New York City Mayor Eric Adams says shoplifting in the Big Apple is costing low-income retail workers their jobs, adding to unemployment, The New York Post reported.
"We're losing chain stores that are closing down," Adams said during the annual budget presentation in Albany Thursday where he pleaded with the State Assembly to reform the state's bail reform law. "People who are being employed in those stores are losing their jobs. They're adding to our unemployment.
"What we can't do is allow repeat offenders to make a mockery of our criminal justice system — and repeatedly!"
Adams was asked by Staten Island Assemblyman Mike Reilly what solutions could be used to combat "organized retail crime."
"People who say that we're criminalizing the poor – they're wrong," Adams said.
"Poor and low-income New Yorkers are being unemployed because we're losing those businesses in our city."
Retail theft has wreaked havoc on businesses in New York City – the number of shoplifting complaints surged to more than 63,000 last year, a 45% increase from 2021, according to NYPD data.
Adams in December promised to help with the issue during a citywide summit.
He threw his weight Thursday behind New York Democrat Gov. Kathy Hochul's plan to remove a provision of the state's 2019 bail reform law that requires judges to impose the "least restrictive" means of ensuring that defendants return to court.
"The governor's budget rightfully proposes to keep us safer by giving us additional tools to address our recidivist crises," Adams said. "Changes to the 'least restrictive' standard, as the governor has proposed, will go a long way toward solving our recidivist problem.
"This is critical because a disproportionate share of the serious crime in New York City is being driven by a limited number of extreme recidivists — approximately 2,000 people — who commit crime after crime while out on the street on bail."