People who frequently hang around in the vicinity of the jail in Manhattan were treated to what is probably by now a familiar sight yesterday. The ritual in question was 34-year-old Lorenzo McLucas walking out of the jail as free as a bird. The locals certainly should be able to recognize McLucas at this point. This was the 50th time he had been arrested and immediately released just this year. In all, he has 122 busts for looting and shoplifting under his belt. (He probably stole the belt as well.) In his latest heist, he was caught after clearing off the cosmetics counter at the pricey Duane Reade shop on Lexington Avenue. Cosmetics sell quickly on the streets at a discount, you see. This guy is so notorious that even soft-on-crime District Attorney Alvin Bragg (the “Worst DA Ever“) said he would have preferred to keep him locked up. But his hands were supposedly tied because of New York’s “bail reform” laws. (NY Post)
A shoplifter with 122 busts under his belt was released on his own recognizance Wednesday thanks to controversial bail reform laws Bragg typically defends — and the DA’s office told The Post that even prosecutors would have asked for pre-trial detention if they could.
In the latest reported case of lax city crime policies run amok, accused serial shoplifter Lorenzo McLucas, 34, was nabbed for stealing from the cosmetics counter at a Duane Reade on Lexington Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, according to cops and court documents.
Bragg’s office told The Post that it would have requested McLucas be detained if it could, keeping in line with the DA’s recent announcement that he wanted to clamp down on serial shoplifters.
Because words matter when we’re talking about the law, we should point out that Bragg’s description of McLucas as a “shoplifter” is disingenuous at best. A shoplifter is someone who grabs an item that they need and stuffs it in their pocket because they are unable or unwilling to pay for it. McLucas is a looter who empties the shelves of as much merchandise as he can carry and sells it out on the streets. There are entire squads of these looters in cities around the country that are putting retail outlets out of business when they can no longer afford insurance because they are being robbed so often.
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In a bit of irony, it was only five days earlier when Alvin Bragg made a public commitment to begin cracking down on “serial shoplifters” who “cycle in and out of jail.” This demonstrates that while Bragg is obviously a detriment to law and order in the city, he’s really more of a symptom than the actual problem.
There is so much focus on Bragg’s intentionally lax enforcement of the law that I almost believe he would have locked up McLucas if he could have. The real problem is the set of bail reform laws that New York enacted over the past few years in the name of “racial justice” as part of the ongoing campaign to “empty the jails.” Those laws rolled out the red carpet for people like McLucas and they gladly accepted the invitation.
Surely even Alvin Bragg realizes that these stories make New York look like an absolute joke in the eyes of the world. June 22nd was the 173rd day of this year. In that time, Lorenzo McLucas was arrested and released 50 times. That means that he was picked up for looting more than once every four days over the course of 2022. And those are just the times that he managed to get caught. And if you watch the video of him leaving the jail in Manhattan at the link above, you can see him smirking at the camera as he goes on his way. He knows it’s all a joke and he was likely on his way to his next heist as soon as the reporters stopped following him.
Yes, Alvin Bragg is part of the problem and he needs to be removed. But New York’s “bail reform” laws need to be repealed. And if the current legislators running the city and the state are not willing to do that, they need to be removed and replaced by someone who will. Without law and order and streets that are safe to walk in broad daylight, you don’t have a society. New York is only a few steps away from turning into Mad Max and the residents need somebody to step up and start acting like an adult.
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