WEBVTT - The Rise of Organized Retail Crime Propaganda 0:00:01.680 --> 0:00:07.480 Cool zone media picture. 0:00:07.520 --> 0:00:09.600 Going to the grocery store a few years from now. 0:00:09.800 --> 0:00:12.640 You push your car, grab your staples, scan and head 0:00:12.680 --> 0:00:15.680 out the door, not much to it, but unlocking your car, 0:00:15.760 --> 0:00:18.560 you hear a faint buzzing sound. Looking around, you don't 0:00:18.600 --> 0:00:21.599 see anything yet it gets louder. Then you look up. 0:00:22.000 --> 0:00:24.119 A drone shoots out toward the street, where you spot 0:00:24.160 --> 0:00:26.799 a man running down the sidewalk with a full backpack. 0:00:27.160 --> 0:00:29.760 They both slip out a view behind some overgrown hedges. 0:00:30.160 --> 0:00:32.919 Then come the sirens. As you drive away, you see 0:00:33.040 --> 0:00:36.040 multiple cops on top of a man, one pulling objects 0:00:36.040 --> 0:00:39.680 out of his backpack. Tags still dangling off a shoplifter. 0:00:40.640 --> 0:00:43.080 Welcome to it could happen here. I'm Kevin Foster, an 0:00:43.080 --> 0:00:45.839 independent journalist and your host for this two part series 0:00:45.880 --> 0:00:49.600 on retail crime, ice, and some deeply concerning policy making 0:00:49.640 --> 0:00:53.200 its way through Congress. In this image of a shoplifter, 0:00:53.440 --> 0:00:55.840 it isn't really from the future. In late June of 0:00:55.880 --> 0:00:58.800 this year, police in Redmond, Washington, used the drone to 0:00:58.880 --> 0:01:01.560 track down an alleged shoplifter who had left a store. 0:01:01.920 --> 0:01:04.200 If you live in a major city, you've probably already 0:01:04.200 --> 0:01:07.839 witnessed the bolstering of security in retail stores, the ungodly 0:01:07.920 --> 0:01:11.360 number of items locked up behind glass, security guards, block 0:01:11.400 --> 0:01:14.200 cameras in the parking lot. This is an industry in 0:01:14.240 --> 0:01:17.880 its own right, commonly referred to as loss prevention, and 0:01:17.959 --> 0:01:22.200 it's surged after the pandemic. The National Retail Federation or 0:01:22.319 --> 0:01:25.120 NRF for short, who I'll be talking a lot about today, 0:01:25.319 --> 0:01:28.520 puts on a yearly conference known as NRF Protect where 0:01:28.560 --> 0:01:31.840 they bring together all the loss prevention slash asset protection 0:01:31.920 --> 0:01:35.640 bigwigs to show off new tech and security strategies. Here's 0:01:35.640 --> 0:01:38.600 the clip of a senior product manager for Amazon at 0:01:38.640 --> 0:01:41.480 the twenty twenty six event, part in the awful corporate 0:01:41.480 --> 0:01:42.280 background music. 0:01:42.720 --> 0:01:44.440 Gotta say, the most unique thing that I saw in 0:01:44.480 --> 0:01:46.040 the expo hall was the robot. 0:01:46.280 --> 0:01:48.520 Seen it on TV, and this was the first time 0:01:48.560 --> 0:01:51.040 I saw it in personal The Oh, he's exactly real. 0:01:52.120 --> 0:01:55.120 To paint you a picture. The video features retail lobbyists, 0:01:55.200 --> 0:01:59.240 tech giants, and police investigators. They show off drones, cameras, 0:01:59.320 --> 0:02:02.440 people aiming uns, others shooting some type of paintballs at 0:02:02.480 --> 0:02:06.040 hanging targets, and of course multiple robots, including one that 0:02:06.080 --> 0:02:09.240 looks like a mini tank called Romeo, but spelled like 0:02:09.400 --> 0:02:13.600 roaming around. Don't worry though this quote. Physical AI on 0:02:13.720 --> 0:02:16.280 patrol can only go ten miles per hour, and it 0:02:16.320 --> 0:02:19.640 has a big led smile across the front. If you 0:02:19.680 --> 0:02:22.560 haven't got the drift. NRF protect is like a National 0:02:22.639 --> 0:02:26.320 Rifle Association convention, but for people obsessed with supply chains 0:02:26.320 --> 0:02:30.040 and storefront scanners. While our little tank Romeo likely invokes 0:02:30.080 --> 0:02:33.320 the strongest image of a sci fi dystopia, it's probably 0:02:33.320 --> 0:02:36.280 the least of our worries. An October twenty twenty four 0:02:36.360 --> 0:02:39.720 article in Loss Prevention Magazine states that multiple top ten 0:02:39.800 --> 0:02:44.080 retailers rely on facial recognition for loss prevention, many working 0:02:44.120 --> 0:02:47.640 with Face First, a company that provides AI facial recognition 0:02:47.720 --> 0:02:51.440 tech with the goal of preventing retail crime. In July 0:02:51.480 --> 0:02:54.240 of this year, Mission Local reported on grocery outlets in 0:02:54.280 --> 0:02:57.880 the Bay Area using facial recognition tech from the AI company. 0:02:58.000 --> 0:03:01.839 Safer worried about your privacy, well, say First President says 0:03:01.880 --> 0:03:04.560 that your photo is immediately deleted if it doesn't match 0:03:04.600 --> 0:03:08.880 a watch list of shoplifters. However, stores can manually create 0:03:08.919 --> 0:03:11.960 their own watch list and pool data with other retailers. 0:03:12.280 --> 0:03:16.720 Surely nothing could go wrong there. Even excluding AI, retail 0:03:16.800 --> 0:03:20.840 stores have become a massive surveillance black box. Your photo 0:03:20.919 --> 0:03:23.280 is taken as you go in and out. Video cameras 0:03:23.280 --> 0:03:25.359 are at checkout. They know the time you come in, 0:03:25.480 --> 0:03:27.880 they know what days you shop, what you're buying, they 0:03:27.919 --> 0:03:31.520 know who you are. Retailers will justify this invasion of 0:03:31.560 --> 0:03:35.000 our privacy through AI robots and large scale data collection 0:03:35.160 --> 0:03:39.560 as necessary for marketing and to protect their capital and employees. Still, 0:03:39.600 --> 0:03:41.920 I wouldn't blame you for worrying about where that data 0:03:41.960 --> 0:03:45.640 is going. After all, if police investigators are already attending 0:03:45.800 --> 0:03:49.160 NRF conventions and the retailers are happy to work with them, 0:03:49.440 --> 0:03:53.080 why not other law enforcement? Why not ICE? As it 0:03:53.120 --> 0:03:56.240 turns out, Congress is having similar thoughts. The House of 0:03:56.280 --> 0:03:59.160 Representatives just pushed a bill forward that could give ICE 0:03:59.240 --> 0:04:03.200 access to this massive surveillance dragnet, and there's a bipartisan 0:04:03.200 --> 0:04:05.760 effort in the Senate to include it any National Defense 0:04:05.760 --> 0:04:09.360 Authorization Act. Why would they do this? To answer that question, 0:04:09.480 --> 0:04:12.200 we need to look at a recently hyped phenomenon known 0:04:12.240 --> 0:04:15.880 as organized retail crime. You may have heard the term 0:04:16.000 --> 0:04:18.839 organized retail crime in the past few years, probably on 0:04:18.880 --> 0:04:21.480 the news or from a politician hinting at a hidden 0:04:21.520 --> 0:04:24.960 crisis in our stores. A basic Google Trends report shows 0:04:25.080 --> 0:04:27.040 use of the term is up two hundred percent in 0:04:27.080 --> 0:04:30.799 the past five years versus the five years before. Organized 0:04:30.839 --> 0:04:34.679 retail crime, sometimes referred to as just ORC, is defined 0:04:34.680 --> 0:04:37.560 by the FBI as the large scale theft of retail 0:04:37.640 --> 0:04:40.760 merchandise with the intent to resell the stolen items for 0:04:40.880 --> 0:04:44.400 financial gain. If you've seen the movie I Love Boosters, 0:04:44.480 --> 0:04:47.880 that's a good satirical example, although the definition is actually 0:04:47.960 --> 0:04:51.080 quite vague, which can cause a lot of problems. The 0:04:51.120 --> 0:04:54.640 outlet Retail Dive says the definition is quote neither legal 0:04:54.760 --> 0:04:58.000 nor precise, contributing to uneven reporting on the part of 0:04:58.040 --> 0:05:01.800 store workers, loss prevention staff, and police, which results in 0:05:01.839 --> 0:05:04.159 it often being lumped in with more ban all forms 0:05:04.160 --> 0:05:07.360 of theft such as shoplifting, and this begs the question 0:05:07.800 --> 0:05:11.440 is organized retail crime actually a thing? It is, but 0:05:11.560 --> 0:05:15.039 the threat to businesses, prices, and even national security have 0:05:15.279 --> 0:05:18.400 largely been blown out of proportion. To get a sense 0:05:18.440 --> 0:05:21.680 of those proportions, here's Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley at a 0:05:21.720 --> 0:05:25.359 Senate hearing on organized retail theft. He's the chief sponsor 0:05:25.400 --> 0:05:28.200 of the bill I mentioned earlier, known as the Combating 0:05:28.320 --> 0:05:31.400 Organized Retail Crime Act or CORKA for short. 0:05:32.040 --> 0:05:40.039 The reality is some of the worst criminal organizations, including cartels, terrorists, 0:05:40.080 --> 0:05:45.000 and human traffickers, use this type of crime, funding their 0:05:45.040 --> 0:05:49.920 misdeeds or launder ill gotten proceeds. 0:05:51.000 --> 0:05:53.320 Side note, After hearing how this guy talks, I had 0:05:53.320 --> 0:05:56.440 to look up how old he is. He's ninety two 0:05:56.680 --> 0:05:59.479 fucking years old. This old bat that was born in 0:05:59.520 --> 0:06:03.320 the Great Depression is probably being lobbied till his heart fails. 0:06:03.760 --> 0:06:05.839 And we're going to get into the issues with painting 0:06:05.880 --> 0:06:09.200 this all as a national security crisis later. But speaking 0:06:09.279 --> 0:06:12.880 of lobbying, the notoriety of organized retail crime is due 0:06:12.960 --> 0:06:16.400 in no small part to the National Retail Federation, the 0:06:16.440 --> 0:06:19.880 host of the aforementioned Loss Prevention conference and the largest 0:06:19.920 --> 0:06:23.159 retail lobbying group in the nation. The NRF has spent 0:06:23.200 --> 0:06:26.480 about fifty million dollars on lobbying since just twenty twenty, 0:06:26.520 --> 0:06:29.719 according to Open Secrets, and they've been the driving force 0:06:29.760 --> 0:06:33.159 behind the Combating Organized Retail Crime Act, which passed the 0:06:33.160 --> 0:06:37.440 House of Representatives on May twelfth with bipartisan support including 0:06:37.480 --> 0:06:40.280 one hundred and forty four Democrats and it may well 0:06:40.320 --> 0:06:43.680 get lumped in with our defense spending this year. CORKA 0:06:43.720 --> 0:06:46.440 has a slew of problems, but the general picture is 0:06:46.480 --> 0:06:49.720 a prosecution and police cracked down around this idea of 0:06:49.880 --> 0:06:53.560 organized crime in the retail theft world. Despite what the 0:06:53.680 --> 0:06:56.240 NRF would like you to believe, there doesn't appear to 0:06:56.240 --> 0:06:59.240 be an organized retail theft crisis in the US, or 0:06:59.240 --> 0:07:02.360 really even a show uplifting crisis in general. With the 0:07:02.400 --> 0:07:06.680 exception of some large cities, particularly New York City, shoplifting 0:07:06.720 --> 0:07:09.680 in twenty twenty three was actually lower than pre pandemic 0:07:09.760 --> 0:07:13.559 levels according to the Council on Criminal Justice. In twenty 0:07:13.600 --> 0:07:16.640 twenty two, the Council found retail shrink, the term for 0:07:16.760 --> 0:07:20.640 lost merchandise from theft or operational errors, was about one 0:07:20.680 --> 0:07:24.160 point six percent, the same as in twenty nineteen according 0:07:24.200 --> 0:07:27.520 to the nrf's own data. Before we get too deep, 0:07:27.560 --> 0:07:30.200 I think it's worth noting measures of shrink are also 0:07:30.280 --> 0:07:33.840 somewhat imprecise, and a lot of the accessible data surrounding 0:07:33.880 --> 0:07:37.080 all of this comes directly from the retail lobby, who 0:07:37.200 --> 0:07:40.120 have an incentive to make problems look worse to justify 0:07:40.200 --> 0:07:45.280 security policing, price increases and cutting corners in inventory management. 0:07:45.520 --> 0:07:49.160 As you'll see, they have some credibility issues as well. 0:07:49.320 --> 0:07:51.480 You know who else may or may not have credibility 0:07:51.560 --> 0:08:05.840 issues the products and services that support this podcast, and 0:08:05.880 --> 0:08:09.760 we're back. In October of twenty twenty three, the NRF 0:08:09.840 --> 0:08:13.280 claimed to Congress that organized retail crime accounted for nearly 0:08:13.400 --> 0:08:16.280 half of the ninety four point five billion dollars in 0:08:16.360 --> 0:08:20.560 SHRINK in twenty twenty one. In reality, Retail Dive found 0:08:20.600 --> 0:08:23.880 that organized theft accounted for about five percent of SHRINK, 0:08:24.000 --> 0:08:27.520 meaning the NRF was off by a literal order of magnitude. 0:08:28.360 --> 0:08:31.000 How did they arrive at such a conclusion, Well, they 0:08:31.080 --> 0:08:34.959 essentially just took some guy's word for it, specifically Ben Dugan, 0:08:35.080 --> 0:08:38.800 the former president of the Coalition of Law Enforcement in Retail, 0:08:39.120 --> 0:08:43.000 a nonprofit whose website currently features a giant, low resolution 0:08:43.160 --> 0:08:48.400 banner saying Vegas Baby, the nation's largest arc investigative conference. 0:08:48.960 --> 0:08:52.640 An NRF spokesperson specifically said their fifty percent claim was 0:08:52.679 --> 0:08:57.080 an inference made by an analyst based on Dugan's Congressional testimony, 0:08:57.520 --> 0:09:01.640 not actual statistics or data. The NRF retracted the claim 0:09:01.640 --> 0:09:04.680 about two months later, but the damage was already done. 0:09:04.880 --> 0:09:08.240 According to the Vera Institute, a nonprofit advocacy group and 0:09:08.320 --> 0:09:12.240 think tank focused on criminal justice reform. The NRF leveraged 0:09:12.240 --> 0:09:15.640 its inaccurate data point in a press release, testified to 0:09:15.720 --> 0:09:18.400 it in congressional hearings, and even spoke about it at 0:09:18.400 --> 0:09:22.360 a press conference with Senator Grassley. The figure, of course, 0:09:22.400 --> 0:09:26.040 stirred panic across the country, fueled by viral social media 0:09:26.120 --> 0:09:30.080 videos showing high profile thefts and retail companies pushing the 0:09:30.120 --> 0:09:34.080 narrative that they are under attack. In some cases, retailers 0:09:34.120 --> 0:09:37.280 either closed or threatened to close stores. For example, in 0:09:37.360 --> 0:09:41.560 San Francisco in twenty twenty one, Walgreens blamed organized retail 0:09:41.600 --> 0:09:45.600 crime for the anticipated closure of five locations. The closures 0:09:45.640 --> 0:09:48.640 made it into the national spotlight, but in reality, the 0:09:48.720 --> 0:09:52.480 locations faced less than two reported shoplifting incidents per month 0:09:52.679 --> 0:09:56.160 on average over the previous five years. Target had a 0:09:56.160 --> 0:10:00.000 similar story in New York, Seattle, and San Francisco blamed 0:10:00.200 --> 0:10:03.880 retail theft for store closures when nearby locations actually had 0:10:03.960 --> 0:10:08.440 higher incidences of shoplifting. What actually happened to these stores? 0:10:08.760 --> 0:10:11.480 My best guess is the shift to online shopping during 0:10:11.520 --> 0:10:14.000 the pandemic drove down the sales of many brick and 0:10:14.040 --> 0:10:17.439 mortar locations, but rather than project something that could lower 0:10:17.480 --> 0:10:21.560 their stock valuation, retailers blamed it on organized theft. Many 0:10:21.600 --> 0:10:25.400 took up controversial practices such as locking up merchandise, which 0:10:25.440 --> 0:10:30.560 decreased sales and customers satisfaction. Even Walgreen's chief financial officer, 0:10:30.679 --> 0:10:33.720 James Cahoe would later say they quote cried too much 0:10:33.880 --> 0:10:38.080 unquote about shoplifting when the issue was really overblown. But 0:10:38.160 --> 0:10:40.959 even with a lack of evidence, the NRF and Senator 0:10:41.000 --> 0:10:44.280 Grassley refused to back down from their messaging and legislation, 0:10:44.720 --> 0:10:47.640 and in a lot of ways it worked. Let me 0:10:47.640 --> 0:10:49.800 play you a clip of Gavin Newsom at a press 0:10:49.840 --> 0:10:53.840 conference in twenty twenty four signing legislation intended to combat 0:10:54.000 --> 0:10:57.400 organize retail crime. Here he's surrounded by a number of 0:10:57.440 --> 0:11:02.520 elected officials, law enforcement leaders, and report presentatives of retail associations. 0:11:02.559 --> 0:11:07.240 The issue of organized retail theft, the issue of serial theft, 0:11:07.720 --> 0:11:10.760 the issue that is front and center in the consciousness 0:11:10.760 --> 0:11:14.199 of so many Californians. You see it online social media, 0:11:14.320 --> 0:11:17.160 you see it on the nightly news. This is the 0:11:17.160 --> 0:11:21.599 real deal. Grocers and the retailers understand. 0:11:21.080 --> 0:11:25.160 That after the NRF retracted its inflated claim. Nearly a 0:11:25.240 --> 0:11:28.680 year prior, organized retail crime was still making headlines and 0:11:28.760 --> 0:11:32.959 considered a very serious issue, serious enough that Newsome included 0:11:33.040 --> 0:11:36.040 three hundred and seventy four million dollars in his twenty 0:11:36.080 --> 0:11:40.520 twenty four budget proposal to combat retail theft. And that bill, 0:11:40.600 --> 0:11:43.000 which he happened to sign atop a table covered in 0:11:43.080 --> 0:11:47.320 orange home depot buckets, it stiffened both enforcement and penalties 0:11:47.320 --> 0:11:50.760 for retail crime. It allowed for the aggregation of theft 0:11:50.880 --> 0:11:54.600 value from different shoplifting incidents, meaning the value of items 0:11:54.600 --> 0:11:57.080 can be added up to turn what would be minor 0:11:57.160 --> 0:12:00.680 charges into grand theft. It also allow WOWS police to 0:12:00.760 --> 0:12:04.440 arrest shoplifters solely based on a witness's sworn statement or 0:12:04.559 --> 0:12:08.160 video footage of a crime. Again, surely nothing could go 0:12:08.240 --> 0:12:11.840 wrong with that, but the crackdown didn't stop there. In 0:12:11.880 --> 0:12:16.040 the twenty twenty four general election, California voters overwhelmingly approved 0:12:16.120 --> 0:12:19.120 Prop thirty six, which made key changes to how thefts 0:12:19.160 --> 0:12:22.719 are prosecuted. To Newsom's credit, he did not support the proposition. 0:12:23.679 --> 0:12:26.400 Prior to Prop thirty six, thefts of items worth less 0:12:26.440 --> 0:12:29.720 than nine hundred and fifty dollars were considered misdemeanors, but 0:12:29.840 --> 0:12:32.920 now if the individual has two or more past convictions 0:12:32.920 --> 0:12:36.040 for certain theft crimes such as shoplifting, it could be 0:12:36.080 --> 0:12:38.920 considered a felony with a sentence of up to three 0:12:39.000 --> 0:12:42.920 years in jail or prison. San Diego's District Attorney Summer 0:12:42.960 --> 0:12:46.240 Stephen really hyped up Prop thirty six as an advancement 0:12:46.280 --> 0:12:49.679 in fighting organized retail crime. She actually went on the 0:12:49.800 --> 0:12:53.559 nrf's podcast talk about this. Yes, they have a podcast. 0:12:53.600 --> 0:12:57.320 It's called Retail Gets Real. It's bad, don't check it out. 0:12:57.600 --> 0:12:59.640 But here she is with the host having a little 0:12:59.679 --> 0:13:01.360 laugh about locking people up. 0:13:01.920 --> 0:13:04.920 So we used to have people with like twenty four 0:13:05.000 --> 0:13:09.640 theft cases. They're all misdemeanors. Some thieves bring a calculator 0:13:09.760 --> 0:13:13.600 and they're just under nine hundred and fifty dollars. Literally, 0:13:13.840 --> 0:13:15.640 it's madness. 0:13:15.120 --> 0:13:16.600 Right, set a gun or a calculator. 0:13:16.640 --> 0:13:17.160 I'm not sure what. 0:13:19.320 --> 0:13:22.480 Yeah, let's joke about mistaking someone for being armed in 0:13:22.520 --> 0:13:26.359 a store. It's not like that's ever gone poorly before anyways. 0:13:26.400 --> 0:13:29.320 What's missing from the analysis here is how these laws 0:13:29.360 --> 0:13:33.839 harm people who aren't necessarily the intended target. A particularly 0:13:33.880 --> 0:13:36.800 striking example of how this could really fuck someone's life 0:13:36.880 --> 0:13:41.120 up comes from Pennsylvania. In twenty twenty one, Joseph Sobuleuski 0:13:41.200 --> 0:13:45.040 reportedly misunderstood a discount at an Exxon gas station and 0:13:45.200 --> 0:13:48.960 accidentally underpaid forty three cents for a bottle of mountain dew. 0:13:49.559 --> 0:13:52.840 Sobuluski had two theft charges in the past ten years, 0:13:53.120 --> 0:13:55.360 one for a tank of gas and another for a 0:13:55.360 --> 0:13:58.720 pair of shoes. After the mountain dew incident, state police 0:13:58.800 --> 0:14:01.480 arrested him on a fell charge because of a three 0:14:01.559 --> 0:14:05.280 strikes law in Pennsylvania similar to what could happen with Prop. 0:14:05.320 --> 0:14:09.319 Thirty six. A judge ordered Sobeluski beheld on a fifty 0:14:09.440 --> 0:14:12.800 thousand dollars cash only bond, and he faced up to 0:14:12.880 --> 0:14:17.560 seven years in prison. Fortunately, his public defender successfully argued 0:14:17.559 --> 0:14:21.440 for his release after seven days, and prosecutors ultimately dismissed 0:14:21.440 --> 0:14:23.680 the charge. But it's easy to see how this could 0:14:23.720 --> 0:14:28.280 go wrong for another individual, particularly minorities, who faced disproportionate 0:14:28.320 --> 0:14:32.520 punishment in our legal system. This style of legislation, intended 0:14:32.520 --> 0:14:36.240 to target retail crimes, spread like wildfire across the country. 0:14:36.520 --> 0:14:39.120 According to the text of the twenty twenty five Combating 0:14:39.280 --> 0:14:42.320 Organized Retail Crime Act. More than thirty state laws have 0:14:42.360 --> 0:14:45.720 been enacted since twenty twenty two to address organized theft. 0:14:46.160 --> 0:14:50.280 Common theme stricter penalties and policing. Here's how New York 0:14:50.320 --> 0:14:53.120 Governor Kathy Hokel put it in her twenty twenty four 0:14:53.280 --> 0:14:54.640 State of the State address. 0:14:55.240 --> 0:14:59.640 Let's back our businesses, back our businesses and the workers 0:14:59.640 --> 0:15:03.480 with the full force of the law, and punish those 0:15:03.560 --> 0:15:05.920 who think they can break the rules with impunity. 0:15:06.640 --> 0:15:10.080 After all, policing and aggressive enforcement are the American way 0:15:10.120 --> 0:15:12.680 to deal with crime rather than I don't know addressing 0:15:12.760 --> 0:15:17.320 the root causes, notably poverty and inequality. The pervasive tough 0:15:17.360 --> 0:15:20.640 on crime mentality doesn't have much evidence backing it up, 0:15:20.760 --> 0:15:23.880 but of course there is a wealth of research indicating flaws. 0:15:24.120 --> 0:15:27.600 For one, enforcement is heavily racialized, with black and brown 0:15:27.600 --> 0:15:31.800 people facing retail theft charges at significantly higher rates than whites. 0:15:32.240 --> 0:15:35.800 The Very Institute also highlights how increasing sentences as a 0:15:35.840 --> 0:15:39.960 deterrent doesn't actually work. A twenty eighteen article from Pew 0:15:40.000 --> 0:15:43.320 Research says states can safely raise their value threshold for 0:15:43.360 --> 0:15:46.600 what counts as a felony theft without risking more crime. 0:15:46.960 --> 0:15:49.960 The thirty states that did so between twenty and twenty 0:15:50.000 --> 0:15:54.040 twelve saw no meaningful increase in property crime or larceny rates. 0:15:54.560 --> 0:15:57.200 In South Carolina, Pew found that when they doubled the 0:15:57.200 --> 0:16:01.160 felony threshold from one thousand dollars to two dollars twenty ten, 0:16:01.520 --> 0:16:04.680 property crime continued to fall by fifteen percent in the 0:16:04.720 --> 0:16:07.760 next three years. Pew also found that the value of 0:16:07.800 --> 0:16:11.320 stolen goods remained steady, and when adjusted for inflation, the 0:16:11.400 --> 0:16:15.640 median value actually decreased. In essence, the state level push 0:16:15.680 --> 0:16:18.720 for these three strikes, shoplifting laws and the aggregation of 0:16:18.760 --> 0:16:23.440 theft value won't meaningfully decrease crime. Rather, it will result 0:16:23.440 --> 0:16:27.480 in more people, particularly minorities, being locked up for longer 0:16:27.560 --> 0:16:31.160 sentences than being saddled with felony convictions that hurt their 0:16:31.200 --> 0:16:35.120 ability to get a job and obtain housing, ultimately increasing 0:16:35.160 --> 0:16:39.040 the likelihood of committing crimes in the future. The nonprofit 0:16:39.080 --> 0:16:43.280 think tank Prison Policy Initiative estimates twenty seven point seven 0:16:43.400 --> 0:16:47.680 billion dollars in annual direct costs of incarceration on individuals 0:16:47.760 --> 0:16:51.400 and families across the US. Families pay in on bail, 0:16:51.640 --> 0:16:55.480 legal fees, civil asset forfeiture, commissary for loved ones and 0:16:55.520 --> 0:16:59.720 more often going straight to private prison operators. This also 0:16:59.760 --> 0:17:02.600 does begin to factor in the impacts on children and 0:17:02.680 --> 0:17:06.480 local communities. The cost of incarceration on the state also 0:17:06.560 --> 0:17:10.119 needs to be factored in. The California Legislative Analyst Office 0:17:10.240 --> 0:17:13.560 estimates the annual cost of incarcerating one person in state 0:17:13.640 --> 0:17:16.720 prison at one hundred twenty seven thousand, seven hundred eighty 0:17:16.760 --> 0:17:20.960 eight dollars. With massive spending to bolster retail theft enforcement, 0:17:21.240 --> 0:17:24.960 this could create a compounding problem, costing hundreds of millions. 0:17:25.760 --> 0:17:28.399 In July of twenty twenty five, Di Stefan wrote in 0:17:28.440 --> 0:17:32.520 congressional testimonies supporting Korka that her office had prosecuted over 0:17:32.600 --> 0:17:36.080 two hundred eighteen cases of organized retail crime in just 0:17:36.200 --> 0:17:39.919 two years. She says these cases involved theft losses of 0:17:40.000 --> 0:17:44.280 more than two point six million dollars. Putting this into perspective, 0:17:44.600 --> 0:17:47.800 if even half of those prosecutions resulted in one year 0:17:47.880 --> 0:17:51.520 sentences in California state prisons, you're looking at an estimate 0:17:51.560 --> 0:17:56.119 of nearly fourteen million dollars in incarceration costs, over five 0:17:56.240 --> 0:17:59.560 times the reported theft value. But these thoughts don't really 0:17:59.560 --> 0:18:02.160 seem to across the mind of people like Da Stepan 0:18:02.520 --> 0:18:04.000 or our pals at the NRF. 0:18:04.520 --> 0:18:07.000 This is an argument that drives me crazy, the idea 0:18:07.040 --> 0:18:10.040 that they're stealing because they can't afford the food to 0:18:10.040 --> 0:18:11.760 put on the table to feed their children. 0:18:12.280 --> 0:18:15.960 This is their sole job is to rip off your business. 0:18:16.240 --> 0:18:19.240 That's their blop. That's how they wake up in the morning, 0:18:19.320 --> 0:18:21.240 and so we didn't want them to wake up as 0:18:21.280 --> 0:18:22.320 comfortably as the. 0:18:22.800 --> 0:18:28.080 Report with their calculator. Yes, they paint this image of 0:18:28.119 --> 0:18:31.160 people almost getting off on doing crime rather than any 0:18:31.200 --> 0:18:34.800 number of more charitable explanations. At face value, it may 0:18:34.840 --> 0:18:37.520 just sound like typical high minded bs from an aggressive 0:18:37.560 --> 0:18:40.480 DA and lobbyist, But obviously, when you think about the 0:18:40.520 --> 0:18:43.800 position of power someone like Stephan is in, it's pretty sickening. 0:18:44.720 --> 0:18:47.719 In another section of the NRF podcast episode, they discuss 0:18:47.760 --> 0:18:51.359 people switching from drug dealing to selling stolen merchandise because 0:18:51.359 --> 0:18:55.280 of lower penalties, generally glossing over the circumstances that might 0:18:55.359 --> 0:18:58.880 lead an individual into crime. Stefan even mentions the need 0:18:58.920 --> 0:19:02.120 to go after quote frontline boosters, the people who are 0:19:02.119 --> 0:19:04.840 being hired to go into stores and steal, who she 0:19:04.920 --> 0:19:08.560 admits are often homeless or poor. It's honestly maddening the 0:19:08.600 --> 0:19:10.879 listening to this. So that's the last quote I'm going 0:19:10.920 --> 0:19:24.439 to bring from that. Anyways, here's some mads. So in 0:19:24.480 --> 0:19:26.920 the next episode we're going to dive into the specifics 0:19:26.920 --> 0:19:29.159 of the Corka bill and how Ice has become a 0:19:29.280 --> 0:19:31.679 key player. But for now, I want to end on 0:19:31.720 --> 0:19:34.600 a note that ties together some of the broader consequences 0:19:34.600 --> 0:19:37.840 of all this retail theft propaganda. Lobbyists for the bill 0:19:37.960 --> 0:19:41.560 have a common refrain, quote, organized retail crime is not 0:19:41.680 --> 0:19:45.280 a victimless crime. Unquote. I think the same goes for 0:19:45.320 --> 0:19:48.880 their lobbying. Corka hasn't even passed the Senate yet, there 0:19:48.920 --> 0:19:52.520 may already be some downstream tragedies because of the intensified 0:19:52.600 --> 0:19:56.120 rhetoric around retail crime. In recent years and months, there 0:19:56.160 --> 0:19:59.160 have been a number of high profile killings of individuals 0:19:59.200 --> 0:20:03.280 accused the shop by both shop owners and police. In 0:20:03.400 --> 0:20:06.199 June of this year, police shot and killed Cohen Wiley, 0:20:06.520 --> 0:20:09.760 a one year old boy, while responding to a shoplifting 0:20:09.840 --> 0:20:15.320 call in Senatobia, Mississippi, over allegedly stolen diapers. Police also 0:20:15.359 --> 0:20:18.240 shot his mother while her friend was driving their car 0:20:18.920 --> 0:20:21.560 authorities claim they tried to stop the vehicle, but the 0:20:21.640 --> 0:20:25.800 driver nearly hit an officer, a story we've unfortunately become 0:20:25.880 --> 0:20:29.400 far too familiar with. At this point, Wiley's mother disputes 0:20:29.440 --> 0:20:31.960 that the diapers were even stolen in the first place, 0:20:32.080 --> 0:20:35.959 and denies that her friend drove towards the officers. Obviously, 0:20:36.000 --> 0:20:38.920 it didn't matter to the trigger happy cops on the scene, 0:20:39.119 --> 0:20:41.679 who never should have pointed firearms at the vehicle in 0:20:41.720 --> 0:20:45.199 the first place. Other similar cases include the killing of 0:20:45.280 --> 0:20:48.760 Banco Brown, a black twenty four year old trans organizer 0:20:48.800 --> 0:20:52.560 in San Francisco, by a Walgreen security guard, and the 0:20:52.680 --> 0:20:56.120 killing of black fourteen year old Cyrus Carmack Belton by 0:20:56.160 --> 0:21:00.399 a shop owner in South Carolina. In Brown's case, Cisco 0:21:00.440 --> 0:21:03.680 Da Brooke Jenkins, who ran on a tough on crime agenda, 0:21:03.880 --> 0:21:07.880 did not pursue charges against security guard Michael Arlwaine Anthony, 0:21:08.200 --> 0:21:11.520 saying he acted in self defense based on video footage. 0:21:11.800 --> 0:21:15.200 The video shows Brown and Anthony fighting as Brown apparently 0:21:15.240 --> 0:21:18.600 tried to leave the Walgreens without paying. They grapple on 0:21:18.640 --> 0:21:21.439 the ground for a minute, then Anthony releases Brown but 0:21:21.600 --> 0:21:25.320 follows him to the door. Brown stops just outside the store, 0:21:25.480 --> 0:21:28.520 possibly talking back to the guard. Then the guard pulls 0:21:28.520 --> 0:21:31.040 his gun and shoots Brown as he turns to run. 0:21:31.560 --> 0:21:35.240 Brown was unarmed, and in interviews following the shooting, Anthony 0:21:35.320 --> 0:21:40.240 repeatedly misgendered him for Carmack Belton. His killers. Shop owner 0:21:40.320 --> 0:21:43.439 Chee k Rick Chow face trial for murder but was 0:21:43.480 --> 0:21:47.640 found not guilty. The thing is Carmack Belton, ever actually 0:21:47.680 --> 0:21:51.840 stole anything, not even the water bottles Chow wrongly accused 0:21:51.920 --> 0:21:55.560 him of. Prosecutors say Chow chase the teenager one hundred 0:21:55.600 --> 0:21:58.439 and thirty yards outside the store before shooting him in 0:21:58.480 --> 0:22:02.400 the back. Prosecutor acknowledged that Carmack Belton had a pistol 0:22:02.720 --> 0:22:05.200 but said that it fell on the ground in the chase. 0:22:05.840 --> 0:22:08.200 It seems, based on the reporting, that the only person 0:22:08.200 --> 0:22:10.439 who claims to have seen the pistol or had it 0:22:10.480 --> 0:22:14.159 pointed at him was Chow's son. I think all this 0:22:14.359 --> 0:22:17.159 just goes to show where we place property, even just 0:22:17.240 --> 0:22:21.280 a few water bottles, snacks, or diapers, relative to human life, 0:22:21.640 --> 0:22:25.720 especially those in black communities. There's a very clear irony 0:22:25.840 --> 0:22:28.359 that may reflect the types of enforcement we could see 0:22:28.400 --> 0:22:32.119 from CORCA tough on crime. For the marginalized, not for 0:22:32.200 --> 0:22:35.600 those pulling the trigger. There's no easy way to determine 0:22:35.600 --> 0:22:38.960 whether political statements about retail crime have an effect on 0:22:39.040 --> 0:22:41.880 police or shop owners, but it's not hard to imagine 0:22:41.880 --> 0:22:45.439 how a constant bombardment of propaganda could embolden someone to 0:22:45.520 --> 0:22:49.120 take matters into their own hands. The retail companies are 0:22:49.119 --> 0:22:52.760 complicit in this. Somehow they've managed to turn a manufacturer's 0:22:52.760 --> 0:22:56.880 story into a national security crisis where states grant hundreds 0:22:56.880 --> 0:23:01.480 of millions of dollars to protect corporations. Taylors, blame consumers 0:23:01.520 --> 0:23:05.119 when they failed to hit desired profits, then they raise prices. 0:23:05.400 --> 0:23:08.240 When that fails, they demonize the poor and rattle on 0:23:08.359 --> 0:23:11.720 about crime. Then they pilfer our general funds and team 0:23:11.800 --> 0:23:14.960 up with the police to crack down. It's never enough. 0:23:15.640 --> 0:23:18.040 Now they've sucked in the federal government and we could 0:23:18.080 --> 0:23:21.000 be on the verge of the next upgrade to ice terror. 0:23:21.359 --> 0:23:24.080 But that'll have to wait for the next episode. We'll 0:23:24.080 --> 0:23:29.000 see you tomorrow. It could happen. 0:23:29.040 --> 0:23:31.440 Here is a production of cool Zone Media. For more 0:23:31.440 --> 0:23:35.640 podcasts from cool Zone Media, visit our website coolzonemedia dot com, 0:23:35.880 --> 0:23:38.960