Democrat DA in hot seat after retail theft surges in major American cities

Fox News

2 days ago

Progressive Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is being slammed by his GOP opponent, Maud Maron, for policies she said give criminals a "get out of jail free card," contributing to a massive surge in shoplifting and organized crime in America's largest city.
This comes after retail industry leaders testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday on the dramatic rise in organized retail theft in recent years.
According to the most recent data from the National Retail Federation, retailers reported a 93% increase in the average number of shoplifting incidents per year in 2023 compared to 2019, and a 90% increase in dollar loss due to shoplifting during the same period. The study further said that retailers surveyed saw a 26% increase in shoplifting incidents on average from 2022 to 2023.
NRF's report said shoplifting has become a problem retailers across the country face on a "daily basis."
The report stated that those surveyed experienced an average of 177 shoplifting incidents per day in 2023; however, this number increased to over 1,000, depending on the retail sector. The report listed New York as the second city most impacted by organized retail crime in 2024.
Maron, a former Democrat public defender, now running for Manhattan district attorney as a Republican, told Fox News Digital that the "surge in shoplifting" is "not surprising."
"Shoplifters, lawbreakers, got the message: You can do this, and you will not go to jail," said Maron, adding, "The get-out-of-jail-free card that Alvin Bragg has been issuing for the last three and a half years is not subtle."
"Five years ago, 10 years ago, if you used to go into a store and dump a bunch of retail goods into your bag and then walk out right past the security guard and right past the cashiers, you would be arrested. And if you did it more than once, you wind up going to jail," she said. "Now maybe someone will call the police; maybe someone won't. Maybe the police will arrest you; maybe they won't. Because everybody knows at the end of the line, the prosecutor is not going to prosecute the case."
Maron claimed that when Bragg took office in January 2022, he published a day one memo that "explained that there were just whole categories of crime that he was not going to prosecute."
"Alvin Bragg ran as a George Soros-backed progressive prosecutor, and his implementing progressive criminal justice policies means that he tries to keep as few people in jail as possible. He tries to prosecute as few people as possible, and he tries to prosecute the lowest possible charge that he can get away with doing," she went on. "You can see there are no consequences. I will not get in trouble if I go into that store and take all of the clothes off of a shelf and walk out with them in broad daylight without even hiding my face. I can do it and get away with it. That's why we see a surge."
"Actions either have consequences or they don't. And in Alvin Bragg's New York, stealing doesn't have a consequence," she claimed.
In response, Richard Fife, a spokesperson for Bragg's campaign, contested Maron's take on the report, saying that "while there is much more to do, in the last two years, NYPD stats report that burglary is down 11%, robbery is down 8%, grand larceny is down 11%, and murder is down 35%."
"Perennial candidate Maud Maron, who recently lost her campaign for the School Board, is once again distorting and misleading to hide her lack of qualifications," said Fife.
He said that "when experienced prosecutor Alvin Bragg took office as Manhattan DA in January 2022, NYC—like nearly every city—was still reeling from the COVID national crime spike."
"Alvin brought together business owners, law enforcement, and community-based organizations to stop the rise in shoplifting and targeted repeat offenders, prosecuted organized crime rings that resell stolen goods, and improved coordination with local businesses and the NYPD," he claimed.
For her part, Maron shot back that "if Alvin Bragg were half as good at prosecuting retail theft as he is at cherry-picking statistics, New Yorkers wouldn't have to ask security to unlock a $6 stick of deodorant just to get through the day."
"Bragg can point to handpicked NYPD numbers all he wants, but New Yorkers live the reality: more closed storefronts, more brazen shoplifting, and more fear for working people just trying to commute or run errands," she added. "You don't need a spreadsheet to know Alvin Bragg's criminal-coddling Day One Memo turned every store owner into a sitting duck for the criminals he's emboldened. You just need to walk into a pharmacy or talk to a bodega owner."