Reconsider theft.

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TAKE ACTION

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• Encourage leaders to repeal civil forfeiture laws at the state and federal level.

• Oppose “tough-on-crime” legislation which penalizes ordinary people instead of those who steal with impunity.

• Start conversations around the idea of shoplifting using the information in this post. Consider: what has shaped our perception of theft?

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GET EDUCATED

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By Andrew Lee (he/him)

After a spate of videos depicting brazen shoplifting from San Francisco stores, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill into law reintroducing the crime of “organized retail theft.” Under the new law, prosecutors are able to felony charges not only against the shoplifters themselves but anyone claimed to have “knowingly participated” in such thefts in any capacity (Long Beach Post).

Shoplifting isn’t ideal. But shoplifting is already heavily disincentivized, with police waiting outside grocery stores in poor neighborhoods and armed security guards stationed in pharmacies. We should question why so much surveillance and violence is aimed at people stealing diapers or candy bars when the largest sources of theft in this country are barely recognized.

There’s one kind of theft that rakes in billions of dollars each year in the United States. It’s not home burglaries, carjackings, or elaborate bank heists. It goes by an innocuous-sounding, legalistic name: civil forfeiture. And it’s not committed by dastardly criminals evading the law, but by American law enforcement itself.

“Civil forfeiture allows police to seize — and then keep or sell — any property they allege is involved in a crime,” say civil liberties defenders. “Owners need not ever be arrested or convicted of a crime for their cash, cars, or even real estate to be taken away permanently by the government” (ACLU).

It seems incredulous that your local police department is allowed to take your home or car and sell it for profit without even charging you with a crime. But in 2014, the total value of property lost in burglaries was less than the $4.5 billion of property seized in civil forfeitures by federal law enforcement alone (Washington Post).

Pennsylvania State Police simply take cash from drivers’ cars. In one out of three cases, the driver isn’t even charged with a crime. “Legal experts say the practice is a form of ‘highway robbery,’” one that netted the department over half a million dollars between 2017 and 2020 (Spotlight PA). Police raided one Alabama computer repair shop and seized 130 computers, mostly belonging to customers. Though no criminal charges were ever filed, the police kept the computers (AL). One Indiana man faced a maximum penalty of $10,000 after selling a small amount of drugs to a police officer. But the police also took his Land Rover worth $42,000, though he purchased it with money from a life insurance policy. He took the case to the Supreme Court and won, though the court declined to ban the practice more broadly (MSN).

Street crimes like shoplifting and robbery are also dwarfed by white-collar crimes like embezzlement, stock manipulation, and fraud. According to the FBI, the total cost of all street crime is less than 2% of the cost of white-collar crime (Psychology Today). But the white-collar crimes of the rich are treated much more leniently than the street crimes of everyday people. Paul Manafort was sentenced to four years in prison for cheating the IRS out of millions of dollars. A defendant in a New York court received the same sentence for stealing $100 in quarters (BBC).

When it comes to working-class people and people of color, the American state harshly enforces the rule of law and demands respect for private property. But when the powerful flout the law to rob the poor, stern punishment in defense of high-minded ideals is nowhere to be found.

When politicians demand crackdowns on petty crimes, we might reflect on the wild leniency shown to the most powerful people in our society and the people supposedly there to enforce its laws. The laws of this country favor the rich (Mother Jones). But when the wealthy and powerful violate the rules already tilted in their favor, their punishments are minimal.

Theft from a multinational corporation isn’t like stealing from a neighbor’s pantry. If you steal food from a CVS, their employees often can’t be charged, though businesses steal millions of dollars every year from their own employees through wage theft (Eater). A shoplifted store won’t even see its profits drop, since businesses already buy insurance against theft (Shopify). The consequences of your action would be literally negligible.

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Those most marginalized by American society are often those pushed into “survival crimes” like illegal sex work, drug sales, or petty theft to survive (Statesman). Giving such people a criminal record in fact makes it more likely that they will continue to be pushed into such endeavors in the future since they will be cut out of the formal labor market. The clerks and cashiers of pharmacy chains do lose money due to theft. This is not due to shoplifting but the corporate CEOs and investors who don’t pay workers the full value of their labor. We need to denounce punitive measures against marginalized people while the privileged rob and steal with ease.

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Key Takeaways

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• The government of California is cracking down on shoplifting with legislation against “organized retail crime.”

• Crimes like theft are dwarfed by both white-collar crimes and civil forfeiture, which allows police to legally steal the possessions of innocent people.

• Civil forfeiture is largely legal and white-collar criminals receive lenient punishment while those committing petty theft are overpoliced and criminalized.