LICENSE TO STEAL: California senators pass SB 553 to prohibit retailers from stopping shoplifters

Lawmakers in California are gunning for the passage of a new law, Senate Bill 553, that would bar retail stores throughout the state from confronting shoplifters.

Submitted by State Sen. Dave Cortese (D-San Jose), SB 553 has already passed in the State Senate and is currently being deliberated upon by the Democrat-controlled State Assembly.

On its surface, the bill aims to “prevent workplace violence and protect staff from being forced by their employees to step in during robberies.” In practice, though, SB 553 sounds like an open invitation to thieves “to come in and steal,” to quote the California Retailers Association, which opposes the bill.

SB 553 was introduced just a few weeks after a 26-year-old Home Depot security guard named Blake Mohs was shot to death during an attempted store robbery in Pleasanton, in the East Bay. The incident prompted California lawmakers to reevaluate the state’s standards for dealing with robberies.

“The bill has made its way to the Assembly where it under consideration by the Labor & Employment Committee,” tweeted the @amuse X account. “Too many retailers and citizens are intervening as the police ignore the problem.”

(Related: Shoplifting is on the rise all over the place as the early stages of hyperinflation take shape throughout the economy.)

An assault on private property?

California’s Bay Area, which includes San Francisco, Berkeley, Oakland and numerous other large municipalities, including Pleasanton, has been especially gripped by rampant shoplifting over the past several years. Many retailers are so fed up with the lack of policing that they are leaving the area, or even the state.

Rather than address the problem head-on, California legislators are instead trying to make it more difficult for retailers to keep their inventories in check.

To be clear, SB 553 would still allow for shoplifting to be addressed. It would just have to be strictly handled by on-site security or police, not employees who could get injured or killed trying to handle it themselves.

There is a case to be made on both sides, it would seem, though SB 553’s opposition is adamantly opposed to its passage and implementation because they say it will encourage more shoplifting.

“This is about shutting down all private retailers,” contended “JD Sharp” (@imjdsharp) on X. “They want the government controlling it all.”

Another person, Joaquin Martinez (@JoaquinMar67151), agreed, asking why California legislators do not just “cut to the chase and make private property unlawful.”

Target issued a statement of its own about the shoplifting crisis, which it claims is responsible for $400 million in profit losses in 2022. Target says “organized retail crime” is to blame, making no mention of the economic crisis that is making many consumer products too pricy for the average American to afford.

According to Cortese, a Democrat who represents much of Santa Clara County in Silicon Valley, SB 553 is solely about protecting employees from having to address crimes like shoplifting when it could put them in harm’s way.

“The bill does not prohibit employees from stopping theft,” Cortese told local media. “It does prevent employers from asking non-security personnel to confront a person involved in criminal activity. We don’t want rank and file employees to be forced to place themselves in harm’s way.”

“More recently, we’ve seen another spike in retail violence; [At] Safeways, Home Depots, it just seems to be happening every other day … What we’re saying in the bill is it’s not okay for employers to take a rank-and-file worker, somebody whose job is really something else … and say, ‘Hey, you know, if there’s an intruder, we’re going to deputize you to intervene.’ People get hurt and often killed that way.”

Civil society is rapidly disintegrating as America is thrust into a dystopian future full of crime and lawlessness. Learn more at Collapse.news.

Sources for this article include:

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