It’s said that a smart man learns from his mistakes, but a wise man learns from the mistakes of others.
Massachusetts has had ample opportunities to learn how not to handle crime from bellwether blue states, unfortunately, the lessons were lost, with costly results.
As the Herald reported, Retailers Association of Massachusetts President Jon Hurst estimated that local businesses are losing about $2 billion a year to “organized criminal theft activity.”
“A number of companies have reported the effect of this organized criminal theft activity on their bottom line,” Hurst added. “We’ve certainly seen more of this organized stealing, and this smash-and-grab.
“Stores have actually closed,” he said. “You can only keep a store open for so long when you’re losing money on it.”
The bigger picture is worse: a National Retail Federation survey last month showed retail loss is nearly a $100 billion problem around the country.
“Criminal gangs prey on stores, going from New York City up the coast to Boston and to Portland,” Hurst said.
“It happens all the time where stores are targeted,” he added. “It isn’t just the big chains; they also hit mom-and-pop stores, stealing jewelry, watches, designer items.”
Big box stores such as Walmart, Target and Walgreens have lost millions to theft, with store closings in cities from San Francisco to Chicago following suit. Los Angeles retailers have suffered through smash-and-grab robberies of luxury stores in broad daylight.
Pick a city or state with unabated retail theft, and you’ll find “store closing” signs going up.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams noted that rampant shoplifting is also costing retail workers their jobs, according to the New York Post. And he did not mince words when it came to justice for these crimes.
“So, what we can’t do is allow repeat offenders to make a mockery of our criminal justice system — and repeatedly!” he said.
New York is lucky, Adams is taking a stand for retailers, throwing his weight behind Gov. Kathy Hochul’s plan to remove a provision of the state’s controversial 2019 bail reform law that requires judges to impose the “least restrictive” means of ensuring that defendants return to court.
That’s the kind of tag-team we need in Massachusetts.
“Politicians need to start taking it seriously, and everybody needs to work together,” said Hurst. “The lawmakers, the police, and the prosecutors have to work on this. They have to prosecute these bad actors who are doing this for a living, and put them behind bars.”
In 2018, the state Legislature in a bill increased the felony threshold for larceny from $250 to $1,200.
“That was a big mistake,” Hurst said. “That created low-risk, high-return criminal activity. If the individuals keep their stealing efforts per crime per store down below $1,200, then it’s a misdemeanor and DAs won’t even prosecute that misdemeanor, which is part of the problem.”
We’ve seen the impact of organized retail theft around the country, and in our own state. We want stores, and jobs, to stay here, and not have to pull up stakes because they’re ripe pickings for thieves.
For Massachusetts leaders not to learn from these mistakes would be criminal.
