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I'd love to know how hard a hit tourism dollars have taken in: San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, Minneapolis and all the other Democrat 'defund the police' nightmare cities.
We have several Dollar Generals that have started offering an aisle with fresh fruits and vegetables. They do accept SNAP, so maybe they are requred to do that, I'm not sure.
To be honest though, I don't see the EBT people filling their carts with fresh fruits and vegetables. Just saying.
And ironically, one of the reasons there are "food deserts" in the first place is due to high theft.
We have a low income area not far from me where three different discount type grocers have tried to come in, and very single one has had to shut down because of high theft, usually of the meats. I guess there's just not enough on the food stamp card for ribeyes and ribs.
Not just the theft but the overall cost of operation in a violent environment.
With profit margins of just a few cents, a single riot destroying much of the store just once in a 25-50 year span can wipe out any chance of that.
Then you have to pay for security, customer lawsuits in very anti-business jurisdictions and lastly the complaints from the very community that you charge more than in other places and are thus racist so damage to the brands national reputation....and maybe the aforementioned looting\riot as a result.
Even putting high-theft items under lock and key gets you charged with racism. (We've had threads on this and it's been in national news.)
In short, there is no stinkin' way stores like to do business in those environments.
There is a difference between "reduced consequences" and "we aren't even going to prosecute".
In 2016 voters in Oklahoma voted to increase the threshold for felony theft to $1000, which is higher than the threshold in California.
The state commuted sentencing and very likely will expunge criminal records for 100,000 convicted non- violent criminals.
All of this is happening under the banner of criminal justice reform.
I believe the real issue is cost.
The cost of prosecution and detention.
The cost of county jails and state prisons, including impacts of overcrowding.
It is not lost on anyone that non- violent theft is increasing EVERYWHERE.
States began to close their asylums in the 50’s because they had become political embarrassments and a political unwillingness to raise taxes to properly fund them.
Thinking Criminal Justice Reform ihas similar intentions.
Along with one of those evil high capacity “banana clips.”
What’s next? Drive-By banana-ings?
I can’t laugh too hard since I live in the Metro Seattle area where stupid stuff like this happens all the time. AND now, liberals are shocked that after THEY chased away 1/4 of their police officers that crime has exploded and nobody is wanting to join the police department the vacant 500+ vacant slots.
Where in the US is it justified to blow an unarmed person’s head off for $268 worth of merchandise from a store you don’t own?
Who would do the shooting?
The $10/ hr clerk behind the counter?
Another shopper?
Armed security hired by the drug store?
Crime is deterred either internally or externally. Internally, by a person's own conscience or his fear of getting caught. Externally by the threat of punishment. It's pretty obvious that the internal restraints on crime just aren't present in some people. So that leaves threat of punishment. But with the soft-on-crime policies that places like San Francisco have implemented, that's out the window. So what is a business owner to do? Have we come to the point that business owners are left with no means to protect their inventory? That their livelihoods are at the whim of criminals and their enabling politicians?
It's not just $268 worth of merchandise that is at stake here. It's the social compact that allows commerce to take place and allows people to make a living. If business owners have no recourse but to stand there and watch their inventory get carted away, how much longer before the social fabric starts to unwind? (I mean, more than it's already doing.) Or we go to the ghetto model where everything is behind a wall and the customer has to put their money through a slot before having their stuff pushed back to them?
Crime is deterred either internally or externally. Internally, by a person's own conscience or his fear of getting caught. Externally by the threat of punishment. It's pretty obvious that the internal restraints on crime just aren't present in some people. So that leaves threat of punishment. But with the soft-on-crime policies that places like San Francisco have implemented, that's out the window. So what is a business owner to do? Have we come to the point that business owners are left with no means to protect their inventory? That their livelihoods are at the whim of criminals and their enabling politicians?
It's not just $268 worth of merchandise that is at stake here. It's the social compact that allows commerce to take place and allows people to make a living. If business owners have no recourse but to stand there and watch their inventory get carted away, how much longer before the social fabric starts to unwind? (I mean, more than it's already doing.) Or we go to the ghetto model where everything is behind a wall and the customer has to put their money through a slot before having their stuff pushed back to them?
Its interesting if you look at how retail stores dealt with shoplifters they caught over the years, back in the 70s, 80s, 90s, store employees were allowed to be physical to stop a shoplifter...this changed though, today, they are not allowed to touch the person at all...
Seems to me, whoever implemented these new procedures, are the ones to blame ultimately, they are making it easier for shoplifters, and the thieves know this too!
Even with a story like this that has zero to do with politics the Trump guys can't stop being divisive. We see it throughout this thread, throughout EVERY thread.
well ... the San Francisco "city council" passed a law making all theft < $900 a non-jailable offense. Yes?
So, I'd say that DOES have to do with politics. And we do know that every lawmaker in SF is a Democrat, if not a strongly progressive one. And we know those Democrats voted for Biden (or at least, NOT for Trump) in the 99% range.
Even with a story like this that has zero to do with politics the Trump guys can't stop being divisive. We see it throughout this thread, throughout EVERY thread.
It has EVERYTHING TO DO WITH POLITICS.
The democrats have supported defunding the police and assuming that law enforcement is "racist". The unified attack on US police departments, as well as the Obama appointed judges, have created "revolving door justice" in which the "rights" of criminals supercede those of citizens.
Dems are too dumb to understand that this is straight from the Allinsky playbook and would rather sacrifice public safety and law and order, cowering over the fear of being called "racist".
We need theives and other criminals to be know they could be hurt or killed. Just knowing that's a possibility keeps the majority of people in check. When those fears are removed you get chaos. You many not LIKE the idea of someone being killed for stealing something but I guarantee there will be far less of this nonsense once people realize that society is willing to let that happen. I'm willing to let that happen and I'll still sleep well at night.
Not just the theft but the overall cost of operation in a violent environment.
With profit margins of just a few cents, a single riot destroying much of the store just once in a 25-50 year span can wipe out any chance of that.
Then you have to pay for security, customer lawsuits in very anti-business jurisdictions and lastly the complaints from the very community that you charge more than in other places and are thus racist so damage to the brands national reputation....and maybe the aforementioned looting\riot as a result.
Even putting high-theft items under lock and key gets you charged with racism. (We've had threads on this and it's been in national news.)
In short, there is no stinkin' way stores like to do business in those environments.
And yet, I watched an entire documentary put out by PBS (should have know better) that focused on these "food deserts", but made it seem like stores won't go into low-income areas just because of racism or "meanness" or something.
Not a single, solitary word about the theft/violence issues that have driven prospective stores and store owners out who tried to set up shop.
You can't solve a problem if you are afraid of discussing the truth behind the problem.
That's why a lot of this will never, ever change.
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