The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) used a stock image of two White, female shoplifters to warn readers about the elevated dangers of organized retail theft.
The post links to an FBI article discussing the different types of retail theft, and the effects it can have on a community.
- Organized Retail Theft (ORT), also known as Organized Retail Crime (ORC), is the large-scale theft of retail merchandise with the intent to resell the stolen items for financial gain.
- ORT impacts prices, tax revenue for state and local governments, the closing of retail businesses, jobs, health, and public safety
Why this matters: The decision to use two White women as the centerpiece of their X/Twitter post sends a false message about the issue. Ample evidence suggests that non-White Americans are the largest source of such crimes, yet the FBI appears hesitant to use a non-White face.
- Despite being only 13% of the population, Black Americans constituted 30% of all thefts and 34% of all instances of buying/receiving/selling stolen property in the United States, according to the FBI’s own crime statistics.
- The retail industry lost roughly $94 billion dollars in “retail shrinkage” in the aftermath of the 2020 Summer of Racial reckoning, where Black Lives Matter protestors ransacked major American cities for weeks.
- Headlines, CCTV videos, and mugshots have consistently shown that the majority of organized retail comes from Black Americans
In the Headlines: A pair of Venezuelan migrants in Chicago were recently arrested stealing from a Macy’s department store, and may have been a part of a notorious prison gang now thriving in an unsecured America.
In February, a Black police officer was caught shoplifting while on duty, and would eventually be arrested and hauled away in her own police cruiser.