Victim blaming seems to be part of the Democratic platform now. Leftists are still saying that Kyle Rittenhouse deserved to be attacked because he was in the streets of Kenosha that night. Now Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot is suggesting that stores which have been targeted by thieves in her city are not doing enough themselves to prevent crime. The mayor was deflecting criticism from herself amidst a massive shoplifting spree in Chicago.
Mayor blames stores for not doing her job
Chicago and several other major cities have experienced a phenomenon recently of organized shoplifting gangs descending in huge numbers on shops and emptying their shelves of merchandise.
Mayor Lightfoot suggested that the problem could be solved by the stores themselves investing more in security and safety measures. She says that they are not making this a priority as they should be.
In fact, the Illinois Retail Merchants Association pointed out that stores in Chicago are already spending hundreds of millions of dollars each year on security.
Most of the infamous mass shoplifting incidents have targeted locations which are adequately covered by surveillance cameras and have security guards in place.
The problem is that none of the security improvements adopted by the stores themselves are doing anything to deter criminals, who no longer feel threatened by them.
Security guards are generally not allowed to use force to protect property and are left standing back and watching as looters calmly fill bags with stolen goods.
City refuses to crack down on crime
The abundance of cameras might be useful if police were making a serious effort to track down the thieves. Instead, Chicago and other leftist cities have held them back and allowed the shoplifting gangs to flourish.
The Illinois Retail Merchants Association president pointed out that Mayor Lightfoot certainly does not want a line of heavily armed security guards forcefully defending every store in the city.
It is unclear what else she thinks the shops can do to protect themselves without contradicting the other causes supported by Democrats in relation to law and order.
Some Democrats have refused to even acknowledge the existence of smash and grab robbery on a large scale in major cities, despite the abundant and easily accessible evidence.
The White House has acknowledged that it is a problem but, like Mayor Lightfoot, has not offered much in the way of a solution for the problem.
The mayor and her colleagues are ensuring that it will eventually become impossible for stores to make a profit in Chicago, forcing them to close their locations altogether and weaken the city economy even further.
