Video on social media shows two shoplifters brazenly walking out of a Los Angeles TJ Maxx with piles of clothes.
So what
A surge in shoplifting — along with violent crime — across the U.S. has fueled a backlash against liberal criminal justice reforms.
The moment
The masked men left the Granada Hills clothing store with the stolen merchandise and walked across the parking lot without interference.
Money quote: “They didn’t even run out, they walked out. And so, that’s sending a message that we, the criminals, are winning,” Los Angeles Police Department Sgt. Jerretta Sandoz told CBS LA, blaming a 2014 California law reducing punishment for shoplifting and other crimes.
Meanwhile
With emboldened shoplifters costing California businesses billions of dollars a year, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law Wednesday that reestablishes the crime of organized retail theft, which lawmakers first created in 2018 but allowed to lapse as of July 1.
