A variety of fundamental issues impacted the result of November’s presidential election, but one of the most pronounced factors was public safety.

Crime has spiked in many regions of the U.S. over the past several years, with the policies of Biden the administration, leftist elected leaders, and soft-on-crime prosecutors exacerbating the situation at every turn.

Now that President Donald Trump is back in the White House, however, some of those leftists are beginning to reconsider their party’s stance on criminal justice.

Rahm Emanuel, who served as Chicago’s mayor prior to taking on the role of Barack Obama’s first White House chief of staff, weighed in on the ramifications of such “permissiveness” during a recent appearance on HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher.”

As Breitbart reported, he offered a candid assessment of the situation in response to the host’s question about current Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s abysmally low approval rating:

ADVERTISEMENT

“Look, this is — we were talking about this a little earlier, you have also the mayor of New York not doing well, obviously, other things also here in Los Angeles, not doing well, the mayor here. Look, — and then you’ve got mayors, like the mayor of San Francisco and other cities that are doing well. So, I would say, look, there is a general rule. I had this when I was mayor: Safe streets, strong schools, stable finances, focus on those three things and your city’s going to be fine. We’ve gone through five years where people became way too permissive as a culture, they were all — which is why everything’s locked up at Walgreens and CVS. And that is a disaster.

Convoluted efforts among retailers to crack down on the crime wave have been met by frustration by honest shoppers:

In many cases, the problem has become so acute that retailers have been forced to move out of high-crime areas entirely.

According to a September 2023 NPR interview between host Steve Inskeep and Retail Industry Leaders Association Vice President Khris Hamlin:

HAMLIN: It absolutely is. You know, when – right now, we’re seeing a wave of this activity. And, you know, it kind of stems back to the penalties that sit around us. That makes retailers a target for this activity because of the leniency when it comes to the penalties that these individuals will face if apprehended.

INSKEEP: Is that any different than it used to be?

HAMLIN: You know, I got to say, you know, when you look at this, things have become very easy for individuals to be able to take their stolen goods and to be able to resell them. And I think that the opportunity to be able to turn around those goods on marketplaces is what’s making it much more easier – or much more a target for retailers and much more easier for these individuals to think that it’s, you know, an easy way to be able to make a quick dollar out there.

INSKEEP: So you think the incentives have changed somewhat. But why is it getting so bad that some retailers would just say, listen, I’m not doing this particular location at all; I’m out of here?

HAMLIN: Very good question. You know, when you think about what the retailers have to keep in mind is the safety of their employees, the safety of their consumers and their ability to maintain that safe shopping and working environment. And so retailers are faced with that tough question. You know, do we continue to serve this community, or do we protect our employees and protect the good actors, the good consumers that are coming out into the marketplaces? And that’s where they’re having to make these tough decisions to pull out of some of the communities just based on the surrounding environment.

ADVERTISEMENT

Here’s a clip of Emanuel’s recent HBO appearance:

This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here.
 

Join The Conversation. Leave a Comment.