New footage emerges every day of large mobs engaging in retail theft — a crime that has become rampant in every major city across the country. Los Angeles, Oakland, Portland, Chicago, and New York have become known for lawlessness, and the Democrats in charge are doing little to stop it.

Their refusal to enforce the law indicates a consistent theme of empowering the worst in humanity to the detriment of the majority who are trying to do things the right way. The surge in theft has not only made these inner-city business districts almost entirely unlivable, but it has also led to a record number of stores closing their doors for good.

The New York Post highlighted the dire situation in one of the most crime-affected cities, New York. There, local citizens blame “blasé lawmakers” for the unchecked criminal activity, combined with the astronomical taxes that are imposed on business owners, as the reason for the dire economic conditions. The Post says, “A report released last month estimated that shoplifting cost New York state retailers $4.4 billion in 2022 — with the thefts spiking 64% in the Big Apple between June 2019 and June 2023.”

Council member Vickie Paladino spoke of her Queens district: “We’ve got kids coming in on bicycles and just ransacking a store. We can’t sugarcoat the fact that there’s rampant crime in the city that is preventing people from opening small businesses in areas that used to be nice places to go.”

It’s easy to sit back and voice valid criticisms from the outside looking in, reminding voters in these areas that they brought this on themselves by falling for the lies Democrats told in calling for defunding the police. They ignored the warnings from those of us who operate in the world of logic and reason that this would make things far worse for innocent people on every level.

However, the darker side of this rampant theft is not just its impact on the immediate communities; it’s also that we might be unwittingly contributing to the theft.

Watching a video of a woman running into a Walgreens and filling a garbage bag full of cosmetics, or of a group of men ransacking a tech store, or of a mob of thugs rushing into a retail store and stealing thousands of dollars in merchandise might have you wondering, What is the point of all of this?

While the Left is selling the sob story that these crimes are being carried out primarily by individuals who are just trying to provide for their families during hard times, it’s hard to believe that starving children would need 12 pairs of the latest style of Nike shoes to fill their empty tummies.

The truth that Democrats don’t want to acknowledge is that organized theft rings are running an entire retail Theft Economy, and these thieves are doing it on their watch. The items these groups pursue are part of “shopping” lists provided by those at the head of the mobs. Once the items are acquired and added to their inventory, they are then placed on popular online shopping sites like Amazon, Facebook Marketplace, and eBay at deeply discounted prices.

A YouTube creator named Cash Jordan has shared several videos about this growing problem, hoping to raise awareness and spur city and state officials to nip it in the bud. However, there is little hope that a crackdown will come anytime soon.

Jordan describes the Theft Economy as the direct result of soft-on-crime policies and notes that these crews of thieves generate enough profit to cover the costs of warehouses for storage, salaries for those who carry out the robberies, and massive wealth for their chief operators.

In Los Angeles, one such theft ring was discovered when a man was “spotted delivering stolen Nike products to a warehouse in Hawthorne,” reports The Daily Mail. When his operation was busted by The Organized Retail Crime Task Force, he was found to have accumulated over $5 million worth of stolen shoes. “Photos show hundreds of boxes neatly stacked on top of each other, some bearing the Nike logo,” the Mail adds. “Other shoes sit in a display case inside the warehouse.”

The subsequent LAPD statement on the arrest said that the perpetrator is believed to be “responsible for receiving, redistributing, and reselling a high dollar amount of stolen property.”

Another California-based theft ring was uncovered the following month with the arrest of ringleader Michelle Mack. Known as the “queenpin,” Mack ran a sophisticated operation out of her home in San Diego, though her activity was discovered to extend through at least a dozen other states.

Employing several women across the country — a group she named the “California Girls” — the target of the organization was luxury cosmetics from the popular makeup retailers Ulta and Sephora. Lists were provided to the women, who then stole from countless stores in Washington, Oregon, Colorado, Arizona, Illinois, Texas, and Ohio, to name a few. Mack would then resell the stolen items through her Amazon shop, “The Online Makeup Store,” at a significantly lower price than the original one.

The success of these operations has heavily relied on the struggling economy, which has put middle- and low-income families on the hunt for the best deals on their favorite products. This has turned even the most honest people into unsuspecting supporters of retail theft.

The exposure of these organizations and how they operate demonstrates just one more way that good, law-abiding citizens are being punished for being decent.

In a society run by far-left radicals, they seem to be rooting for the morally bankrupt.