Lawmakers Need to Crack Down on Crime, Not Small Businesses – Opinion

Mainstream media continues to chase the latest spree of smash-and-grab robberies plaguing companies throughout the nation, and rightly so. As crime charges are reaching a degree of disaster, leaders like Virginia’s newly elected Lt. Governor Winsome Sears are rightfully standing up towards lawlessness. However it’s prompting some lawmakers to hunt rash, ineffective options.

Sadly, a latest piece of state laws, Virginia’s SB 341, is certainly one of them. As an alternative of giving police precincts the instruments they should do their jobs and crack down on crime, Virginia policymakers are keen to kowtow to giant companies pushing laws villainizing small enterprise homeowners and on-line sellers.

Let’s be clear — this chaos isn’t being spurred by retirees, stay-at-home mothers, or school youngsters promoting issues like do-it-yourself jewellery or greeting playing cards on-line. This wave of organized retail crime is a direct results of a Democrat agenda that primarily incentivizes theft. For instance, Prop 47 in California downgraded the fees from a felony to a misdemeanor if the worth of the stolen items is lower than $950, a coverage that 59 p.c of state voters now need to see overturned after witnessing the havoc it wreaked firsthand.

We have to be more durable on crime. However coverage proposals like SB 341 solely stand to harm sincere on-line sellers making greater than an arbitrarily low gross sales threshold with a slew of pink tape laws that would shutter their digital doorways. Sadly, Virginia isn’t the one state the place the destiny of small on-line companies hangs within the stability. Different pink states like Missouri, West Virginia, and Ohio suggest equally onerous insurance policies focusing on small enterprise sellers.

So why are conservatives throughout the U.S. touting a invoice that favors stifling our small enterprise economic system over empowering legislation enforcement to focus on this in-store crime at its supply?  It’s unhappy, but it surely’s easy. The wizard behind the scenes pushing this invoice is big-box retail. The Walmarts of the world assume passing mandates like this throughout the nation can decelerate e-commerce in order that Large Retail can catch up.

As an alternative of doing the bidding of Large Retail, we should always give attention to stopping smash-and-grab robberies with common sense laws that’s powerful on crime. We are able to’t simply scapegoat America’s digital Major Avenue and proceed to present crooks a cross.