If you live in a city where Walgreens has to lock up TOOTHPASTE behind bulletproof glass.

You live in a failed city. Done. Cooked.
If you’re governor of that state you should be ineligible for President.
Gavin Newsom signed Prop 47. Gave California a $950 shoplifting ceiling and called it progress.
JB Pritzker signed the SAFE-T Act. Made Illinois the first state to abolish cash bail and called it justice.
A man with 72 prior arrests in Pritzker’s Illinois was out on electronic monitoring. He set a woman on FIRE on a CTA train.
Where is the outrage? Why is this the new normal?
Something is broken.
You’re a grown adult standing in a CVS at 2pm on a Tuesday pressing a little button and waiting for a teenager named Kyle to come unlock the deodorant aisle.
You’re not buying a firearm.
You’re not picking up a controlled substance.
You’re buying CREST EXTRA WHITE.
And you have to stand there like a weirdo while Kyle finishes his break.
78% of major retailers now lock merchandise behind cases.
35% of products in high-risk stores are behind barriers.
They’d rather lose 15-25% of sales than let you touch the product.
A corporation decided that losing YOUR business is cheaper than letting people steal.
You’re the collateral damage of someone else’s crime. Driven by political leaders who are disconnected from reality.
Our grandparents left their doors unlocked. We wait in line to buy shampoo behind glass.
Your eyes work. Trust them.
In 1960, 73% of Americans trusted each other. Now it’s 34%.
A Sacramento County prosecutor confirmed that shoplifters in California bring CALCULATORS into stores to make sure they steal exactly under $950.
We gave criminals a business model. Then told them they’re the victims.
The shoplifter is struggling.
The felon is misunderstood.
The repeat offender just needs resources.
And the store owner getting robbed 40 times a year? He’s the system. He’ll be fine. He’s too rich. He’s privileged. Let’s blame him.
Crime isn't down. People don't feel safe. They didn’t defund the police. They defunded the IDEA that stealing is wrong.
Shoplifting is up 93% since 2019. Stores catch thieves 2% of the time.
62% of retailers stopped reporting theft. Not because it stopped happening. Because cops stopped showing up.
73% of retailers say shoplifters are getting MORE VIOLENT. And these cities still tell you crime is down. They’ll wave a chart. They’ll quote some adjusted metric.
Meanwhile a man with 47 prior arrests walks out of a New York jail for the sixth time this year. Your mother shares a subway car with him. Your daughter shares a sidewalk.
Walgreens’ own CFO went on record and said they “cried too much” about shoplifting.
A billion dollar corporation APOLOGIZED for complaining about being robbed. The victim apologized to the thief.
So they leave. Walgreens closing 1,200 stores. CVS closing 900. Rite Aid bankrupt. Every location gone.
In-N-Out closed Oakland. Cited crime. IN-N-OUT couldn’t survive in California.
30% of retailers closed stores because of theft. 65% pulled products off the floor entirely. $47.8 BILLION gone.
And the same people who caused it commission studies about why poor neighborhoods can’t fill prescriptions.
BROTHER. You chased them out. That’s why.
You let disorder run. Businesses eat the losses until they can’t. They close.
You blame capitalism. You demand government fill the gap. Government fills it badly. You blame capitalism again.
And the toothpaste stays locked up.
I didn’t know we were in the dark ages. I didn’t know raiding was normal again.
Nobody talks about it at dinner. But everybody feels it.
The looking-over-your-shoulder at the gas station. The flinch when someone walks too close on the train.
We all feel it. We just stopped saying it out loud because someone told us noticing makes us the problem.
You can leave an iPhone on a café table in Dubai. You can trip in Osaka and three strangers help you up.
I went to Cuba a few years ago.
Average salary: $30 a month. Sanctioned into the stone age for 60 years. Their toothpaste was sitting on the shelf.
No excuses for theft. Enforce the law. Stop making the criminal into a victim. Insane gaslighting.