THE OLD GENERATION OF LEFT-WING RADICALS IS BEING SHUNTED ASIDE BY THE MUCH MORE RADICAL 'PROGRESSIVES' WHOM THEY HELPED CREATE

In the name of shelf defense, shoplifting needs an end 

 

By Douglas Murray

 

New York Post

February 10, 2022

 

 

New York business owners are adding guards and plastic covers on goods to avoid empty shelves from shoplifters

 

It is always interesting to note what the shoplifting class in New York do and do not covet. What they are interested in and what they are not. Personally, I remain slightly baffled by their choices.

Most New Yorkers will have noted one great growth industry in our city in recent years. That is the boom in the often flimsy plastic guards and shelf locks that now cover row after row in our local convenience and drug stores. So great has the trend become that it has now even attracted the attention of Al Sharpton, who this week complained that stores were “locking up my toothpaste.” The Reverend was reacting to the New York Post’s exclusive story of a man casually shoplifting steaks from a Trader Joe’s in Manhattan.

And the truth is that thefts like this have grown enormously in recent years. There are a large number of people in New York who seem to regard our city’s stores as some kind of free buffet, that can be picked away at as they like.

How many of us have seen people walk into a store and walk straight out with something they haven’t paid for? It happens all the time, and in a city where such crimes are viewed with increasing acceptance it is hardly the fault of the store owners that they are trying to limit shoplifting by putting their products behind locked guard devices.

 

Rev. Al Sharpton complained that stores were “locking up my toothpaste.” Sharpton is pictured with Kamala Harris

 

Pilferers’ priorities

Still, the pattern of theft is confusing. I can confirm Al Sharpton’s observation that almost all toothpaste in this city is now locked behind plastic guards. Strangely, however, in my local Duane Reade, the toothbrushes are not. Who are the thieves who covet toothpaste but not an accompanying brush? It is hard to know.

You might imagine that it is only the more expensive items that are put behind the plastic guard rails, but this is not the case. Almost all makeup is openly available on the shelves. As are many other, even more expensive, items.

But the seemingly random selection process continues, to the confusion and frustration of the small number of us who actually head to the tills with our shopping.

At my local drugstore, a packet of 12 ribbed latex condoms sits on an open shelf with a price tag of $18.99. Whereas just above it, of almost equal value, sits a bottle of something called Zyrexin (which promises me that it is the “world’s strongest enhancer” and “works in under one hour!”). The latter is firmly behind lock and key.

If I wished to get a bottle of said Zyrexin, I would have to call a store assistant to help me. Though being English by birth, I can confirm that I would have died of embarrassment long before the store assistant ever emerged.

At best, after calling for assistance, I would watch for what would feel like hours as she came slouching toward me with her huge bunch of keys and chains, trying every key, one after another to unlock the product. Only then for her to call out to a colleague, “What is the price of this male sex-performance enhancer?” By which point I would have dropped my shopping and fled the store faster than the average shoplifter.

Everywhere the same odd priorities reign. In my local store, cheapo anti-dandruff shampoo sits behind a lock while vast bottles of Listerine do not. Shaving foam sits openly on the shelf, but cheap safety razors are locked away. Vast multipacks of luxury, quilted toilet paper sit almost invitingly on the shelves, positively calling thieves to walk out with them. While the laundry detergent opposite is locked up like Fort Knox.

 

NYPD officers making an arrest for shoplifting at Target on 250 Broadway in Manhattan, NY

 

Hilarity & tragedy

What does this tell us? A professional profiler from NYPD could probably work out precisely the sort of thief we are dealing with here. They apparently aspire to be a minty-mouthed, clean-shaven, sexually enhanced citizens with good laundry. Whereas they must by necessity end up having safe, ribbed, sex while covered in shaving foam, smelling of Listerine and with enough quilted toilet paper to give away.

Or more likely, they’re picking up items in bulk that are easily sold from the back of a van.

There is an odd hilarity in all this becoming normal. But there is a tragedy to it as well. A tragedy that as crime has risen in this city, it is the stores and the citizenry who have had to adjust our behavior to fit around the life choices of the criminals.

For millions of New Yorkers, the whole business of the most basic shopping has become belabored with inconvenience. Convenience stores are anything but. And so inevitably more of us end up buying our basics online and our city’s much-needed stores die a little more with each click of the computer.

Yet there are ways around this. This city could take even comparatively “minor” crimes like shoplifting seriously again. It seems that only murder grabs the attention of our present DA. But there is no reason why this city could not make sure that those who regard our city’s stores as a free-for-all are made to pay. And not just in the stores. But in time spent down at the local jail.

 

Michael Rappaport films an alleged Rite Aid shoplifter in New York

 

What a shame that our city has chosen to lock up our toothpaste ­instead.

Nikole’s irreverent dissing of Rev. Al

Of course not everybody in New York wants to get tough on crime. Among those who take a very lax attitude toward it is Nikole Hannah-Jones of The New York Times. The nonhistorian is most famous for declaring that the founding date of this country should from now on be said to be 1619 (to reflect the date when slaves were first brought to America).

 

Nikole Hannah-Jones, the pro-riot NYT writer, attacked Al Sharptom for calling on Mayor Adams to curb brazen NYC thefts. Hannah-Jones brushed off the surge in crime, saying “There have always been thefts from stores.”

 

Everything Hannah-Jones does has an ignorantly self-righteous tinge. Two summers ago, when this country was besieged by protests and riots, somebody said that they should be called “The 1619 riot.” Hannah-Jones said, “It would be an honor. Thank you.”

So it is hardly a surprise that the pro-riot NYT writer should take a relaxed view toward other types of crime. What is surprising is that she should have chosen to lambaste Al Sharpton. Sharpton’s observation about crime in the city led the intemperate Hannah-Jones to attack him. Specifically, she dismissed Sharpton’s concerns by saying, “There have always been thefts from stores. This is how you legitimize the carceral state.”

Race huckster though he may be, it is extremely hard to portray Al Sharpton as being in favor of mass incarceration. But that is what is happening today on the American left. The old generation of radicals is being shunted aside, disrespected and even misrepresented by people whom they helped create. People who they are now discovering are even more radical than they ever were. And so the revolution eats its own. Starting from the top.