Chicago City Wire

Shoplifters have become so brazen in Chicago that a Facebook video posted recently by CWB Chicago shows four of thieves strolling out of a Marshall’s in Lincoln Park, their arms loaded with winter clothes. Store employees appear helpless to stop them.

Marshall’s “just got they dumb ass got,” wrote Facebook user Binky GC underneath the December 13 posting of the video."They walked out this bitch with hella coats.”

In October, CWB reported a sharp increase in shoplifting over the past few years in Chicago’s busiest retail corridors. The news outlet also noted that Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx is not pursuing felony charges against thefts for less than $1,000. This, while state law puts the felony threshold at $300.

Kim Foxx

Chicago police union spokesman Martin Preib blamed the increase in shoplifting on Foxx’s “restorative justice” in a Chicago City Wire follow-up story to the original CWB report.

“Kimberly Foxx’s restorative justice is all about restoring criminals back to the streets where they can prey on innocent people and merchants,” Preib said.

CWB earlier reported that since Foxx was elected in November 2016, retail theft reports are up 20% across the city.

“Along the posh Rush Street shopping district, reported incidents have more than doubled,” the report said. “And on State Street, famed in movie and song for its shopping opportunities, retail theft cases are up 32%.”

In November, WGN-TV reported that “a rash of organized shoplifting in places like Lincoln Park and Michigan Avenue is taking things to a new level.”

“We’re seeing store security guards being pepper-sprayed, maced and physically attacked,” Ald. Brian Hopkins (2nd Ward) told the station.

“So they have no fear and they’re acting with impunity. That needs to change."