Think shoplifting is just a petty crime that takes a negligible toll on big retailers — and that pols should keep letting such perps get off virtually scot-free?
Then ask East Harlem residents how they feel about a key Target store closing its doors due to rampant theft and violence.
Ask the workers who no longer have jobs.
Target says it’s shutting the East 117th Street store — which only opened in 2010, after years of begging by city officials and residents — along with eight other outlets in similarly crime-wracked cities with progressive prosecutors.
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It’s a major setback for the neighborhood.
“Target was a staple” in East Harlem, laments ex-City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, who repped the area when it opened.
It provided goods “at a price point important to the community” as well as “a lot of jobs” — and closing it “is a problem.”
Indeed. Retail flight is a sign of the decline of a neighborhood, and maybe a city.
It takes a real toll on shoppers as well as workers who depend on the stores for their jobs.
And it can lead to violence.
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The hit on these stores nationwide is huge: “Shrink” cost them $112.1 billion in retail losses last year, up from $93.9 billion in 2021, a 19% spike.
And the crooks are growing ever bold: In Philadelphia Tuesday, a group of young looters — who outnumbered cops — hit several outlets in the same night, including Apple, Foot Locker and Lululemon stores.
There’s no mystery about what’s driving the surge: It coincides with the dramatic elimination of consequences for criminals — especially low-level repeat offenders — in cities with Democratic leaders and DAs over the past few years.
In New York, the state no-bail and Raise the Age laws, along with restrictive “discovery” rules for prosecutors and a host of state and city handcuffs on cops, all contributed.
Plus the rise of pro-criminal DAs like Manhattan’s Alvin Bragg — who proudly boasted on his first day in office that he’d avoid imposing consequences on lawbreakers.
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The chief problem: Progressives just don’t care about crime’s consequences for the public.
No stores, no jobs — so what? As long as criminals don’t get “victimized.”
Residents who see stores like Target flee need to remember that attitude come election time.
* ORIGINAL ARTICLE:
https://nypost.com/2023/09/27/target-stores-closing-lululemon-looting-proves-democrats-hate-public-safety/amp/
