Portland police create timeline, map of civil disturbances and riots

16 riots declared and 500+ arrests over 85 nights of protests

Portland police have released a timeline of protests over the last three months, and it shows which demonstrations devolved into riots and unlawful assemblies.

Portland protests began in the wake of George Floyd's death in police custody on May 25 and have continued since then. Police first declared one of the demonstrations a riot on May 29. They have subsequently done so 15 more times, most recently on Wednesday night.

Police said on Thursday that at least 500 arrests have been made since the protests began. According to the timeline, demonstrators have set fires on 42 nights since the protests began, and at least two nights saw fires set in multiple areas of the city. People have thrown projectiles at officers, including ball bearings, rocks, frozen water bottles and balloons filled with paint, on 59 of the past 83 nights. On 52 of those nights police have reported graffiti or other vandalism. kgw.com

Dwarfing all other states, FBI data show Illinois had 4.6 million background checks for guns in first seven months
Illinois topped the list of all states for firearm background checks so far this year, and is already on pace to blow last year's numbers out of the water. And reports persist of people waiting beyond the three-day waiting period to pick up the guns they've purchased. There are also more than 143,000 Firearm Owner Identification, or FOID card, applicants still waiting for their cards to be processed by Illinois State Police.

Monthly records from the FBI's NICS Firearm Background Checks report show in the first seven months of the year, there have been nearly 4.6 million checks. That dwarfs every other state, with only Kentucky coming close with 2.2 million checks from January through July. thecentersquare.com

Hundreds of Celebrities Sign Letter Backing California Police Reform Bills
Hundreds of celebrities from the music, entertainment and sport industries supporting police reform legislation in California have signed an open letter urging the California governor and state legislature to approve two bills addressing police accountability.

The first bill, SB 731 (Bradford), would establish a system to revoke a police officer's certification, upon criminal conviction or serious misconduct, and update liability rules under California's Bane Act; the latter, SB 776 (Skinner), would increase the transparency and reporting on the use of force incidents involving officers. Both bills will make their way through the state legislature and may be voted upon on the floor of the assembly as soon as next week.  See the list of artists and actors here: variety.com

Chicago Looting: Mayor Lori Lightfoot allies stall effort to ask for National Guard troops in Chicago

Push to Defund the Police Faces Headwinds in Some Poor, Black Neighborhoods

As Gun Violence Increases, So Does Disagreement Over De Blasio's Response

Another Public Health Crisis: The Intersection of Gun Violence & COVID-19
 

COVID Update

US: Over 5.7M Cases - 177K Dead - 3.1M Recovered
Worldwide: Over 23M Cases - 798K Dead - 15.5M Recovered

Private Industry Security Guard Deaths: 183   Law Enforcement Officer Deaths: 82
*Red indicates change in total deaths

Where Low-Income Retail Jobs Are Being Lost to COVID-19
The Urban Institute has created an interactive map tracking where low-income jobs are being lost to COVID-19 at both the county and metropolitan scale. The hardest hit industry has been "Accommodation and Food Services", which has lost over 2.8 million estimated jobs so far. The "Retail Trade" industry (shown below) comes in at #4 on the list of industries hardest hit, losing over 615,000 low-income jobs as of Aug 7.

The data here is based on US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and tracks losses of low-income jobs, defined as jobs with annual earnings below $40,000, and exclude some workers, such as independent contractors and those working in the gig economy. This tool does not attempt to estimate the number of low-income jobs with pay cuts. urban.org

3M Stops Fake N95 Scheme, Resolving Lawsuit Claims Against Sellers on Amazon
In a federal court case brought by 3M in California against Defendants KM Brothers Inc., KMJ Trading Inc., Supreme Sunrise, Inc., and Mao Yu and third-party Zhiju USA, Inc., the court issued a stipulated consent judgment and permanent injunction that prohibits Defendants fraudulent activity as alleged by 3M, which included charging grossly inflated prices for fake, defective or damaged respirator products.

3M and Amazon collaborated to identify and stop the fraudulent scheme and pursue legal action against the Defendants. The resolution of this lawsuit furthers the goal of combating respirator counterfeiting and price gouging and will result a sizeable donation by 3M and Amazon of more than $192,000 recovered from the Defendants to Direct Relief's non-profit work to provide PPE to health workers.

3M has filed 18 lawsuits to combat fraud, price gouging and counterfeiting in the U.S. and Canada to put a stop to unlawful profiteering from the pandemic in 3M's name. To date, 3M has secured the removal of over 7,000 listings with fraudulent or counterfeit product offerings from e-commerce platforms around the world and over 10,000 false or deceptive social media posts. 

Resources to Fight Fraud: 3M has launched a website that provides more information on these and other 3M efforts to fight respirator fraud, counterfeiting, and price gouging. businesswire.com

Fear & Fatigue Driving Stressful Situations During COVID-19
Training and making connections key to de-escalating conflicts with customers
Since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, there have been many reports of conflicts arising over face mask mandates in supermarkets and other public-facing businesses. But as Russ Turner, director of the People Incorporated Training Institute, points out, much of that focus on the negative can be chalked up to human nature.

One of the focuses of retailers and other businesses needs to be on staff and training, he said. Turner noted that early on in the pandemic, cashiers and other employees were being pushed into roles as almost bouncers in dealing with customers who, for one reason or other, chose not to wear a mask in a location that required them.

In order to de-escalate those conflicts, Turner suggested keeping calm and forging a relationship with the customer. Welcome them to your business and broach the issue of masks in a friendly manner. Not all customers who show up without masks are looking for a conflict, he said. "Sometimes people just forget to bring them," he noted. Asking a customer if they would like a face mask to enter the business can be an effective way to defuse a situation. "People are still getting used to all of this," said Turner.

Empathy can go a long way toward keeping the situation from escalating. Understanding that the ongoing stress and pain of the overall COVID-19 situation is an experience we're all sharing can help create connections between the two sides of the argument.

Turner believes that many of the conflicts that have arisen can be attributed to two factors: fear and fatigue. "Deep down I think it's fear that's driving people's behavior, fear of the unknown, fear of literally getting sick, fear of change," he said. If you just think about how we all act when we're frightened, he added, we tend to act out and that's what a lot of what we're seeing is. supermarketnews.com

Kroger expands coronavirus testing to 220 locations

CVS Health Adds 77 Additional COVID-19 Testing Sites In Florida

Florida becomes 5th state to report 10,000 or more deaths, joining NY, NJ, CA, TX

U.S. will have third act of coronavirus and it will likely be 'more pervasive,' FDA Commissioner says

American Airlines halting service to 15 small cities after federal aid runs out in October

U.S. weekly jobless claims jump back above 1 million

 

Retail Abuse, Threats & Violence
UK petition launched to protect retail staff from violence
The Association of Convenience Stores (ACS) is supporting a petition from shopworkers union Usdaw calling on the Government to introduce legislation to protect shopworkers from violence and abuse.

The petition 'Protect Retail Workers from Abuse, Threats and Violence', urges the Government to introduce legislation to create a specific offence for abusing, threatening, or assaulting a retail worker.

Findings from ACS' 2020 Crime Report show that 83% of people who work in the convenience sector have been subjected to verbal abuse over the last year and there were over 50,000 incidents of violence estimated in the sector, with 25% of incidents resulting in injury.

The ACS Covid-19 Impact Survey revealed that violence and verbal abuse has increased in 40% of stores since the start of the coronavirus outbreak. forecourttrader.co.uk

  UK: "In Retail, You Get Used To Abuse. But This Pandemic Is A Whole New Level"


California wildfires more than double in size and force
5 dead, 33 injured, tens of thousands evacuate, as 370+ wildfires burn
Hundreds of thousands of acres of unpopulated land continued to burn across California on Thursday, as dozens of lightning-sparked wildfires moved quickly through dry vegetation and threatened the edges of cities and towns in the state's northern and central regions.

Evacuations surged Thursday as authorities worried that high heat and gusty winds could cause the fires to spread rapidly. By midday, several of the major fires had more than doubled in size, in some cases jumping across major highways, as crews struggled to contain the blazes.

At least five people have died and 33 are injured. In all, according to Cal Fire, fires are burning about 780 square miles across the state. That area is about equal to half the size of Rhode Island. usatoday.com washingtonpost.com

  Interactive map: See where the wildfires are burning across California


LA's "Bong Row" Blows Up
Illegally Stored Hazardous Materials Caused Explosion
Retail Owners connected to massive downtown L.A. explosion face
300 criminal charges
The Los Angeles city attorney on Friday filed more than 300 criminal charges against the owners and operators of four downtown buildings after a massive explosion in May burned 11 firefighters.

Prosecutors allege the defendants illegally stored hazardous materials and endangered public health.

The blast occurred in a section of downtown nicknamed "bong row" because of the concentration of retailers selling rolling papers, butane and other supplies associated with vaping and tobacco.

The criminal charges come from an investigation of the May 16 explosion inside an East 3rd Street warehouse by the U.S. Department of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives as well as the Los Angeles Police Department and other agencies.

The explosive fire allegedly started at 327 Boyd St., a building owned by Steve Sungho Lee that is the location for retail businesses Smoke Totes, Green Buddha and Bio Hazard. Lee was charged with 36 counts for violations at 327 Boyd St. and 50 counts for violations at 325 Boyd St., according to the charges revealed Friday.

Prosecutors allege all the locations illegally stored hazardous materials. Prosecutors allege there was a conspiracy to endanger public health, which included such violations as failure to maintain aisles, failure to have hazmat warning signs, failure to have no smoking signs, failure to classify hazardous commodities. Much of the materials storage, the criminal filings allege, was unpermitted.

The scene "looked like a war zone" as a badly burned firefighter and others tried to escape a blast that caused a 30-foot fireball to burst from the structure. latimes.com

Another Swipe At Urban Outfitters
Former Urban Outfitters employees speak out about discriminatory behavior and offensive merchandise
The company recently made headlines when Anthropologie was accused of racial discrimination and racial profiling. Former employees alleged on Instagram that the brand used the code word "Nick" for shoplifters. Most of the former store employees Business Insider spoke with said it was unofficially used to identify Black shoppers and people of color.

(In a statement to Business Insider, an Urbn spokesperson confirmed that the company's shoplifting policy "previously instructed associates to use the code names 'Nick'/'Nicky'/'Nicole' to identify potential shoplifters." The spokesperson said the policy was misused and that Urbn has since eliminated the use of such codes.)

Business Insider talked to more than a dozen former Urbn employees, six of whom left the company in the past 12 months. Multiple former employees said that when they noticed problems at the company, they felt they had no one to turn to. Two former Bhldn employees described what they said they felt was a pattern of discriminatory behavior regarding the use of models of color. And several former employees said there was a lack of diversity at the company. businessinsider.com

Tsunami of Retail Bankruptcies Could Be Coming
Struggling retailers rush to file for bankruptcy as fears of a second wave of coronavirus linger
Over a two-week span in early July, seven retailers, including The Paper Store, Brooks Brothers and Lucky Brand, filed for bankruptcy protection. J.Crew, Neiman Marcus and J.C. Penney and four other retailers had already filed in May. Lord & Taylor and the off-price shop Stein Mart led another wave that hit earlier this month. Some would say it has been a flood, but what's coming could be a tsunami.

For apparel companies and department store chains, which have been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, the turmoil doesn't appear to be slowing down anytime soon. Instead, industry executives and analysts predict another round of retail bankruptcies and liquidations could be coming if the predicted second wave of Covid-19 infections happens. Competitive pressures ahead of the holiday season could trigger a rush to bankruptcy court, they say.

"The pipeline is as full as it has been all year," said Bradley Snyder, an executive managing director at the liquidation firm Tiger Capital Group, referring to the potential for more retail bankruptcies. Some 44 retailers have already landed in bankruptcy court in 2020, according to a tracking by S&P Global Market Intelligence. cnbc.com

COMING MONDAY: The D&D Daily Exclusive Mid-Year & Q2 2020 Robbery Report Click here to see our previous crime reports

Lord & Taylor closing 24 of its 38 stores nationwide

Ulta Beauty to Close All Stores on Thanksgiving Day 2020

Report: Amazon takes over Toys 'R' Us omnichannel fulfillment


Quarterly Results
Citi Trends Q2 comp's in reopened stores up 32.2%, total sales up 18.2%
BJ's Wholesale comp's up 24.2%, net sales up 18.4%
Ross Stores Q2 comp's down 12% for reopened stores from date of reopening, sales down 32.4%

 

Senior LP & AP Jobs Market

Director of Investigations job posted for Peloton in Plano, TX
As the Program Director of Investigations this leader will conduct and support investigations resulting from evidence of external crimes and allegations of employee malfeasance, including but not limited to fraud, theft, workplace violence and other crimes or violations of company policy. It will be the focus of the Investigations team to support field LP leaders with more complicated or organized criminal activity or associate misconduct. greenhouse.io