‘Woke’ Retailers Wanting to Defund Police Now Pleading for Protective Help
Retail CEOs in the United States, many of whom supported organizations that called for defunding police, are now begging Congress for help with a recent rash of “smash-and-go” lootings that have cost them hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Fox News reported that nearly two dozen CEOs “signed a letter to Congress asking for support as theft crimes rage,” including those from Target, Nordstrom, Levi Strauss, Ulta Beauty and Home Depot.
“Many corporate leaders jumped on the woke bandwagon and wrote big checks to organizations that still continue to advocate to defund the police,” San Jose Police Officers Association President Sean Pritchard told Fox News. “They did not think of anything beyond not being labeled a racist.”
The letter sent to Congress by the Retail Industry Leaders Association, highlighting support for the INFORM Consumers Act, stated: “Leading retailers are concerned about the growing impact organized retail crime is having on the communities we proudly serve. This important legislation will modernize our consumer protection laws to safeguard families and communities from the sale of illicit products and we urge its quick passage.”
Fox News researched public support pledged by the above companies during nationwide protests and riots following the death of George Floyd. Fox found that many of the companies supported left-wing groups like Black Lives Matter, the Equal Justice Initiative and the ACLS, all of whom advocate to defund or reform policing in the U.S.
In recent weeks, Nordstrom’s has suffered from mobs of looters storming multiple locations in California, resulting in hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages and stolen merchandise. Earlier this year, the company “doubled down” on its support for Black Lives Matter, Fox News reported.
Black Lives Matter led efforts throughout the country last year in rallying Americans to support defunding the police. BLM co-founder Patrisse Cullors, whom Fox said is a “self-described trained Marxist,” said that the way “we actually get real accountability and justice is through the “demand of defunding law enforcement.”
The irony is thick. But then some cities have now reversed course and called for more police officers amid these crime spikes. And police officials are taking issue with the advocates now softening their position on defunding police and spreading “amnesia” on the anti-police sentiment of last year.
“We urge President Biden to move at warp speed to create a vaccine to address our emerging Amnesia virus that has infected politicians, organizations and individuals who are now claiming they never advocated to defund the police, they just wanted to re-imagine policing,” Craig Lally, president of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, told Fox News Digital on Tuesday.
BLM leader Melina Abdullah’s recently commented that “When we say, ‘Defund the police,’ it doesn’t mean we don’t want public safety. It means we want resources for communities.”
“That is a lie,” Lally said. “Black Lives Matter Los Angeles literally advocated to cut the LAPD budget by over 90%, reducing the number of police officers to under 1,000 from a force of 9,700. That means 90% of the rapes, homicides, assaults, follow home and smash-and-grab robberies would simply not be investigated. We wonder if BLMs Melina Abdullah was going to tell these victims they simply don’t matter. We don’t have amnesia and neither will voters when it’s election time, we will make sure of it.” {eoa}
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