Retail Locations Turning Into Hotbeds of Violence
Why Shootings & Violent Crimes Are Surging at Shopping Centers
On Sunday night, a shooting at an Indianapolis-area shopping mall left at least four people dead and two injured. The incident, which marked another mass shooting in the U.S., once again occurred in a retail setting — and that’s becoming more common amid a general uptick in mass shootings.

The number of active shooter incidents recorded in the U.S. has grown every year, the FBI found in a 2021 study. According to the Gun Violence Archive, there were 692 shootings in 2021 and have been at least 357 mass shootings this year so far.

“It is no secret that criminal activity at retailers as has jumped significantly over the last few years,” said Karl Langhorst, an adjunct professor at the University of Cincinnati’s School of Criminal Justice and an expert on retail loss prevention and corporate security. “And unfortunately, we’re seeing a trend that those incidents are becoming more and more violent.”

As the world’s largest retailer, Walmart was the top grocery location for gun violence incidents between January 1, 2020 and May 14, with 310 incidents and 89 deaths, Guns Down America found. With over 5,000 retail locations in the U.S. stores, 90% of Americans live within 10 miles of a Walmart store, making it more accessible — and susceptible to violence — than many other chains.

“Retail, by its very nature, is open and welcoming to all parts of society and customer bases,” Langhorst said. “And as society itself seems to be undergoing, some would say, a breakdown of civility, you’re seeing these types of things turn into the violence, much more than what we used to.”

By comparison, there are thousands of Dollar Tree and Dollar General stores across the U.S., but shootings in these low-price stores are less common. That might be because Walmart, with its vast assortment of products across every major category and large stores, functions as a convergent space for a variety of different people. This feature, Pyrooz explained, along with its ubiquity, makes it more likely to be the scene of a violent incident.

Given the trend, it is crucial for retailers to maintain ongoing relationships with local law enforcement to discuss safety and preventative measures to curb violence, Langhorst explained. Additionally, many retailers have rolled out active shooter training across their staff. yahoo.com

One of the Top ORC Targets in America
Aurora retailers among top targets of retail crime syndicates
Organized crime syndicates are taking shoplifting to a whole new level and among the crime rings top targets in the country is the Havana Business District in Aurora. The Colorado Retail Council says a million dollar theft used to be a big deal in our state.

Now, it says, it's not unusual to see thefts five times that, and some have turned violent.  Scott Davenport, owner Heirloom Antique Mall in Aurora, is one of the latest victims of the crime rings.

"It's become organized. They know they can do it and there's no penalty," said Aurora City Councilman Dustin Zvonek.

After pushing for stiffer penalties for car theft, he's doing the same for retail theft. He says the Dicks, Ross and Kohls in the Havana Business District are among the biggest retail theft targets in the country.

"Aurora is not going to continue to be a city where you can commit crimes and coddle criminals. We're going to focus on justice for victims. We are going to do everything we can to keep people's families, neighborhoods and businesses safe."

After the latest theft at his place, Davenport added alarms to display cases. "It's always the costs. It's just too much anymore. It's just gotten out of control." He says the Havana Business District is strong but, organized crime syndicates on the heels of a pandemic and shutdown, is a lot.

Davenport says retailers are holding meetings and sharing loss prevention tips. Meanwhile, Zvonek says Aurora's Police Chief is having the department's new Direct Action Response Team focus on retail theft and the department is joining the Colorado Organized Retail Theft Alliance which tackles the problem statewide. cbsnews.com

NYC's Revolving Door of Retail Criminals
Recidivism rates for NYC’s burglars and thieves soar amid bail reform: NYPD data

The revolving door of justice is spinning in overdrive these days.

Roughly one in every five crooks busted for burglary or theft in New York last year got re-arrested on a felony charge within 60 days after being put back on the streets, NYPD figures obtained by The Post show.

The alarming statistics reveal increases in alleged recidivism as high as three times what they were in 2017 — before New York’s controversial bail-reform law took effect in 2020.

The numbers also show that suspects arrested last year for misdemeanor petit larceny amid the city’s ongoing shoplifting spree went on to quickly commit more serious crimes, with 21.6% charged with felonies less than two months later. That rate is more than 2.5 times the 8.1% recorded in 2017.

The NYPD’s five-year comparisons show 23.7% of last year’s burglary suspects were re-arrested within 60 days, up from 7.7% in 2017 — an increase of 208%. For suspects charged with grand larceny, the spike was nearly as high — 203% — with the alleged recidivism rate hitting 19.7%, up from 6.5%.

Meanwhile, the alleged recidivism rates among two categories of offense — burglary and auto theft — were even worse in 2020, when they were 27.1% and 26.8%.

Under New York’s bail reform law, only the most serious burglaries — those in which the perpetrator is armed with a deadly weapon or injuries a victim — are eligible for bail and virtually all larceny suspects get released without having to post bail or bond.

An NYPD detective with more than 20 years on the job said, “They’re letting everybody out.” “We see it every single day: ROR’d, ROR’d, ROR’d,” the detective said, using slang for “released on recognizance.”

John Jay College of Criminal Justice professor Eugene O’Donnell, a former NYPD cop, said state lawmakers “didn’t level with people when they did bail reform ... Bail reform means you can shoot someone on Friday night and be back on the street on Sunday."  nypost.com

Crime Is Up, But Arrests Are Down
Chicago Democrats tight-lipped on plan to address lowest number of arrests in 20 years amid surging crime

Chicago is on track for more than 600 homicides this year

Chicago police made arrests in 12% of crime cases in 2021, the lowest rate since 2001, as sweeping changes have been made in recent years as to how the department patrols the streets, including restricting their vehicle pursuit policy and ending foot pursuits if a suspect runs from an officer or if someone commits a minor offense.

Chicago has been rocked by crime in recent years. Homicides skyrocketed in the city in 2020, following a drop in violence for the three previous years. The Windy City recorded nearly 770 homicides in 2020, up 50% compared to 2019. Last year, the city broke a 25-year record when it surpassed 800 homicides, the Chicago Tribune reported.

So far this year, shootings and killings for the first half of 2022 are down roughly 17% and 10%, respectively. However, the city is still on pace to break the 600-homicide benchmark by the end of the year, WTTW reported this month.

The number of traffic stops and tickets have also dropped, and the number of investigative stops fell by more than 50% between 2019 and 2021. Additionally, the Chicago-Sun Times analysis showed that fewer crimes are being reported to police by residents and officers on the streets.

In addition to the rising crime, lenient sentencing policies that often result in violent criminals being released back onto the streets have resulted in police officers thinking twice before arresting certain criminals.

A Chicago police officer told the Chicago Sun-Times last week that officers hesitate interacting with "criminals with guns" due to prosecutors having a tighter grip on approving felony charges against criminals. foxnews.com

The Factors Driving America's Violence Surge
GSO 2025 Q&A: Dr. Park Dietz Discusses Root Causes of Violence Surge

Renowned forensic psychiatrist and founder of Threat Assessment Group discusses the root causes behind the recent increases in violence across America

The following is an interview of Park Dietz, M.D., MPH, Ph.D, and founder of Threat Assessment Group, Inc., by security consultant Lynn Mattice.

Mattice: What do you view as the root cause of the dramatic increase in violence in America?

Dr. Dietz: While it’s better to look at the causes of specific types of violence — not all of which spring from identical sources — I’d argue that the four root causes of most types of violence are these:

1. Erosion of the institutions of social control. For centuries, humans were kept in line to some extent by religion, morality, family, education, law enforcement, and the law. As these have been eroded, they’ve been increasingly replaced with the influences of the mass media, social media, the entertainment industry, the music industry, and those advocacy groups that make the most noise. These growing influences are too often incendiary or malicious.

2. Dissolution of the social contract. To the extent that social forces turn groups and tribes against one another, the ties that bind are weakened and sources of conflict multiply. Identity politics is one of the obvious examples of this influence.

3. The disappearance of discipline from families, schools, and most civilian organizations. Earlier generations were disciplined firmly at home and school, knew what behavior was expected of them, and knew their livelihood depended on civility at work. This is no longer true.

4. Hopelessness. In at least some cultures, poverty drives hopelessness, and now inflation is impoverishing millions more Americans. For young males, hopelessness is pandemic. They are told daily that there won’t be jobs for them, that they can’t expect to enjoy the standard of living of their parents, that they won’t be able to afford a family, that the draft might be reinstated, that famine is on the horizon, and that climate change will soon end the world.  securityinfowatch.com

Gun Violence & Assault Weapons Sales Are Surging
Assault Weapons Makers Pulled In Over $1B as Violence Surged, Report Says

A House panel found that the companies have thrived in the past decade by selling and marketing military-grade weapons to civilians, specifically young men.

The leading manufacturers of assault rifles used to perpetrate the deadliest mass shootings in the United States have collected more than $1 billion in revenue over the past decade as gun violence across the country has surged, according to a House investigation set to be presented on Capitol Hill on Wednesday.

The findings, released before a congressional hearing on Wednesday on the marketing of assault rifles, indicate that the gun industry has thrived by selling and marketing military-grade weapons to civilians, specifically targeting and playing to the insecurities of young men, while some have made thinly veiled references to white supremacist groups.

The House Committee on Oversight and Reform opened an investigation into the gun manufacturing industry in May after the gun massacre in Uvalde, Texas, that killed 19 elementary school students and two teachers and a racially motivated mass shooting in a Buffalo supermarket that killed 10 people.

The panel requested that the country’s top five gun manufacturers share information on their sales and marketing strategies, as well as any efforts they make to track safety data related to their products.

“The business practices of these gun manufacturers are deeply disturbing, exploitative and reckless,” Representative Carolyn B. Maloney, Democrat of New York and the chairwoman of the committee, said in a statement. “These companies use aggressive marketing tactics to target young people — especially young men — and some even evoke symbols of white supremacy.”

She added, “We found that none of these companies bothers to keep track of the death and destruction caused by their products.”  nytimes.com

House Dems' policing fight reignited by anti-crime push
Leadership had to punt planned votes on an assault weapons ban and law enforcement funding, reopening old wounds caused by the caucus' debate over "defund the police" messaging.

Experts call shootings in 75th Precinct a warning sign for NYC

Op-Ed: More officers needed to address rising crime in Washington

US: 92.9M Cases - 1M Dead - 87.9M Recovered
Worldwide: 579.9M Cases - 6.4M Dead - 549.8M Recovered

Former Senior Loss Prevention Executive
Know of any fallen LP exec? Let's remember & recognize.

Private Industry Security Guard Deaths: 360  
Law Enforcement Officer Deaths: 787
*Red indicates change in total deaths

Latest Surge Causing Labor Shortages
Covid is still causing havoc around the world
The number of new Covid-19 cases is rising once again and while the virus isn't killing nearly as many people as it used to -- thanks to vaccinations -- it is still causing havoc around the world. With labor shortages already paralyzing airports and wrecking the hospitality sector, a wave of worker absences due to sickness is the last thing the economy needs.

The latest wave of infections is driven by the most infectious and transmissible variant identified so far -- BA.5. Based on the sequencing data reported to the World Health Organization (WHO), about half of all coronavirus cases globally are now caused by this variant. In the US, BA.5 accounts for about 80% of new cases, according to the latest data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). cnn.com

No New Mask Mandate Coming to LA
L.A. County won’t impose new mask mandate as coronavirus cases decline
Los Angeles County will hold off on reinstituting a universal indoor public mask mandate, prompted by improvements in the region’s coronavirus case and hospitalization rates.

Aside from not implementing the order, which otherwise would’ve gone into effect Friday, the recent downward trends are fueling some optimism that the months-old COVID wave fueled by hyper-infectious Omicron subvariants is finally starting to wane.

The renewed face covering order would have applied indoors for anyone age 2 or older at a host of establishments and venues, including shared office space, manufacturing and retail settings, event spaces, restaurants and bars, gyms and yoga studios, educational settings and children’s programs.

Masks remain required — as they have for months — in indoor public transit areas in L.A., including in taxis, Ubers and Lyfts and in airports, as well as in healthcare settings, nursing homes, jails, prisons, shelters and in settings where businesses or venues require it. latimes.com

Chinese Lockdowns Impacting Brands
Gucci Owner Suffers From Bigger China Exposure Amid Lockdowns
Gucci continues to suffer from repeated Covid-19 lockdowns in China, where Kering SA’s biggest brand has a greater exposure than other luxury labels. Gucci’s popularity has suffered among consumers since the pandemic struck. A great degree of uncertainty still remains when it comes to virus restrictions in China with Wuhan locking down one million residents amid a virus resurgence this week.

Kering said that “solid performances in retail around the world” and a “nascent rebound in tourism in Europe” more than offset the impact of China. Recurring operating income at Kering rose by more than a quarter to 2.82 billion euros ($2.85 billion) in the first half, compared to 2.68 billion euros analysts expected.

Despite the restrictions in China, Kering will continue to invest in that country, Chief Financial Officer Jean-Marc Duplaix told reporters in a call. Duplaix said up to 35% of the store network of Gucci in China was shut during April and May.

On Tuesday, LVMH posted sales and earnings that showed the appetite of luxury consumers is so far resilient to the rising inflation and worsening economic outlook. bnnbloomberg.ca

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