The blue states are enjoying the fruits of their ideology, and they're not enjoying it much.
New York unleashed criminals upon the citizenry through "decarceration" reforms.
Now citizens are having their stores picked clean by the organized looters that make up the Democrat Party -- the Democrat Party is nothing but organized looting, after all -- and Hochul feels the need to pretend to do something about that with the 2024 elections on the horizon.
Gov. Kathy Hochul declared war against shoplifting on Tuesday, saying retail thievery in New York has spiraled out of control -- with many products in stores under lock and key.
Hochul unveiled a multi-pronged plan to tackle the shoplifting scourge, including boosting penalties for offenders who assault retail workers.
"I say, 'No More!' The chaos must stop!," she said during her 2024 State of the State address delivered in Albany.
Well you used to throw thieves in jail. That system worked pretty well. You could consider going back to it.
The governor's plan would create a new category of crime to prosecute those who sell stolen goods online and set up a new "smash and grab unit" in the New York State Police Department to prosecute theft rings.
Oh, nevermind, silly me thinking you actually wanted to address the problem. How foolish of me. You just want to appear to be doing something about it. A new block in the organizational flow chart. Whew. Yes, that will trick some of the voters, without the racist step of actually locking up criminals aka the Democrat Party base.
Hochul also vowed to provide dedicated funding to district attorneys to prosecute property crime, primarily retail theft.
Oh more funding for government! So much innovative thinking! Wow, this really isn't Your Granddad's Democrat Party!
She noted that grand larceny crimes were up double digits compared to figures before the 2020 coronavirus pandemic.
Don't forget "after the George Floyd riots and progressive demands to Decriminalize Crime."
"Across our nation and state retail theft has surged, creating fear among the customers and workers. Thieves brazenly tear items off the shelves and menace employees," Hochul said.
"Owners go broke replacing broken windows and stolen goods, driving many out of business. These attacks are .... a breakdown of the social order."
...
Conspicuously absent from her plan, however, was any talk of specifically imposing tougher penalties for serial shoplifters.
LOL, of course not. Hardened career criminals are the Democrat Party base.
California is similarly looking for ways to reduce crime without taking the painful step of actually throwing Democrat criminals in prison.
John Sexton:
Newsom is laying out his priorities at a politically fraught moment for Democrats navigating rising concerns about public safety, exacerbated by highly visible incidents of people making off with merchandise. Elected officials who have backed lighter sentencing in an effort to reduce mass incarceration are looking for ways to address crime without abandoning a yearslong movement away from lengthy prison terms.
Those dynamics have amplified calls to roll back Prop 47, a 2014 ballot measure that reduced drug and property crimes to misdemeanors and drew support from a cross-section of California Democrats, including Newsom. But the Democratic governor is resisting calls to revisit the initiative, instead embracing a mix of new penalties and bills that solidify existing law.
Newsom is asking lawmakers to create new categories of crimes targeting "professional" offenders who have stolen property or burglarized vehicles with the intent to resell them and to enhance penalties for people who resell large amounts of stolen goods. He also wants to clarify existing powers to arrest retail thieves and aggregate separate offenses, making permanent a law allowing charges for organized retail crime.
In other words, he wants to continue doing nothing about the actual thieves, and hopes that if he just imprisons a few of the guys buying the stolen merchadise from the thieves, somehow that will fix everything.
Um, no. No matter who the actual thieves sell to, whether it's an organized gang or to people on the street, they're still making money off this risk-free crime.
And Newsom and the Democrats will continue protecting them and guaranteeing them lifetime employment as state-sanctioned bandits and raiders.
Hey Newsom -- what will your "reforms" do to stop daily thieves who pick stores clean and then sell the stolen merchandise on the sidewalk in front of their victims' store?
And let's not even get into the violent crimes, the murders, the rapes, the carjackings:
As always, the leftwing Marxist state enforcers are eager to investigate and prosecute law-abiding citizens who do their fucking jobs for them: