WATCH: New York Lawmaker Defends Shoplifters Who Have A ‘Biological Need’ To Steal

State Assemblywoman Emily Gallagher strongly suggested shoplifting should be legalized while joined at a news conference outside Manhattan Criminal Court on Thursday by other lefty pols and criminal justice advocates with Court Watch NYC. The group claimed it monitored 360 arraignments over four days and found more than half were for misdemeanor offenses.

“Most of what we saw were crimes of poverty-people who are stealing things like toothpaste, people who were stealing things like, you know, soap. And that means if you’re stealing those things, you need them,” said Gallagher, who reps Greenpoint and other sections of woke northern Brooklyn.

“And we are choosing to protect billion-dollar companies, like CVS and Walgreens, over the people who are struggling to get by. So I would say that the true crime is that there is such incredible wealth disparity in this city that there are people who can be thrown in jail simply for having a biological need.”

The card-carrying member of the Democratic Socialists of America said she would continue to push for “treatment-not-jail” punishments – all but ignoring that first-time shoplifting offenders rarely get jailtime and that lack of enforcement pushed by lefty pols like herself statewide has forced many drugstores to lock products in plastic cases.

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The entire foundation for a civilized society rests on private property, ownership, and not stealing.

If you legalized stealing, society would literally crumble overnight.

Stealing should face SEVERE punishment.

— Matt Van Swol (@mattvanswol) August 15, 2026

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All the endless billions of State and city welfare…..where is all the money going, Emily? All of the billions in taxpayer dollars over so many years to take care of the poor, and yetbthey can't afford toothpaste?
Where is all the money going, Emily?

— eugny1969 (@eugny196958443) August 16, 2026

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people arent arrested enough for ‘stealing toothpaste’ and now the people who actually follow the rules of society have to wait 15 minutes for some poor wagie to unlock the plexiglass toothpaste cagey and why stores go out of business in “rough neighborhoods” turning them into…

— shoe (@shoe0nhead) August 14, 2026

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Then don’t be mad when it is locked behind plexiglass and you need 45 minutes to get Shampoo, Toothpaste, and a Razor..

K pumpkin? See below you absolute retard. pic.twitter.com/xIJcwHUAq3

— Little Elephant (@ColinMc74157100) August 14, 2026

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Advocates believe shoplifting or bringing bags of trash onto the trains or sleeping in the subway should not be criminally prosecuted.

Neither should graffiti vandalism and public urination or even fare evasion. Former NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce disagrees, especially for repeat offenders.

“Really, you have to go make those arrests. Otherwise, you’d have chaos on the street,” Boyce said.

NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch made her priorities clear when she was first appointed to lead the department under Mayor Eric Adams.

“The mission is to keep you safe, to make you feel safe and to improve your quality of life,” Tisch said.

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