Readers sound off on fighting shoplifting, a bottle deposit bill and concentration camps

Five-finger discounts erode our social fabric

Stamford, Conn.: The pilot program allowing New York City retailers to connect their security camera feeds directly to local precincts (“Adams boosts program to let stores share video with NYPD,” May 17) is an excellent initiative to help combat the scourge of shoplifting that is eroding our city. Retailers aren’t the only victims of this insidious crime. Stores are shutting their doors and are leaving large empty spaces behind. This creates blight and a deprivation of services for local residents, and has the overall effect of diminishing the quality of life for all New Yorkers.

Target’s recent closure of its E. 117th St. store is a case in point. Citing rampant and brazen shoplifting, Target could no longer operate that 100,000-plus-square-foot store safely and profitably. This vacancy has deprived the East Harlem community of much-needed retail and has created a retail graveyard where an important and vibrant retailer once stood.

Stores are locking up stock to thwart theft. This creates an unseemly shopping atmosphere and diminishes the pleasures inherent in the shopping experience. The brazen nature of the shoplifting trend, where masked crooks smash display cases and steal merchandise with impunity, is a disgusting pattern that leaves shoppers and store associates fearing for their lives.

The city must do everything possible to crush this sickening pattern of community abuse. Bail reform needs to end, shoplifting needs to be treated as the serious crime it is and law enforcement should take off the gloves to neutralize this despicable attack on our neighborhoods. Peter Janoff

60-day time-out

Yonkers: There is no one on the planet who values the rights of the individual more than I do. That said, I must quote the “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan” conversation between Kirk and a dying Spock, “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one,” to expand upon Voicer Joseph Comperchio’s excellent letter. I find the foolishly aggressive bail reform that can handcuff thinking judges, not to mention judges and prosecutors more concerned with the rights of the accused than the safety of the public, for the current conditions on NYC streets and subways. It seems totally reasonable to me that when the defense pleads “mental illness,” the judge orders the defendant to 60 days of observation. If he/she is indeed mentally ill, they can get help. If not, a dangerous individual is off the streets/subways for those 60 days, not free the terrorize the innocent public. Mark Bloom

Counterproductive

Manhattan: To Jess Dannhauser, commissioner of the NYC Administration for Children’s Services (“Helping NYC kids and their families,” op-ed, May 15): While I do respect your well-written article and the overall mission of helping NYC kids reconnect and engage with their families, I beg to differ. In my line of working for a fatherhood initiative program, we receive a majority of our referrals from ACS. Speaking from 14 years of experience, the practitioners there are purposeful in not doing their due diligence in referring men to our program with an agenda of removing them from the households and destroying the family unit, not reconnecting and promoting responsible family and fatherhood. Omar Branch

Make yourselves heard

New City, N.Y.: United Federation of Teachers elections are here. All UFT retirees should remember that the union leadership voted with the mayor to change our health insurance to one that is inferior and more expensive. To active UFT members: Keep in mind that this will affect you when you retire. Vote against those who sold out the retirees. Dolph Rotter

Return on returns

Brooklyn: I’m the executive director of local nonprofit Sure We Can, which serves canners — essential workers who travel our city’s streets collecting the bottles and cans others discard, redeeming them to earn income. Their tireless work drives the state’s most effective recycling system: the Bottle Bill, which puts a small deposit on beverage containers to incentivize their return to be recycled. It diverts hundreds of thousands of tons of waste across the state each year and supports underserved environmental justice communities. The problem is the system is badly out of date and threatening to collapse. The deposit hasn’t increased for 40 years, and redemption centers can’t make ends meet and are closing everywhere. The state Legislature is poised to expand the law and support the industry, but is dragging its feet. It’s dismaying to see constructive policy suffocated by neglect. It’s critical that our leaders pass the Bigger, Better Bottle Bill! Ryan Castalia

Athlete speech

Scranton, Pa.: GOP Sen. Josh Hawley praised Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker for “standing up for your convictions.” Did Hawley have the same praise for Colin Kaepernick and the other athletes for kneeling for theirs? Vin Morabito

Recycled material

Richmond Hill: So, Jen Psaki, you are a plagiarizer just like your former boss, President Biden. You stole that line from the late Richard Pryor: “Who are you going to believe, me or your own eyes?” Joseph Napoleone

Supreme corruption

Sidney, Maine: It appears more and more that the only thing supreme about this court is its arrogance, with Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito leading the way in outrageous and unethical behavior. Now we find Alito hiding behind his wife’s skirts, saying it was her dispute with a neighbor that led to hanging the American flag upside down. Also, let’s not forget that Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh lied under oath during their confirmation hearings about upholding precedent in Roe v. Wade. We hear a lot these days that no one is above the law — except, it seems, if one is a member of the United States Supreme Court. George Hite

Down in the dumps

Bayonne: I’m trying to figure out what is more depressing: The pro-Trump Voicers hand-wringing on this page or Pat Leonard’s Giants predictions for next season in the sports section! Let’s call it a toss-up and try to not toss our cookies! Marty Wolfson

Not too late

Waretown, N.J.: Will the presidential debates be held during the late afternoon/early evening hours? After their naps and before beddy-bye time? Mike Pidhirny

Look within

Howard Beach: We all have a light and a dark side. There are people who know how to bring out our dark side. You know who they are. Then there are a few who teach us to find our light side. They don’t claim any copyright. Getting caught up in the world brings out the dark side. Learning how to cultivate our true nature in the midst of the world’s affairs leads us to the light. Understanding how reality works leads to enlightenment. Ernest Kienzle

Bday musings

Manhattan: Last Tuesday was my birthday and my head is full of stories. A military aircraft passing overhead sounds like rolling thunder, reminding me of the opening scene of the 1979 movie “Apocalypse Now,” which triggers my thoughts of current war-ravaged Ukraine. And then our astute U.S. secretary of state, New Yorker Antony Blinken — in Ukraine — strums his message directly to the Ukrainian people: “The United States is with you, so much of the world is with you.” At the end of my day, the Knicks trounced the Pacers in Game 5 of the NBA playoffs at MSG. Déjà vu to the rocking spirit in the Garden in 1970. My friend and I were young teenagers and cute. No one minded when we scampered down from our nosebleed seats to stand awestruck at the sideline watching the colossal Knicks. Susan A. Stark

Precedent’s prescience

Manhattan: Voicer R.B. Brandel recommends a death camp tour for the edification of the Columbia University protesters. My visit — only to a concentration camp — 60 years ago still results in a sickening feeling when recollected. But we were optimistic then, seeing a silver lining to the cloud over Hiroshima if it made future war unthinkable. Today’s college students don’t need the visceral experience; they know that conceptually, the descendants of Holocaust survivors have adopted the Nazi methodology: concentration of the Palestinians for efficient extermination. The lesson they need now is that it’s part of our DNA. In the closing message of the anti-war anthem, “It all happened again / And again, and again, and again, and again.” Michele P. Brown