A New York socialist lawmaker says shoplifters who steal out of "biological need" shouldn't face prosecution — effectively declaring that property rights take a back seat to poverty, and that working neighborhoods should absorb the cost.
State Assemblywoman Emily Gallagher, a Democratic Socialist representing Williamsburg and Greenpoint, made the argument Thursday at a press conference outside Manhattan Criminal Court. "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," Gallagher said. "And that means if you're stealing those things, you need them. And we are choosing to protect billion-dollar companies, like CVS and Walgreens, over the people who are struggling to get by." Gallagher called it the "true crime" that people can be jailed "simply for having a biological need."
This is the logical terminus of a decade of criminal justice "reform" in New York: a sitting lawmaker reclassifying theft as a welfare entitlement. Gallagher, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, has also backed easing penalties on fare evasion and public urination, according to the Daily Caller. She and other left-wing officials from Court Watch NYC — which tracked 360 arraignments over four days and found more than half were misdemeanor charges — are pressuring Mayor Zohran Mamdani to abandon "broken windows" enforcement of low-level offenses.
The pushback was immediate. "The entire foundation for a civilized society rests on private property, ownership, and not stealing. If you legalized stealing, society would literally crumble overnight," one social media user wrote. Another pointed to the real-world fallout: "Our nearest pharmacy closed due to unchecked shoplifting. All of those employees lost their jobs. Now all the elderly people in my neighborhood have lost their closest pharmacy." Councilwoman Joann Ariola warned that lawmakers "now advocating for thievery is going to push even more of them to close shop." Councilwoman Vickie Paladino said officials like Gallagher "want to enable this very activity."
The irony: Gallagher frames her argument around toothpaste and soap, but the stores being hit tell a different story. Walgreens estimates roughly $250,000 in losses per location, the Daily Caller reported. Retailers have locked everyday merchandise behind plastic cases — turning a quick errand into a hassle for every honest customer. One user described watching a thief "clear out every toothbrush and every tube of toothpaste at my local CVS," adding: "He wasn't doing that for his oral health. He was doing it to resell."
NYPD data shows retail theft fell 15.3% across the first seven months of 2026 compared with the same period last year, with Fox 5 New York reporting the city is tracking toward its safest year on record. Breitbart noted that Republican Reps. Claudia Tenney and Nicole Malliotakis are warning that socialist ideas are gaining traction among young voters, with Malliotakis describing incremental steps toward government control and Tenney recalling empty shelves and bread lines in 1980s Yugoslavia.
The question isn't whether poverty exists. It's whether the answer to poverty is to suspend the law — and whether the neighborhoods that lose their pharmacies and pay higher prices to subsidize shrinkage get a vote before the social contract is rewritten.
