Four years ago, Mayor Wu said shoplifters shouldn't be prosecuted. Now shoplifting is up in Boston. Funny how that works.
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Why Democrats? Because voters know whose fault it is that they have to ask for locked-up face wash: Progressives preached a soft-on-crime message that's now coming back to haunt them.
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It was now-disgraced Suffolk district attorney Rachael Rollins who in 2018 announced she would stop prosecuting shoplifters. That same year, state law raised the threshold for felony larceny from $250 to $1,200.
Running for mayor in 2021, Wu
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Progressives signaling leniency on low-level crimes is undoubtedly part of why shoplifting was up in the city, and across the state. Overall, the Retailers Association of Massachusetts
Not only does toothpaste under lock and key create an ominous image, rampant shoplifting can affect the
This problem hasn't been unique to Boston — progressive cities across the country have
Now running for reelection, Wu still isn't willing to acknowledge the part she has played in normalizing policies that wreck quality of life. I asked her in May if she regretted supporting Rollins's reform. She dodged the question, but told me that during her time as mayor 'there has been full accountability for shoplifting' and then said it's 'not the purview of the mayor or the police department to have any role in prosecutorial discretion.'
But boasting of 'full accountability' takes some nerve — that's only happening because District Attorney Kevin Hayden ignored the politicians like Wu who supported Rollins's policy.
And while Wu continues to vocally tout Boston's status as the safest city in America because of its low homicide rates, she's been backpedaling to address its pervasive quality-of-life issues.
In that same interview she highlighted Hayden's 'Safe Shopping Initiative,' which
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When it comes to drug crimes, she's also had to tweak her progressive
Better late than never. In his blog post, Auchincloss wrote that 'degradations to public order also matter. Drug use, loitering, panhandling, encampments, vandalism, shoplifting — these compound into lawlessness,' he wrote. 'There's nothing compassionate or progressive about permitting them.'
The last part is key. Much of the criminal justice reform of the past five years has been an effort to decrease racism in policing and prosecuting. But take that mission too far, and you start condoning crime in the name of justice.
And while some low-level offenders come from difficult circumstances that might warrant giving them a second chance, that's a decision that should be made by a discerning judge or prosecutor. When decriminalization becomes a ruling party's policy, then everyone is invited to heap onto the disorder.
This doesn't just decrease the quality of life in progressive cities like Boston — it erodes trust in the Democratic Party to operate at the most basic levels. Auchincloss is one of few Massachusetts Democrats willing to identify this weakness, but others should join him if they want to reverse the
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If a party can't even keep a shampoo bottle safe, how's it supposed to effectively govern millions of people?
Carine Hajjar is a Globe Opinion writer. She can be reached at
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