by Mish Shedlock, Mish Talk:
Portland, Oregon officials and retail executives spent months debating how to reduce thefts. The city failed.
One City and Three Retailers
The Wall Street Journal comments Three Retailers Tried to Fight Shoplifting. The Stores Closed Anyway.
Target, Nike, and REI all complained about crime in Portland privately before announcing plans to close stores in the city in 2023.
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The closures followed months—and in some cases years—of negotiations between company officials and the city over getting additional police patrols near their locations, improving response times and removing homeless encampments, according to emails reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. Ultimately the companies said the city didn’t provide enough support and they decided to shutter those locations, emails show.
Shoplifting rates in Portland were up 22% in the first half of 2023 when compared with the same period in 2019, according to a Journal analysis of city crime data. The increase in Portland’s shoplifting rate over the period was well above the average among 24 cities studied by the Council on Criminal Justice, a think tank.
Industry executives have lobbied for increased collaboration with law enforcement, saying that rising retail crime rates are hurting store safety and company profits. Companies are locking up more products to tamp down theft, and some are conducting their own investigations to identify suspects. This month, the governors of California and New York called for new legislation to combat retail crime, including measures that would add or expand criminal penalties on people who profit from theft or assault retail workers.
Store Closures
- Nike temporarily shut down its Portland factory store in August 2022. It announced this past September that the location wouldn’t reopen, months after privately lobbying the city to boost the police presence near the store.
- REI last April said that it would close its city store in February 2024 when the lease expires. The outdoor-gear retailer said the store in 2022 had the highest number of thefts in two decades and that it lost confidence in its ability to serve customers there.
- Target in September said it would close three Portland stores by late October, adding that levels of theft and organized retail crime harmed staff and customers’ safety.
Portland Economic Director Statement
Andrew Fitzpatrick, Portland’s director of economic development, said “It’s a little bit more complicated than just theft increases and a store closes.”
Fact check, true!
It’s also about rape, armed robbery, car jackings, and fear of the preceding. Factor in DEI and defunding the police.
Fitzpatrick said the city has set aside certain district attorneys to focus on prosecuting retail theft.
But what good will that do when the mission statement of these prosecutors appears to be Prosecuting Non-Violent Crime is Racist.
What About Education?
Good question. In November, Oregon Dopped all Graduation Standards in the Name of Equity.
Oregon’s State Board of Education voted unanimously to adopt an additional extension of this suspension through the 2027-28 school year. Board members, alongside Oregon Department of Education leadership, argued that requiring students to complete standardized tests both presented a “harmful hurdle for historically marginalized students” and represents a misuse of state tests.
The Oregon Education Association (OEA), the union representing more than 40,000 teachers throughout the state, is a like-minded opponent of standardized testing. “Standardized tests are inaccurate, inequitable, and don’t accurately measure student learning and growth,” it declares. Further, the union labels standardized tests like Oregon’s Statewide Summative Assessment as “instruments of racism and a biased system.”
Graduation Equity
In the name of equity, Oregon will graduate everyone. Why not give them all Masters Degrees? Wouldn’t that be even more equitable?
The problem is these graduates cannot read, cannot write, and cannot do simple arithmetic.
But they are great at one thing. What’s that, you ask. Shoplifting.
