldjah” and can be reached via Twitter. —
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And then there is DA Gascon in Los Angeles, who makes it a priority to charge police officers with crimes while turning repeat criminals loose. He just charged two Torrance cops who’s shooting over four years ago had been reviewed and deemed a legit use of force by the prior LA DA. And just last month a person arrested in LA for sexual assault on a NINE YEAR OLD was released and then arrested again four days later in Irvine CA for another assault. This is beyond ideology, this is the willful destruction of our civil society.
Both New York and California have a politician problem.
No they have a voter problem. Stupid doesn’t even start to describe these morons.
You’re assuming that they have honest elections. Not an assumption I’d be willing to make.
Their elections aren’t honest, but Democrats still usually win by overwhelming amounts, well beyond any margin of fraud. The people in those states just vote Democrat no matter how bad things get.
We knew about this decades ago,
Shoplifting, muggings, carjackings, the balance of them are committed by a TINY amount of people.
327 in a city of 8.5 MILLION.
That was the entire reason that 3-strike laws WORKED. If you were so stupid that you continued committing crimes despite knowing that it would come with a STIFF penalty, then you were unsalvageable and society was better off with you behind bars for the forseeable future.
But you know what?
Screw them. New York is getting EXACTLY what they voted for.
This.
People think of “widespread crime” as lots of people committing crime. Typically, it isn’t — it’s a hard core of people committing lots of crime.
Here’s a historical analogue, from back when DC was the longstanding murder capital of the US:
Not to mention that most crimes are concentrated in a few dozen zip codes the overwhelming majority of which happen to be under long term d/prog control. Sure there are exceptions but in reality there isn’t a nationwide crime problem on the same scale as these blue enclaves.
Trust that the vile Dumb-o-crats will always coddle and enable criminal sociopaths, as they’ve been reliably doing since the 1960’s.
This manifestly idiotic program being run in D.C. — featuring “violence interrupters” (you can’t make this excrement up) — is only slightly less stupid and noxious than the formerly proposed (but, thankfully, never implemented) proposal to pay monthly extortion money to ex-cons, in order to incentivize them to comport themselves as law-abiding citizens and to not engage in recidivist criminality:
https://dcist.com/story/22/07/25/dc-peace-academy-violence-interrupters/
“William Johnson has always taken care of his neighbors.
The -year-old grew up in D.C.’s Bellevue neighborhood, where he assumed a role early on that felt natural. “I’m always making sure everybody in the neighborhood good,” Johnson says. “We used to throw a lot of cookouts in the summertime. I’m always the one on the grill. I’m the type that’d give the shirt off my back if I could. That’s how I was raised.”
It was exactly that instinct that led to his eventual career. Johnson is one of dozens of violence interrupters across the city – skilled workers that build trusting relationships with people at risk of perpetrating violence in order to help mediate it. These violence interrupters work for multiple organizations across the city, and they’re tasked with a huge responsibility, especially as the rate of violent deaths in the city has ticked steadily upward for several consecutive years. It’s a job that violence interrupters say requires support — some argue, more than the city is currently providing — and continuous education. That’s why Johnson applied for The DC Peace Academy, a new, privately-funded training program for D.C.’s violence
intervention workers.”
“only slightly less stupid and noxious than the formerly proposed (but, thankfully, never implemented) proposal”
Perhaps never implemented in DC, but other blue polities actually did implement programs where ex-cons were put on payroll as “anti-gang” or “anti-gun” advocates, to persuade their fellows to Stop Doing Bad Things.
The results were exactly as anyone with more than a fourth-grade education would predict. Typical of such programs’ biggest stars were Alex Sanchez, Marlo “Bow Wow” Jones, and Hector “Big Weasel” Marroquin.
Right; I think this utterly farcical proposal to bribe ex-cons to be law-abiding citizens originated in California. It ranks among the Dumb-o-crats most manifestly offensive, contemptible and indefensible policy conceits, and, that’s really saying something, given the scope of idiotic and corrosive policies proffered by the Dumbs.
At this point the most novel and ground-breaking proposals that the vile Dumb-o-crats could propose and implement, in order to combat crime, would be to actually arrest, aggressively prosecute and harshly sentence criminals — as opposed to engaging in all of the utterly nonsensical and offensively stupid “feel-good,” coddling, non-solutions that are basically contrived excuses to keep criminal sociopaths “of color” from being arrested and prosecuted for their crimes.
You mean change from a strategy of literally providing employment their criminal voter base to a strategy of throwing them in prison? Yeah, that’s gonna happen.
When the NYT is not so subtly suggesting that arresting, convicting and locking up habitual offenders is a necessity to maintain a civil society then things are off the rails.
. . . But those are 327 ROCK SOLID Dem votes !!!
I am not hearing stories of mass looting of Bud Light at this time, the criminals don’t want the stuff even though it is readily available
It’s probably laying out on pallets by the dumpsters at this point.
Alex Jones voice: “They’re turning the frigging homeless TRANS!”
Before Rudy Guliani became NY Mayor, it was speculated that all muggings in Manhattan were committed by the same 500 criminals.
Rudy got in, then locked them up. NY became a paradise of a big city.
You need to give these shoplifters a break. It is the only profession that the NY City public school system has prepared them for. /s
I’m not sure that is sarcasm
Note that these 327 offenders account for 1/3 of all arrests, not 1/3 of all incidents. Likewise these 25 stores account for 20% of all arrests, not all incidents. I have to believe that the shoplifting incidents that lead to an arrest — however temporary — are not representative of the total shoplifting in the city.
I would suggest that these 25 stores are among the few that have a policy of always making a police report. I would further speculate (though I have no information to back it up) that these 25 stores have paid security who apprehend the thieves themselves and turn them over to the police, who charge and release them. That would certainly explain their accounting for a very disproportionate share of the total arrests.
Most stores don’t have the means to apprehend the thieves themselves, and I think it likely that most stores don’t see the point in filing a police complaint, so they don’t show up in these statistics. Likewise they are not being hit by the mega-thieves, who follow the advice falsely attributed to Willie Sutton, and rob larger stores where the pickings are good; rather they are being hit by the smaller fry, who get away with less stuff but never get arrested and so don’t show up in the stats.
Fair points and of course the NYT didn’t say any of that. But let’s apply what you said — if we arrested the 327 mopes identified as chronic shoplifters, those 25 stores, and perhaps some others, would have some relief. Moreover, other store managers and owners would be more willing to report shoplifting crimes. That means other chronic shoplifters would be arrested, which would provide both more relief and more deterrence. Why, at some point life would improve in NYC!
Nah, never happen…
Very fair points though I think stevewhitemd has an excellent observation about enforcement. Where these stores are actively trying to prevent theft and investing in security as well as empowering the security staff to detain thieves they should be supported. It creates an incentive for others to do the same while freeing up LEO to work other calls on different offenders v the the same offenders time after time. When the City won’t support them it creates a disincentive to even report theft below certain amounts when proprietors know the offenders won’t face meaningful consequences.
Let people break the law, don’t arrest them or if arrested let them go like the Soros DA’s then scream it’s GUNS and RACISM which requires banning guns, more police state security and dumping money on race hustlers.
An honest discussion of what’s going on here can be found at the American Renaissance site, Amren. The LI site has a trend of introducing meaty, race-based, clickbait stories and then acting morally offended when someone comments on the elephant in the room. How could this article at least not question (if not attempt to learn) the racial makeup of the 327 offenders?
Who cares about the racial make-up? The 327 mopes are criminals. Charge them, try them, lock them up. If they don’t learn then lock them up for longer periods of time.
Ditto other criminals. Race doesn’t matter — the criminal code is based on individual behavior, not group identity. Charge them, try them, lock them up.
Folks like you are every bit as bad as the communists — you both believe in group identity and group punishment.
You are too funny. The whole point of the recent laxity in enforcement was to favor blacks. Probably all 327 offenders are black. Does the MD stand for major dementia?
Likely true, but how is it relevant? What policies are you and your racist rag advocating as a result of this, and how do they differ from the policies that would arise without this information? That is the question, and the answer is why you are, as stevewhitemd wrote, exactly the same as the communists.
You’re probably right – but, as far as the legal system is concerned, the overwhelming majority of the other 2 million plus blacks in NYC AREN’T serial shoplifters. You’re using the same type of sweeping generalization as saying that there are 300 “white supremacists” in NY, so ALL whites should be tarred (or maybe whitewashed) with that brush. That’s a typical ploy of the left
I suggest you take a course in elementary applied symbolic logic. Your reasoning ability is defective. Either that, or lay off the weed.
I’d suggest that you do a self=evaluation about your racism.
Though the actual number of white supremacists, at least actually dangerous ones, is more like 300 in the whole USA.
(E. Howard Hunt and almost all of Amren’s other fans are merely armchair racists who don’t actually hurt anyone, so they’re not a significant problem.)
Milhouse is right. We don’t hurt anyone. Milhouse and his ilk destroy millions of lives with his preening, moralistic, heavy handed schemes, which are turning our country into a dangerous, third-world, hellhole.
Yeah, that was just an example, not a census, although I’m pretty sure there are more than 300 self-described Nazis in the US. Armchair racists are still racists, and not all white supremacists are violent, They just give everybody else a bad name, just like the BLM does to the black community (although their numbers are a lot greater).
Racist rag? I have read your posts. Jared Taylor would make mince meat of you in any debate.
Yes, Amren is a racist rag, a disgusting filth hole, and anyone who praises it has no business posting here, or anywhere in decent society.
You know, if we started cutting off hands of repeat offenders, after two offenses it would be a lot more challenging for them to steal.
In all seriousness though, they desperately need a 3 strikes law with stiff penalties.
In most cases, 3 strikes laws mean a life sentence, so then juries get lenient when the 3rd felony doesn’t really justify a life sentence.
We need to rethink the 3 strikes laws to mean something like: no probation or parole and requiring “time off for good behavior” to have an increasing scale of more time with good behavior for each prior conviction.
Three strikes and…get deported?
Deported where? In the vast majority of cases the repeat criminals are US citizens, and in the vast majority of those they have no other country.