Copyright bostonherald
Is Boston a safe city? It depends on who you ask. According to Mayor Michelle Wu “We are the safest major city by the numbers, and we work hard to maintain that and to keep pushing the standards higher every day.” South End residents and retailers aren’t feeling those ever-soaring standards. They say businesses in Boston are being battered by shoplifting spurred by the addicts at the Mass and Cass drug market trying to score another fix. Thieves are threatening store employees and customers with lethal needles, the Herald reported. Businesses in the area have closed, and the ones who remain are targets. Randi Lathrop, a community leader and business owner, spoke of “professional shoplifters” who aim to steal every day from stores, as part of an “underground” resale network. Those “smash and grab” shoplifters steal expensive items and resell them for a profit, she said. That profit helps feed a habit. “Goods get traded for drugs on the sidewalks around the greater Mass and Cass area,” said South End resident Brian McCarter. “It helped fuel the drug crisis around here.” This is a different “by the numbers” picture: $1,200, the felony minimum for larceny; 15%, how much shoplifting spiked in Boston as of July compared to the same time period last year, per data from the Boston Police Department; $1.5-$2 billion, the cost to state retailers from shoplifting, according to Ryan Kearney, general counsel of the Retailers Association of Massachusetts. These figures don’t merely represent crime and its cost to retailers, they reflect the quality of life being stolen from Bostonians and stores trying to do business here. Our progressive mayor has amped up the “Boston’s safe” rhetoric amid Donald Trump’s callup of the National Guard to crime-ridden cities around the country. Nothing to see here, keep moving. And the city is seeing some positive movement, business-wise. Japanese clothing chain Uniqlo will open a new Boston store at 395-403 Washington St. in Downtown Crossing, according to reports. And Japanese health and beauty store Teso Life is gearing up to open its first New England store at 459 Washington St., the former site of Forever 21. This could help rejuvenate Downtown Crossing, bring in needed foot traffic and visitors ready to spend. Or, it could be another lucrative target for shoplifters who don’t have to worry about being punished in Boston. The Mass and Cass problem has spread, and is spreading, and it will take politicians with the will to keep the scourge of addiction-driven crime from staunching attempts to grow businesses in Boston. For that, the Legislature has to re-instate the $250 felony maximum for larceny. It was hiked to $1,200 in 2018, and shoplifting spikes have demonstrated that while it’s a good move for criminals, it’s bad for business. We want Boston to thrive, from the Seaport to the Back Bay, from the South End to Downtown Crossing. And that can only happen if there are real consequences for criminals.
