Blue-state leaders are portrayed as using rhetoric to counter federal anti-crime efforts while failing to restore effective enforcement. Governor Kathy Hochul is promoting a "war on shoplifting," but everyday retail items remain locked away, signaling persistent criminal activity. Albany Democrats' 2019 legal changes limited bail and made prosecuting low-level offenses harder. Soft-on-crime district attorneys such as Alvin Bragg curtailed prosecutions for many minor crimes. Widespread fare evasion and turnstile jumping have reduced transit revenue and diminished quality of life. Attorney General Letitia James resisted efforts to police fare evasion by characterizing enforcement as racist.
Blue-state governors seem to be responding to President Trump's anti-crime campaign with Marxist tactics. Not the communist, Karl, that is, but the comedian Brothers. In "Duck Soup," Chico Marx famously deceives a wealthy widow by asking "Who are you gonna believe, me or your own eyes?" It's an apt metaphor for Governor Kathy Hochul of New York when she poses as a defender of law and order.
Feature, say, Mrs. Hochul's ballyhoo today touting her "war on shoplifting," as Politico puts it, in an attempt to counterbalance Mr. Trump "using the weight of the federal government to crack down on urban crime in blue states." Any New Yorker with eyes can tell that there is precious little progress to see on the scourge of shoplifting. If there were, then why is nearly everything in the city's drug stores behind lock and key?
This enhanced security of everyday consumer products - at the cost of New Yorkers' time and convenience - emerged after Albany Democrats in 2019 weakened laws on crime-fighting. Among other errors, they limited the imposition of bail on criminal defendants accused of low-level offenses like shoplifting. They made it harder for prosecutors to win their cases. Soft-on-crime district attorneys like Alvin Bragg stopped prosecuting many minor crimes.
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