MAGA Joy Spragens retweetledi
Every evening in Seattle, hundreds of people gather in front of a Walgreens to sell items they’ve just shoplifted. By 8:00 p.m. the store closes. By 8:05, an open-air black market forms—rows of stolen goods laid out for buyers looking for cheap prices.
Shoplifting has become big business in Seattle. Theft under $750 is treated as a misdemeanor, and in practice, most officers do not pursue or arrest offenders. The result is predictable: organized retail theft operating openly, night after night.
This isn’t anecdotal or isolated. Washington now has the highest retail theft rate in the nation, averaging roughly $347 in stolen goods per resident. I’ve seen similar illegal markets on Skid Row in Los Angeles, but Seattle stands out. In many ways it functions as a lawless city—and in some respects, it has surpassed Portland in both scale and tolerance of disorder.
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