PRAGER: Is Stealing Wrong? Not On The Left

To most readers of this column, the question is absurd. The reason is not because the question is, in fact, absurd; it is because most readers of this column are conservative, and many are religious.

Am I implying that most leftists do not believe stealing is wrong?

Yes, I am.

As incredible as this assertion is to just about all religious people and virtually all conservatives, most leftists do not believe stealing is wrong. Since I always draw a distinction between those on the Left and liberals, let me add that I suspect most liberals think stealing is wrong. But it almost doesn’t matter because they vote for people who do not think it is.

One proof is the passage of Proposition 47, a California ballot initiative passed in 2014, under which theft of less than $950 in goods is treated as a nonviolent misdemeanor and rarely prosecuted. As a result, in Democrat-run California cities such as San Francisco and Los Angeles, retail theft has soared.

Walgreens stores in San Francisco are racking up four times the average amount of theft in Walgreens stores across the country; spending on security guards in San Francisco is 35 times more than the chain’s average in other cities. Walgreens has been forced to close 22 stores in the city since 2016.

As reported in the San Francisco Chronicle: “The Safeway located in San Francisco’s Castro neighborhood … was a longstanding, 24-hour fixture in San Francisco’s Castro neighborhood. But as of last week, the store’s hours have been cut back to 6 a.m. to 9 p.m … A Safeway spokesperson (said) that the cutbacks are ‘due to an increasing amount of theft at the store.’”

Further proof that the Left doesn’t consider theft wrong — at least when committed by a person of color — was an interview broadcast on NPR last year with the author of a book titled “In Defense of Looting.” The NPR interviewer threw only softball questions to the author.

In the last election, Los Angeles voters elected San Francisco’s previous district attorney, George Gascon, as Los Angeles’ district attorney. It was Los Angeles’ way of declaring that stealing is not wrong. And it is worth noting that it is not only racial minorities and the poor who make these elections possible; it is also prosperous whites. The Los Angeles DA is a wealthy white, and he was supported by a white billionaire, George Soros.

It is hard to