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Boston Globe
02-07-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Four years ago, Mayor Wu said shoplifters shouldn't be prosecuted. Now shoplifting is up in Boston. Funny how that works.
Get The Gavel A weekly SCOTUS explainer newsletter by columnist Kimberly Atkins Stohr. Enter Email Sign Up Why Democrats? Because voters know whose fault it is that they have to ask for locked-up face wash: Progressives preached a soft-on-crime message that's now coming back to haunt them. Advertisement It was now-disgraced Suffolk district attorney Rachael Rollins who in 2018 announced she would stop prosecuting shoplifters. That same year, state law raised the threshold for felony larceny from $250 to $1,200. Running for mayor in 2021, Wu Advertisement Progressives signaling leniency on low-level crimes is undoubtedly part of why shoplifting was up in the city, and across the state. Overall, the Retailers Association of Massachusetts Not only does toothpaste under lock and key create an ominous image, rampant shoplifting can affect the This problem hasn't been unique to Boston — progressive cities across the country have Now running for reelection, Wu still isn't willing to acknowledge the part she has played in normalizing policies that wreck quality of life. I asked her in May if she regretted supporting Rollins's reform. She dodged the question, but told me that during her time as mayor 'there has been full accountability for shoplifting' and then said it's 'not the purview of the mayor or the police department to have any role in prosecutorial discretion.' But boasting of 'full accountability' takes some nerve — that's only happening because District Attorney Kevin Hayden ignored the politicians like Wu who supported Rollins's policy. And while Wu continues to vocally tout Boston's status as the safest city in America because of its low homicide rates, she's been backpedaling to address its pervasive quality-of-life issues. In that same interview she highlighted Hayden's 'Safe Shopping Initiative,' which Advertisement When it comes to drug crimes, she's also had to tweak her progressive Better late than never. In his blog post, Auchincloss wrote that 'degradations to public order also matter. Drug use, loitering, panhandling, encampments, vandalism, shoplifting — these compound into lawlessness,' he wrote. 'There's nothing compassionate or progressive about permitting them.' The last part is key. Much of the criminal justice reform of the past five years has been an effort to decrease racism in policing and prosecuting. But take that mission too far, and you start condoning crime in the name of justice. And while some low-level offenders come from difficult circumstances that might warrant giving them a second chance, that's a decision that should be made by a discerning judge or prosecutor. When decriminalization becomes a ruling party's policy, then everyone is invited to heap onto the disorder. This doesn't just decrease the quality of life in progressive cities like Boston — it erodes trust in the Democratic Party to operate at the most basic levels. Auchincloss is one of few Massachusetts Democrats willing to identify this weakness, but others should join him if they want to reverse the Advertisement If a party can't even keep a shampoo bottle safe, how's it supposed to effectively govern millions of people? Carine Hajjar is a Globe Opinion writer. She can be reached at
Boston Globe
28-05-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
Healey, moving to cut red rape and burnish business-friendly chops, unveils dozens of regulatory changes
Advertisement 'What's most important is the mindset, [the] message that we heard,' said Jim Rooney, president of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce. 'This administration has that mindset of trying to deal with issues that are burdensome for people in businesses.' The various regulatory amendments followed a Her administration ultimately reviewed 150 sets of regulations. Healey said her administration is ultimately 'cutting down' 38 of them, many of which may appear minor, if not esoteric, to most consumers. One would Advertisement Grocery stores and supermarkets would no longer have to make parts of so-called Healey said the Division of Insurance would also no longer require banks and insurance companies to submit paper copies of filings in many instances. 'We'll save some trees in the process,' Healey said as she fed a prop piece of paper into the whirring shredder. 'It's about making sure that we have the right regulations [and] smart regulations.' Healey isn't the first governor to boast of slashing red tape for businesses. Governor Deval Patrick, a Democrat, boasted in his final year in office in 2014 having led a review of nearly 1,800 regulations, and Months after taking office in 2015, his successor, Charlie Baker ordered a wide-scale review of 'onerous' regulations. The move immediately Jon Hurst, president of the Retailers Association of Massachusetts, said many of Patrick and Baker's efforts ultimately had 'little or nothing to show' for it. Advertisement He said his own members had raised to their administrations concerns about the unit pricing rules or the state's so-called hoisting regulations — think forklifts, Hurst said — without ever seeing action on them. Healey on Wednesday offered changes to the latter, including removing the requirement that hoisting engineering applicants communicate in English. Those moves are encouraging, Hurst said, even if 'these were the easy ones, right?' 'The hard ones are yet to come,' he said, pointing to the potential for tackling escalating health insurance costs for businesses — a shift that could require legislation, is often complicated, and usually 'politically fraught.' 'We're just kind of just hitting the surface at this point,' he said. Healey called Wednesday's announcement a 'first set of cuts and reforms,' though she did not indicate where or what rules her administration would review next. Healey's first term, and her bid next year to remain in office, will likely hinge in part on whether she's met her repeated promise to shed Massachusetts' tax-heavy label and She ran on realizing, and signed, a Advertisement Both Republicans who've announced challenges to Healey — former MBTA executive 'Massachusetts [is] bleeding businesses, private sector jobs and workers,' Holly Robichaud, a Shortsleeve adviser, said in a statement Wednesday. Matt Stout can be reached at
