Biden’s America: Retailers Opt for Empty Shelves To Prevent Theft
Many retailers are emptying their shelves across the country, but not because of low stock. A concerning increase in thefts has pushed companies to put more products under lock and key, the Wall Street Journal reports.
At one Best Buy store in the suburbs of Houston, where hundreds of items like Bose speakers and Fitbit activity trackers used to sit on the shelves, shoppers will instead find small blue signs that read, "This product kept in secured location."
Surging crime rates across the country are hitting retailers hard. The National Retail Federation's 2022 Retail Security Survey found that retailers lost $94.5 billion overall in 2021 mainly due to external theft and organized retail crime. Theft attempts at Home Depot are on the rise compared with before the pandemic, Home Depot vice president of asset protection Scott Glenn told the Journal. Last year, the supermarket giant Kroger for the first time listed organized theft as a factor pressuring profit margins. Starbucks has had to close 16 U.S. stores this year because of drug-related incidents and other disruptions, the Journal reported.
Twelve Democrat-run cities hit record-high crime rates last year, the Washington Free Beacon reported. Voters have responded by turning on left-wing prosecutors who support lighter sentences, less policing, and the elimination of cash bail. President Joe Biden, meanwhile, has blamed the crime spike on "illegal gun trafficking" and has focused on gun control legislation.
"Organized retail crime is more than petty shoplifting, and the economic impact has become alarming," Retail Industry Leaders Association senior executive vice president of public affairs Michael Hanson said in 2021. "Professional thieves and organized criminal rings are building a business model by stealing and reselling products, increasingly online through marketplace platforms like Amazon or Facebook."
While Best Buy has always kept its high-valued items locked in the back, the number of locked items is higher in locations like Houston, where police data show that crime rates have risen.
Executives fear that more secured items will inconvenience customers and reduce sales. Some retailers are looking into "customer-friendly, higher-tech" security solutions, while others are giving employees more safety training.
Published under: Crime, Economy
WATCH – Mob of Juveniles Ransack Store in Philadelphia: ‘It’s a Shame’
Philadelphia law enforcement is investigating after a mob ransacked a Wawa store Saturday, causing residents alarm.
The incident happened that evening at the business on Roosevelt Boulevard where police said they saw 100 juveniles causing damage inside the building, ABC 6 reported Sunday.
Video footage showed the group walking through the aisles as several items flew through the air. In the distance, a woman was seen standing above everyone else and appeared to be twerking with her arms raised as those below her watched:
The store was left trashed, with items all over the floor, as the group gathered in the parking lot outside.
A resident told ABC 6 she feels hesitant when it comes to shopping at that location, saying, “Sometimes I’m afraid to stop, it’s a shame.”
Former employee Kaitlyn Holtzman also expressed her frustration, telling the outlet, “I was angry. I was very upset because being in the shoes of those employees, I know just how terrifying it is and how like frustrating it is having to clean up after that as well.”
Some Senate conservatives recently urged President Joe Biden (D) to combat the nation’s violent crime wave by deploying every available resource to cities across the country, Breitbart News reported.
In their letter, Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Bill Hagerty (R-TN) asked Biden to use those resources to fight the high rates of homicides and assaults, the outlet continued:
“Rampant crime is not inevitable — tough law enforcement can stop it,” Blackburn and Hagerty write. “But that requires a commitment to law enforcement.”
…
Blackburn and Hagerty urge Biden to open federal grant programs through the Justice Department that would go directly to law enforcement units fighting violent crime along with reviving former President Trump’s “Operation Legend” program, which deployed federal officers to cities to assist in violent crime arrests and investigations.
A recent report from the Philadelphia Inquirer indicated approximately eight people on average were shot every day in Democrat-controlled Philadelphia during the time period between Memorial Day and Labor Day this year.
In January, Breitbart News reported the city set an annual homicide record of 562 homicides last year.
Police: Teens Arrested in Connection to Fatal Stabbing of NYC Man
https://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2022/09/will-black-lives-matter-and-murder-shut.html
“Crime continues to be an overriding issue for New Yorkers. At least 90 percent of voters from every party, region and race say crime is a serious problem in the state, with at least 57 percent saying it’s a very serious problem, including 79 percent of Black voters who say it’s a very serious problem,” Siena College pollster Steven Greenberg said.
Florida Sheriff to Shotgun-Wielding Attempted Robbery Suspect: ‘You’re Not in Chicago Anymore’
A man wielding a shotgun and boasting that he was from Chicago while in a convenience store in Florida’s Escambia County was arrested, and the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office commented, “You’re not in Chicago anymore.”
The incident occurred on September 9, but surveillance video of the exchange between the man and the clerk was just released.
On September 27 WKRG reported that 32-year-old Rakim Stephen Tate entered the store with a shotgun “and started to look around.” The clerk was not at the cash register because he had gone back to get his own gun.
The clerk then returned to the register while pointing a gun at Tate.
Tate kept the shotgun pointed at the floor and said, “I don’t mean no harm, I’m just not from around here.”
The clerk responded by asking Tate what was he was carrying and Tate said, “I got a big a** motherf**king gun. I’m just not from around here. I’m from Chicago.”
FOX 10 noted that Tate asked the clerk what he was holding and the clerk said, “It’s a .45.”
The video shows Tate then turned and walked out of store.
Tate was later arrested in Santa Rosa County.
The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office indicates Tate “was charged with openly carrying a prohibited weapon and attempted robbery with a firearm. The Benelli shotgun used in this robbery attempt was also recovered.”
The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office commented on Tate’s apprehension, saying, “You’re not in Chicago anymore; you’re under arrest.”
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and a Turning Point USA Ambassador. AWR Hawkins holds a PhD in Military History, with a focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.
VIDEO – NYC Subway Attack Victim May Lose Sight in One Eye: ‘Do You Know How Scared I Am Now?’
The Queens woman allegedly beaten by a homeless ex-convict may lose sight in one eye, and lamented that New Yorkers have tried to avoid becoming targets of violence.
“Elizabeth Gomes, 33, was dragged across the Howard Beach-JFK Airport station last Tuesday morning before being repeatedly kicked and punched in the face by Waheed Foster, a 41-year-old vagrant on parole who previously beat his grandmother to death, according to police,” the New York Post reported Tuesday.
She was headed to Kennedy Airport where she works as a security guard and trying to avoid the suspect who was apparently talking about the devil and other random things, according to Gomes.
She told the Post that as a New Yorker her family heard about such incidents on a regular basis and tried to avoid being caught up in one themselves.
Gomes continued, “And it’s just so sad that even though we try to avoid it, these things still happen to us. I still can’t put that day together. I don’t even know.”
Video footage from ABC 7 showed Gomes’ injured eye and also highlighted the surveillance footage of what happened. The outlet reported her head throbbed and she had not slept properly for an entire week.
WARNING – GRAPHIC VIDEO:
During their interview with the Post, Gomes’s husband questioned why the suspect was allowed to roam the streets and said the family was searching for answers.
Authorities later charged Foster with assault and he was held without bail. In 1995, the suspect beat his 82-year-old foster grandmother to death when when they were fighting about money. He was 14 years old at the time, according to sources.
“In 2010, he also stabbed a woman in the face at a mental institution and has also been arrested for assaulting a woman with a screwdriver, criminal mischief, robbery and larceny, law-enforcement sources said,” the outlet reported, adding that he was on parole for the 2010 assault when the most recent incident took place.
Overall index crime in New York City jumped last month by 26 percent compared to the same time last year, the New York City Police Department (NYPD) reported September 6.
In February, a Morning Consult/Politico poll found approximately 75 percent of registered voters believed defunding the police was a “major” or “minor” reason behind the violent crime wave sweeping across President Joe Biden’s (D) America.
However, Democrats had largely pulled back from the “Defund the Police” movement because it did not bode well for them in the upcoming midterms.
The Breitbart News report added that bail reform executed by leftist (often George Soros-backed) prosecutors deeply hurt police officers’ morale as repeat offenders were freed to commit additional crimes.
“In New York, for example, 4-in-10 criminal suspects freed by ‘bail reform’ are rearrested, per state records,” the outlet said.
IT'S NOT 'COMPLICATED', IT'S BLACK!
White House Waffles on ‘Complicated’ Rising Crime Rates and Safety in Major Cities
The White House on Monday tried to downplay President Joe Biden’s responsibilities on crime, telling reporters that the problem is “complicated.”
Fox News reporter Peter Doocy questioned White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre about crime during the daily briefing, asking her whether Biden believes that America’s major cities are safe.
Referring to a recent New York Times article on rising crime, Jean-Pierre noted “the crime is complicated and multifaceted” and pivoted to promoting Biden’s spending bills.
Doocy noted murder rates in major cities were still stubbornly high, and that thefts and robberies in major cities increased by around 20 percent in the first half of 2022.
Jean-Pierre responded by blaming high crime rates on former President Donald Trump, noting that Biden “inherited a rising crime rate” when he took office.
When Doocy asked again whether Americans in major cities should feel safe, she replied, “It is not a yes or no question, it is very much a question of what has he done, that’s how we see the question.”
Doocy further pressed the questions on crime and safety, asking Jean-Pierre about her predecessor, former White House press secretary Jen Psaki, warning Democrats about their vulnerabilities on crime.
“In Pennsylvania, the Republicans have been spending millions of dollars on the air on crime ads against Fetterman because that’s where they see his vulnerability,” Psaki said in an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday adding that crime was “a huge issue” in Pennsylvania.
But Jean-Pierre dismissed the comments from her former boss, accusing Doocy of mischaracterizing the comments.
“I don’t agree with your characterization of what she actually said,” she replied.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki speaks during a press briefing on January 29, 2021, in the Brady Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, DC. (NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP via Getty Images)
Texas Judge Lowers Capital Murder Bond to $9K — Suspect Released for $900
HOUSTON, Texas — A Texas district court judge reduced the bond for a man charged with Capital Murder to $9,000. The suspect is out of jail after paying a $900 fee to the bondsman, according to Houston Crime Stoppers.
180th Criminal District Court Judge DaSean Jones lowered the bond for accused murderer Eric Todd Semien from $50,000 to $9,000, Fox 26 Houston’s Randy Wallace reported. Seiman’s bond had been reduced two other times and in both cases, the bonds were revoked for breaking bond conditions.
Semien is accused of murdering Javier Moreno and Rober Pantoja in May 2016. Three others are charged in connection with the murders.
“They killed two people, and they also put a gun to a young mother with a 2-month-old, they put a gun to her head as well,” Houston Crime Stoppers Andy Kahn told Fox 26.
In 2017, Semien walked out of jail after posting a $150,000 bond but ended up back in jail four months later after violating the conditions of his bond, Wallace reported.
“They (the court) reinstate the bond, but they lower the bond to $50,000,” Kahan explained. “Normally when you get your bond revoked, they raise the amount. But this one went dramatically down.”
Semien ended back up in jail again after being convicted for evading arrest. That court sentenced him to 60 days in county jail.
Judge Jones then lowered his bond yet again. This time to $9,000.
“I have never in my life seen a bond that low for capital murder,” Kahn stated. “I’ve never seen a bond that low for murder.”
Houston businessman, attorney, and columnist Bill King said he has never seen anything like this.
“Capital murder is one of the clear exceptions in Texas law that you can completely deny bond,” King stated. “A $9,000 bond, you pay the bondsman $900. So for $900 he was able to get out and is roaming around the city of Houston right now.”
Judge DaSean Jones, a Democrat, took the bench of the 180th Criminal District Court in January 2019. He is currently on the November general election ballot in Harris County. Jones faces Republican challenger Tami Pierce. Jones was not opposed in the 2022 Democrat Primary election in March.
Fox 26 sent a news crew to Semien’s apartment in northwest Harris County to try and get a comment.
“Judging by the eviction notice on the door and all the stuff outside, Eric Semien is long gone,” Wallace reported.
Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior news contributor for the Breitbart Texas-Border team. He is an original member of the Breitbart Texas team. Price is a regular panelist on Fox 26 Houston’s What’s Your Point? Sunday-morning talk show. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX and Face
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