For the most part, the left has decriminalized shoplifting and the result is in the more extreme cases like San Francisco, stores are closing, and honest people are losing their jobs and ability to feed their families. In other instances, stores are putting goods behind lock and key to prevent theft.

• READ: Immigrant store owner begs San Francisco for help after losing $100K to burglars: ‘Worse than Afghanistan‘ AND ‘Walgreens fed my family’: inside the San Francisco stores closing over ‘retail theft’

The left argues that the poor shouldn’t be penalized for trying to survive, but the fact is most who shoplift are doing it to buy drugs and feed their addictions, not their families.

And worse because of the left’s refusal to prosecute shoplifting, their policies have created a new level of professional shoplifting gangs.

As the Daily Caller explains:

In New York City, nearly one-third of shoplifting incidents reported to police last year were committed by the same 327 people — professional thieves — who were arrested a total of 6,000 times.

But they’re still on the streets. “We have individuals that have been arrested over 30 times just this year,” reports Michael Lipetri, New York Police Department chief of crime control strategies. 

San Francisco and Los Angeles have the most retail theft in the nation. A poll shows that Californians want to toughen their state’s law to make stealing goods worth more than $400 a felony. The Democratic majority in the state legislature is pushing back — protecting the crooks, not the public. 

READ: BETSY MCCAUGHEY: Lock Up The Shoplifters, Not The Merchandise