Left: New York City attorney and mother Maud Maron, who is running for Manhattan district attorney as a Republican. Right: Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg stands with members of his staff at a news conference following the conviction of former U.S. President Donald Trump in his hush money trial on May 30, 2024 in New York City. (Maud Maron; Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
The report stated that those surveyed experienced an average of 177 shoplifting incidents per day in 2023; however, this number increased to over 1,000, depending on the retail sector. The report listed New York as the second city most impacted by organized retail crime in 2024.
Maron, a former Democrat public defender, now running for Manhattan district attorney as a Republican, told Fox News Digital that the "surge in shoplifting" is "not surprising."
"Shoplifters, lawbreakers, got the message: You can do this, and you will not go to jail," said Maron, adding, "The get-out-of-jail-free card that Alvin Bragg has been issuing for the last three and a half years is not subtle."
"Five years ago, 10 years ago, if you used to go into a store and dump a bunch of retail goods into your bag and then walk out right past the security guard and right past the cashiers, you would be arrested. And if you did it more than once, you wind up going to jail," she said. "Now maybe someone will call the police; maybe someone won't. Maybe the police will arrest you; maybe they won't. Because everybody knows at the end of the line, the prosecutor is not going to prosecute the case."
WATCH: FORMER DEM OUSTED FROM PARTY OVER 'DEFUND THE POLICE' TAKES ON MANHATTAN DA ALVIN BRAGG
The sun sets on the skyline of lower Manhattan and One World Trade Center in New York City as a person runs along the Hudson River on February 25, 2024, in Jersey City, New Jersey. (Gary Hershorn/Getty Images)
"Perennial candidate Maud Maron, who recently lost her campaign for the School Board, is once again distorting and misleading to hide her lack of qualifications," said Fife.
He said that "when experienced prosecutor Alvin Bragg took office as Manhattan DA in January 2022, NYC—like nearly every city—was still reeling from the COVID national crime spike."
"Alvin brought together business owners, law enforcement, and community-based organizations to stop the rise in shoplifting and targeted repeat offenders, prosecuted organized crime rings that resell stolen goods, and improved coordination with local businesses and the NYPD," he claimed.
For her part, Maron shot back that "if Alvin Bragg were half as good at prosecuting retail theft as he is at cherry-picking statistics, New Yorkers wouldn’t have to ask security to unlock a $6 stick of deodorant just to get through the day."
DEMOCRAT ACCUSES TRUMP ADMINISTRATION OF NOT BEING 'SERIOUS ABOUT COMBATING CRIME'
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg speaks during a news conference on Thursday, March 7, 2024, in Manhattan, New York. (Barry Williams/New York Daily News/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
"Bragg can point to handpicked NYPD numbers all he wants, but New Yorkers live the reality: more closed storefronts, more brazen shoplifting, and more fear for working people just trying to commute or run errands," she added. "You don’t need a spreadsheet to know Alvin Bragg’s criminal-coddling Day One Memo turned every store owner into a sitting duck for the criminals he’s emboldened. You just need to walk into a pharmacy or talk to a bodega owner."
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Peter Pinedo is a politics writer for Fox News Digital.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/democrat-da-hot-seat-after-retail-theft-surges-major-american-cities