Shoplifting, defaced license plates 

Stop organized theft with jail time

Gov. Kathy Hochul’s awareness of organized retail theft took three years for her to address as a societal problem [“A bite out of theft,” News, Jan. 24].

Once again, government’s approach is to throw money at an issue — in this case $40 million to establish “dedicated teams” and provide tax credits to retailers for anti-theft measures.

What good will it do to hire security guards if the guards can’t take action and may wind up getting injured or sued by the perpetrators for physical altercations. In addition, our current bail laws could allow the criminals to be released onto the streets again.

If we are to spend tax money, let’s use it to incarcerate these groups as a deterrent.

Perhaps Hochul should meet with State Legislature leaders Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Carl Heastie to have them correct failed bail reform.

It’s time they come to the aid of beleaguered store owners and the public who are regularly put at risk and forced to pay inflated prices due to the approximately $4.4 billion worth of stolen goods in a year.

— John Ciccione, Kings Park

It now takes more time to wait for the manager of a store to unlock cases.

We pay more for stolen items to compensate for the loss of profits to that store.

Our taxes that are now being used to fight this crime could be used for other worthy causes.

Theft is not only financially robbing the store, but it is also financially robbing hardworking people of the full value of their paychecks that now partially go to merchants to make up for theft.

How much sweat, hours and days does a person waste working to earn that money that goes to the merchant?

Also, when people knowingly buy something that “fell off a truck,” they are aiding and abetting that crime. If the fear of the law is the only way these “criminals” will act honestly, as a further deterrent, when someone buys “off the truck,” that too should be punishable.

— Carol Ludwig, Wantagh

Time to ticket cars with defaced plates

You don’t have to go far to find obscured license plates [“MTA, others losing millions in uncollectible tolls,” News, Jan. 22]. I see them every day in the supermarket parking lot, on the street and even parked in the neighborhood.

It appears that the law has not been enforced for years. Now that the tolls have increased so much, it’s no surprise that people are trying to beat the fees by simply obscuring their plates.

Why don’t the police ticket the cars with masked plates whenever they see them? Those cars have to park eventually. While they are at it, the police can add a ticket to the cars with deeply tinted windows.

— Lois Topping, Glen Cove

I see two changes lawmakers can enact if they really want to curb license plates being altered. First, besides a meaningful fixed fine, add a variable one charging violators a percentage of tolls and fines, subject to a cap, that could not be billed due to plate issues.

Second, if a vehicle is stopped for a license plate violation, make the driver fix it on the spot if it can be done safely. If the driver is unable to do it quickly, impound the vehicle, and someone else can do it, with the cost paid by the vehicle owner.

— Chris McNulty, Great Neck

Traffic enforcement agents give out parking tickets. While doing so, they also could be ticketing parked cars whose license plates are obscured. If they are not authorized to do so, I would imagine it wouldn’t be difficult to add this important ability to their powers.

— Jim Intravia, Medford

Once again, we read about how lawbreakers are cheating and, in effect, stealing money from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority via, this time, bridge and tunnel fare evasion. And once again, law-abiding taxpayers will be paying for these thieves through fare hikes.

This is in addition to various area retailers locking down displayed inventory from brazen and emboldened crooks.

Criminals who couldn’t care less about the laws in this state and who have little or no fear of current legal ramifications force us to make up all those financial losses, whether it be retailers, municipalities or state agencies like the MTA.

Unfortunately, until this state gets back to real enforcement and punishments that these criminals will fear, we will continue to shoulder the ever-increasing burden of financial losses.

— Kevin J. McLaughlin, East Norwich