These days, people who have returned to the office may be having a different kind of water-cooler conversation. In the past, what was on TV the night before or game scores may have been the hot topic, but now eavesdroppers may hear them chatting about how utterly frustrating buying a tube of toothpaste at the pharmacy has become.
When drug stores are forced to put much of their merchandise behind lock and key because of rampant and brazen shoplifting, one may wonder if all sense of morality and decency has gone out the window.
The rampant disregard for law and order is being carried out more and more by career offenders with no repercussions. They are back on the street faster than it takes them to commit their crimes. Apparently, crime does pay with the current bail reform laws: If you’re caught doing the crime, you’ll do no time.
The commandments of thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not kill, or honor your father and mother appear to have fallen on deaf ears.
Is this another result of our society choosing to turn its back on our creator? Are we becoming an every-man-for-himself society?
People should know intrinsically that there is a right and there is a wrong, yet it seems to be a foreign concept to so many these days. Or, they are just choosing to ignore it.
As New York City begins 2023, crime is still soaring over 2022 levels. Robberies and burglaries rose 9.4% and 5.5%, respectively, for an overall 3.4% increase in 2023 year-to-date major crimes, according to NYPD statistics.
A major factor behind these rising numbers has to be laid at the feet of leaders across the country who support bail reform laws that keep these criminals on the streets. New York’s disastrous 2019 bail reform law generally prohibits judges from setting bail in cases involving nonviolent felonies and misdemeanors such as shoplifting.
Recidivism has been cited by many law enforcement officials for the soaring crime statistics.
“We have about 1,600 people in this city that are recidivists,” New York Mayor Eric Adams said last month. “They are dangerous, they are continually committing crimes … and we must zero in on them to send the right message that our criminal justice system is going to handle them accordingly.”
According to an NYPD official’s statement last month, 327 thieves accounted for 30% of the Big Apple’s 22,000 shoplifting arrests last year.
Another statistic shows these alleged recidivists have been arrested more than 6,600 times — an average of more than 20 times each. Since none of these offenders were held for their crimes and were released with no bail, the court system allowed them to continue their crime wave.
The quality of life in many large cities is suffering greatly, with many areas of those cities seeing local pharmacies and food stores closing because of rampant shoplifting.
What are the ramifications for people when they now have to travel longer distances to get the medical prescriptions they need on a daily basis? How productive can your day be if you need the one clerk in the store to unlock most of the products you need?
If elected officials are waiting for the pendulum to magically swing back where people adhere to moral standards, abide by the laws of the land, and value life, they may be twiddling their thumbs for a very long time.
