Crime is a Top Issue for Store Owners in Midterm Elections
Crime bedevils US shopkeepers in run-up to midterm elections
When an upmarket clothing brand shuttered its San Francisco store last month, its boss said the west coast destination was a "city of chaos" where gangs of criminals roam free, robbing businesses at will. The closure of Cotopaxi seemed to confirm everything the Republican Party has been saying about rising crime in the United States in the run up to the midterm elections.

"Our store is hit by organized theft rings several times per week," wrote CEO Davis Smith in a viral social media post. "They brazenly enter the store and grab thousands of dollars of product and walk out. ... Our team is terrified. They feel unsafe."

- Lack of police -

For Robert Barnwell of the Hayes Valley public safety committee, the problems are state- and nationwide, and boil down to a lack of police -- a deficit caused by what he says is their loss of prestige and their relatively poor salaries.

As the two beat officers walk by, returning his wave, Barnwell says their presence is a major deterrent for wrongdoers, but it also helps remind merchants to take their own precautions.

"You have to put cameras in, train employees how to prevent shoplifting," he says.  "You have to teach them how to have proper protection because they (criminals) are going to keep coming back."

- Nuanced -

With America heading to the polls on November 8 to elect national, state, county and city leaders, crime is the number two issue on people's minds, according to polling by Gallup, which found 71 percent say it is a very or extremely important factor in deciding their ballot.

According to the Council on Criminal Justice, a think tank, 29 cities -- including Democratic bastions San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York -- have logged an increase in property crimes this year.

Republican candidates up and down the ballot in every race are hammering the issue, accusing their Democratic opponents of being soft on crime. Democrats say it's a message designed simply to spook voters. news.yahoo.com

2022 Midterms: The 'Crime Elections'
Op-Ed: Why these midterms will be the crime elections
Crime is set to be a decisive factor in next week’s elections. It is the biggest reason why governors’ contests are closer than expected in Oregon and New York. It is the main line of attack in crucial Senate races in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. It is why Los Angeles might be about to elect a former Republican property developer as its mayor.

Nationwide, it’s a major issue for swing voters and traditionally Democrat-supporting working-class voters. For some Democrats, this seems to be a head-scratcher: We’ve cut it out with calls to Defund the Police. We get it.

It’s not that Democratic leaders are actively defunding the police, or fail to appreciate, at least theoretically, that the issue is a major concern for voters. It’s that they time and again fail to act as though public safety is their number one concern. Violent crime is spiking in Washington. It is the city’s most pressing problem and should be its elected officials’ number one concern. In place of any sense of urgency or decisive action is a blue-on-blue debate about which criminal justice reform measures are worth keeping and which are worth watering down.

The message to voters is clear: your worries about safety are not our top priority.

Across the country, the Democratic Party’s messaging on crime has been all over the place. First, the crime problem was nothing more than a Republican scare campaign: a racist figment of the right-wing imagination. When more and more Democrats acknowledged the problem, they made the slightly trollish claim that crime is actually higher in red states. Absent from their pitch to voters on one of the most important issues: a straightforward pledge to actually deal with the problem.

A survey by progressive pollster Stan Greenberg demonstrated the Democrats’ problem clearly. He asked voters what they feared most if the Democrats won the upcoming elections. The top answer, with support of 56 percent of respondents was “crime and homelessness out of control in cities and police coming under attack.” Compare that to voters’ top concern about Republican victory, “a national abortion ban and women losing equal rights forever”, which earned 32 percent support.

The bottom line is that Democrats have lost all credibility on the crime issue, and have taken very few steps beyond the most cosmetic and obvious, to address that problem. For that they are set to pay a high price. spectatorworld.com

Number of Americans Who Say Crime is Up Hits Highest Level Since 1989
Ahead of Midterms, Most Americans Say Crime is Up. What Does the Data Say?

More people than ever believe crime is up in their area, polls show. But public perception doesn’t always match reality.

According to polling, 56% of Americans believe crime went up in their neighborhood in 2022, the highest level since Gallup started asking in 1989. Nearly 80% believe crime went up in the country last year.

But is crime going up? The answer is not simple, and it lends itself easily to manipulation. Depending on how you choose those variables, it’s possible to get wildly divergent answers about what is happening to crime.

For example, in Atlanta, from 2020 to 2021, the number of murders went up by 3%, according to the Atlanta Police Department. But if we extend the comparison to 2019, before the pandemic, murders are up by 65%. Yet compared to 1990, murders in Atlanta are down by 32%, despite steady population growth. The city’s murder total in 2021 was also roughly the same as the annual tallies in the early 2000s.

Nationally, what we know from both FBI data reported by police, and from an annual federal survey that asks about 240,000 people whether they personally were victims of crime, is that violent and property crimes have both been on a steady decline since the early 1990s. Murders did increase at a troubling and dramatic rate nationwide in 2020, and have remained elevated, but murder is the least common form of violent crime. Overall, violent crime has remained roughly static since 2010, following decades of decline.

Public perception doesn’t line up well with reality, and hasn’t for quite some time. It’s generally true in the media that bad things (like crime) are deemed more newsworthy than the lack of bad things. So if crime goes up in some places, remains flat in some and goes down in others, the increase is likely to get more news coverage. And when those increases get reported by national outlets, it can help create a broad impression that crime is up everywhere. themarshallproject.org

Most Candidates Running on Crime Don’t Have Much Power to Solve It

Your congressman doesn’t control the police budget. Your senator probably doesn’t know where the worst hot spots are.

Politicians around the country have promised in the closing days of the midterm election to crack down on crime. Would-be governors will crack down on crime. Senators will crack down on crime. Members of Congress will do it, too. Obviously, their opponents won’t.

The law-and-order messaging is often disconnected from the nuance of crime trends (in 2022, homicide is up in some places, but down in others like New York City; yes, Oklahoma has higher violent crime rates than California). But it’s also devoid of the reality that these offices generally have little power to bend crime trends on the ground tomorrow.

Crime surges and falls for reasons that experts don’t fully understand, and it’s hard for even the most proven ideas to quickly reverse its direction. But the people with ready levers to pull are not sitting in the Senate. And your current sense of order in your community is definitely not controlled by your congressman. nytimes.com

NY bail reform becomes election focal point: Here’s where the candidates stand
New York’s controversial bail reforms have become a focal point in Tuesday’s elections, with critics blaming the Democrat-backed measures for jacking up crime — and experts saying the issue could help propel some Republican candidates to victory.

Has a focus on crime helped the GOP seal a midterms victory?

Democrats Promote Tough-on-Crime Credentials as Party Plays Defense

San Antonio Battles Smash-and-Grabs with 24/7 Security
Undercover officers & private security patrol Market Square after brazen smash-and-grabs
Several brazen smash-and-grab burglaries are putting renewed focus on security at Historic Market Square. The Trouble Shooters show you what’s made the tourist destination a softer target and what’s being done to keep it safe.

We combed through the new city budget and found, for the first time, there’s money set aside for a private security guard to patrol Market Square during the overnight hours.

The city calls it a proactive measure, but shop owners lament it didn’t happen soon enough. With windows boarded up, shop owners are angry, frustrated and scared. Four smash-and-grab burglaries in 48 hours were captured by security cameras last month. All took place during the overnight hours.

Since the crime spree, the Trouble Shooters spotted a new overnight private security guard. The position is paid for through the new city budget. The addition means that Market Square now has security patrol 24 hours a day.

“Shop owners tells us that hiring this overnight security guard is a start, but they'd like to see more presence from SAPD. What commitment is SAPD willing to make to them?” reporter Emily Baucum asks.

“We have officers that are committed to this area, as well as park police. And we started to do undercover with our undercover - detectives on the bike patrol unit - operations in the Market Square to identify and deter crime in the area,” Sgt. Moscoso answers.

The undercover operation started Tuesday night, resulting in three arrests and four citations. Since Market Square is a city facility, the El Mercado Association would like to see SAPD set up a permanent workspace here to give the family-owned shops more peace of mind. news4sanantonio.com

Enhanced Metal Detectors & Video Gun Detection
Commentary: Are Gun Detectors the Answer to Mass Shootings?

Opinion: Surveillance technologies that promise to prevent gun violence are unproven and threaten our privacy.

A number of companies have responded to recent horrific mass shootings by touting technology that can ostensibly detect people with guns. Two companies in particular have attracted a lot of press attention for their products: one that makes AI-enhanced metal detectors, and another that sells video analytics software that “watches” surveillance camera feeds and sounds an alarm when the machine vision thinks it sees a person holding a gun.

Enhanced metal detectors

One product, made by a company called Evolv, is a metal detector enhanced with machine learning, which the company claims increases accuracy. Metal detectors and other body scanners are already deployed in various venues in the United States. Where scanners nonetheless exist, making them more accurate and less intrusive is a good thing, all other things being equal.

Evolv is pushing for a sharp expansion of metal detectors in American life, not simply an upgrade of existing deployments. The company, which has raised half a billion dollars in funding, claims that it currently scans over three quarters of a million people each day, and has ambitions to install thousands of new detectors around the U.S. and the world.

ZeroEyes video gun detection

A company called ZeroEyes is marketing video analytics techniques that can purportedly identify when someone is holding a firearm in a surveillance camera feed.

This concept incentivizes the installation of surveillance cameras everywhere. And because gun detection analytics acts as an add-on to existing cameras, it’s not as if the cameras involved will only be used to look for guns. They can simultaneously be used for the full range of surveillance uses, including face recognition, forensic search, and even marketing and “business intelligence.” aclu.org

Crime 'State of Emergency' in NYC?
The road to a safer city: The truth about crime in NYC right now
Lee Zeldin, running for New York governor, promises to declare a crime emergency and unilaterally suspend four laws, which he almost certainly can’t do. He wants to bigfoot Manhattan voters and yank DA Alvin Bragg.

While Zeldin is right that crime trends in New York City are not good, he ignores recent positive signs. The NYPD’s latest report, reflecting complaints through the end of October, shows crime in the seven major categories up 30% over last year, 32% over 2020 and 20% over 2010. Rapes, robberies and felony assaults this year are up 11%, 32% and 14% over 2021. This is a problem.

But simultaneously and importantly, sharp increases in arrests and prosecutions for illegal gun crimes — including by Bragg himself (Manhattan gun possession convictions are triple their 2019 levels) — have helped drive shootings down 13% and murders down 14% year-over-year. Comparing October 2022 to October 2021 looks especially promising in important categories of crime: Murders were down 33% citywide. Shootings, down 34%. Felony assaults, down 6%. Good.

The larger trendlines are troubling and must not continue. Letting judges factor in a defendant’s dangerousness, as they can in 49 other states, would indeed help. Meanwhile, there’s been a noticeable increase in mentally unstable individuals in public spaces, some of whom present threats to their fellow New Yorkers. Most of them need help, not incarceration. Disorder, while surely less threatening than violence, contributes to the feel of a city out of control.

While rising crime must be contained — we want a stable city or one growing safer — it is not rampant either on the streets or the subways, and ought not petrify New Yorkers or hinder our economic recovery. This remains one of the safest big cities in the United States, one that’s safer than plenty of rural areas to boot. Many a city in states with better bail laws and tough-on-crime prosecutors face more serious challenges than New York does. nydailynews.com

Over 9K Officers Have Left NYPD Since 2020
Forced overtime, nepotism, low morale: ‘Perfect storm for disaster’ at NYPD
While anti-police sentiment, criminal justice reforms and progressive politicians are frequent explanations for the crisis given by police unions and NYPD brass, the officers interviewed for this story say their primary issues with the job come from within.

Those problems stem from mismanagement and nepotism throughout the department, being held to unrealistic expectations, answering to a revolving door of out-of-touch chiefs and working among a force that’s turned its back on itself.

Since 2020, a staggering 9,180 officers have left the job – 36% of whom quit before they were eligible for their full pension – and the NYPD is on pace to see more than 4,000 cops retire or resign this year.

As of Sept. 30, 1,628 officers have retired and another 1,426 quit, the most resignations seen since the post-Sept. 11 exodus in 2002 — and more than 2019 and 2020 combined.

The NYPD is so desperate to stem the bleeding, community affairs officers have been knocking on the doors of people who passed the exam but never moved forward with the hiring process to encourage them to join the academy. nypost.com

US: 99.6M Cases - 1M Dead - 97.2M Recovered
Worldwide: 637.8M Cases - 6.6M Dead - 617.5M Recovered

Private Industry Security Guard Deaths: 362  
Law Enforcement Officer Deaths: 811

OSHA Blasted for Not Protecting Workers During COVID
DOL watchdog: OSHA ‘did not sufficiently protect’ workers from COVID-19 pandemic risks

The Office of the Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Labor criticized the Occupational Safety and Health Administration for its lax enforcement that might have led to workers’ “unnecessary exposure to the virus.”

The federal agency tasked with ensuring workplace safety failed to "sufficiently" protect workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, a government watchdog announced Wednesday.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Inspector General analyzed the Occupational Health and Safety Administration’s actions during the pandemic’s first year — which saw major outbreaks at workplaces, including meatpacking plants — and concluded the agency did not do enough.

“We determined OSHA’s enforcement activities did not sufficiently protect workers from COVID-19 health hazards,” the report reads. “As a result, there is a heightened risk that workers suffered unnecessary exposure to the virus.”

The report identified three main problems with the agency’s enforcement:

● not citing employers who failed to record deaths, injuries and illnesses;
● failing to require employers to report all COVID-19 infections in their workforce;
● and closing inspections without always ensuring employers mitigated COVID-19 risks.

In its response, OSHA said it agreed more information on COVID-19 cases was needed, but it largely stood by its regulatory process.

The report doesn’t explicitly mention meatpacking plants, but much of the criticism of OSHA’s handling of the pandemic revolved around those facilities. The agency entered the pandemic with its fewest number of inspectors in decades. At the same time, the number of workplaces it has to oversee has increased. investigatemidwest.org

Cities Struggle to Keep Downtowns Alive Without Office Workers
COVID-19 Reshaped the Work and Mobility Landscape in U.S. Cities
A new report by StreetLight Data underscores how traffic patterns across U.S. downtown areas have been reshaped by the pandemic. Remote work and changes in travel preferences offer new challenges for urban planners and transit agencies.

The COVID-19 pandemic upended decades of transportation and city planning across the U.S., prompting experts to rethink the role of public transit and how to maintain vibrant downtown areas without a steady flow of commuters and office workers.

Specifics vary from place to place, but in a lot of cities, pandemic-related traffic patterns set by the remote work movement remain a reality, as white-collar office workers adjust to more flexible schedules. This generally translates into less commuting into downtown areas, both via car and transit options.

Fewer workers means fewer folks going out for lunch, fewer stops at cafes and generally less economic activity. These COVID-19 pandemic-prompted changes have led to not only a glut of unused office space, but a general decline in the vitality of cities.

“What’s scary for many U.S. downtowns is the ‘return to normal’ for office occupancy has stalled,” said Martin Morzynski. Morzynski went on to note how data from keycard swipes — a measure of office activity — has not been on the rise through the summer and fall, “placing more pressure on cities to get creative about bringing non-work activity, as well as attractive residential options, downtown to bring back economic growth.”  govtech.com

McKinsey & Company: Pandemic Preparedness
Enlisting experts. The COVID-19 pandemic isn’t over yet, but leaders are now examining how to refine a response to future health crises. The work to hone public-health messaging needs to take place well before the next pandemic strikes, and leaders should involve experts in human behavior, researchers say. One behavioral economist suggests that organizations make it easier for people to act responsibly. For example, adding hand sanitizer stations in accessible locations increases public willingness to follow hygiene advice. [Nature]

Responding to the next crisis. Global efforts to strengthen pandemic preparedness are under way now. The US has proposed billions of dollars in new related spending and is creating a center for epidemic forecasting. Meanwhile, Europe has launched the Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority. But attention spans can be short, and public-health leaders may need to show that new funding is creating measurable improvements. See a framework that public-health leaders can use to help direct investments to the areas of greatest need. mckinsey.com

China Weighs Zero-Covid Exit but Proceeds With Caution and Without Timeline

Beijing takes gradual approach to easing pandemic policies despite rising concerns about impact on economy.  wsj.com

Editor's Note: All those factory closings is hurting them economically and losing some of our business isn’t helping. Hope our nation's buyers keep weaning off of that dependency.

A ‘tripledemic’ of flu, RSV and COVID is feared in California
A confluence of respiratory illnesses has some California officials warning of a possible triple threat that could strain healthcare systems.

Cleveland Man Sentenced for COVID Loan Fraud & Illegal Possession of Firearm

A Legal Perspective on Security's Role
Security Amid a Pro-Union Wave
Labor unions are coming back to the fore in the United States and beyond after decades of declining presence and membership. Union representation petitions filed with the U.S. National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) increased 57 percent between October 2021 and March 2022 when compared to the same period a year before, and unfair labor practice charges were up 14 percent. Unions won more elections in 2022 than they have in nearly two decades, according to Bloomberg Law.

No industry proved immune to the heightened scrutiny and demands from employees—coffee chains, retailers, warehouses, and technology contractors all began pushes for unions and collective bargaining agreements. And unions are popular among the broader population—68 percent of Americans approve of labor unions, according to a September 2021 Gallup poll.

First and foremost—security guards and personnel cannot usually be in the same bargaining unit as other employees, says Daniel Schudroff, an attorney at Jackson Lewis P.C., based in New York City.

This division does not mean security officers are separate from unionization activities. Their actions in response to pro-union activity in a facility—whether ordered by a manager or undertaken independently—could have serious ramifications for the organization if they interfere inappropriately, such as surveilling or interrogating pro-union employees.

Organizations need to devote resources to ensure their security practices and procedures are in compliance and driven by management—not lone actors.

“Employers need to think about if security guards are enforcing security rules consistently, even-handedly, not discriminating against or for unions, not letting people on the premises in violation of the non-solicitation rule. ...Security guards can be a helpful force for employers to exercise their legal rights relative to union awareness and union activity,” Segal says. asisonline.org

Closing Stores that Unionize?
Starbucks is ‘choosing to fight tooth and nail’: Labor union president
As of Friday, there are 320 Starbucks locations that have conducted unionization ballot counts. Of those, 257 have voted yes to unionize, 57 have voted no, and 6 are challenge-determinative. Of those that voted yes, 248 have been certified, and Starbucks is expected to begin bargaining in good faith with the union, according to the National Labor Relations Board.

However, a spokesperson from Starbucks Workers United, told Yahoo Finance in an email that "Starbucks has not begun to bargain in good faith."

A recent release from Starbucks Workers United claimed that "after very publicly announcing their intention to bargain at over 200 unionized stores, [Starbucks] walked out of bargaining rooms in Buffalo, Ann Arbor, Louisville, Chicago, and Lakewood, CA, yesterday due to the presence of a simple zoom room. After previously engaging in completely virtual bargaining and hybrid bargaining with no issue, the company suddenly took issue with the format, and only lasted 5 minutes at the table before storming out of the Elmwood negotiation conference room and hosting a company-side caucus for over two and a half hours."

"Starbucks is choosing to fight tooth and nail, close stores when people unionize ... We really welcome the day when the CFO's comments are the reality with Starbucks because the partners love that company and they want a seat at the table and a voice on the job and to be respected, protected, and paid what they're worth," she said.

Henry noted that unionization efforts are gaining steam across the country: "We're going to continue to see workers joining together at Starbucks, Amazon, fast food, airports, and across the service and care sector, because people want to turn poverty-wage jobs into good jobs that they can raise their families on." finance.yahoo.com

Fast Food Industry Pushes Back Against New Worker Protection Law
Allegations of underhanded tactics in this fast-food industry battle
I’ve been closely following the expensive battle over new California law Assembly Bill 257, known as the Fast Food Accountability and Standards Recovery Act. The law seeks to boost protections for workers at large chain restaurants and could raise their minimum wage as high as $22 next year.

It’s a pretty big deal. The law, signed by Gov. Newsom earlier this year, creates a first-of-its-kind council with authority to set workplace standards governing wages, working hours and other conditions across the state’s fast-food industry. The model could transform the way workers negotiate conditions with their employers not just in California but also across the U.S.

Currently there is a massive push underway by a fast-food industry coalition — which deems AB 257 an existential threat to restaurant businesses — to block the law until the issue can be put before voters. The coalition is in the process of collecting enough signatures by the Dec. 4 deadline to get the referendum on the November 2024 ballot.

But the coalition faces allegations from a big California labor union that it is making false claims to voters to persuade them to sign its circulating petition.

Since I published a story on the union’s allegations last week, a couple of people have reached out to tell us they feel they were duped by petition-gatherers, that folks peddling the petition falsely told them it was for a measure that would raise the minimum wage for fast-food workers. latimes.com

Home Depot Union Effort Loses in Philadelphia
Philadelphia Home Depot workers vote to reject unionization

Home Depot workers in Philadelphia voted against forming the first store-wide labor union at the world’s largest home improvement retailer Saturday night, a loss for a fledgling movement to organize at major U.S. companies

Home Depot workers in Philadelphia rejected the first store-wide labor union at the world's largest home improvement retailer Saturday night, a loss for a fledgling movement to organize at major U.S. companies.

Workers voted 165 to 51 against forming Home Depot Workers United, which would have represented 274 employees at the store, according to the National Labor Relations Board, which oversaw the voting. The company and union organizations have five days to file objections.

The defeat for the organizers could discourage activist workers who have successfully formed the first unions at big chains, including Amazon, Starbucks, Trader Joe’s and Apple, but have since suffered setbacks in getting collective bargaining off the ground or organizing more unions. abcnews.go.com

Lowe's Selling Canadian Business - 450 Total Stores
Lowe’s selling its Canadian business to Sycamore Partners
The home improvement retailer has entered into a definitive agreement to sell its Canadian retail business to Sycamore Partners for $400 million in cash, plus a performance-based deferred consideration. The transaction is expected to close in early 2023.

Based in Boucherville, Quebec, Lowe's Canadian division includes approximately 450 corporate and independent affiliate dealer stores under different banners, which include Rona, Lowe's Canada, Réno-Dépôt and Dick's Lumber. The deal will establish Lowe's Canada and Rona as a standalone, Quebec-headquartered company.

Lowe’s Canadian division represents approximately 7% of its full year 2022 sales outlook. chainstoreage.com

Self-Checkout Accounts for Nearly 40% of Lanes in Grocery in U.S.
The number of self-checkout lanes in the U.S. has increased 10% in the last five years, according to a study from shopper intelligence firm Catalina, which assessed data from 4.5 billion UPC-level transactions by 245 million consumers accounting for $222 billion in sales in the U.S. in 2021.

Study showed 39% of analyzed shoppers used both lane types in 2021, depending upon their shopping mission. About half (49%) of shoppers preferred manned-only lanes, while only 12% of shoppers were steadfast SCO-exclusive users. Breaking down the behavior of analyzed hybrid shoppers, Catalina found their transactions were split 50-50 between MCO and SCO, with MCO accounting for 68% of sales and SCO for 32%. chainstoreage.com

Sears out of bankruptcy, a handful of stores are left
Former retail powerhouse is down to 20+ stores in 14 states and Puerto Rico

Simon Property Group Closing All But 2 Shopping Centers on Thanksgiving Day


Quarterly Results

CVS Q3 Pharmacy Segment up 10.7, CVS Health's retail/LTC segment up 6.9%, revenue up 10%


Last week's #1 article --

Walmart's Aggressive Approach to Fighting Theft
There's so many Walmart shoplifting charges you may not realize what you're doing is 'theft'

A LAWYER has explained all the shoplifting charges at Walmart that they claim you may not even realize are considered theft.

You may think shoplifting is just putting an item in your bag and walking out of the store without paying. However, it isn't quite that straightforward. At Walmart, shoppers can get hit with charges for a variety of illicit activities, including having intent to shoplift.

The law firm explained that just walking into the store with the intent to steal could lead to a separate charge, but this is admittedly difficult to prove in court.

Walmart prosecutes shoplifters, the site warned. the-sun.com