The Great Shoplifting Freakout?

Are shoplifting, smash-and-grabbing, and large, organized looting big problems on the rise?

maybe.

maybe not.

   I find the question somewhat interesting, but partway through that essay I realized that I wasn't interested enough to read the whole thing. Also, as I often do: I realized that someone like me who doesn't know anything about the problem would have to pay very, very close attention to the arguments to see all the problems with them--and would likely still miss a lot. What I'd need is equal and opposite expert opinion--or at least serious journalism. I'd guess that this essay was downplaying the problem--but there's some reason in there that sounds like prima facie reason to doubt there's been a humongous rise. 

   One possible explanation for closures of e.g. Walgreens...es?...in inner cities may be not that shoplifting has increased all of a sudden, but rather that there's just too much of it--along with other inner city hassles--and the company has been looking for an excuse to close. They might have been hesitant to do so because of the inevitable accusations of racism. Or not. I don't know.

   Anyway: it's at least good to be reminded that the media lies and screws up all the time, and they may be doing that again in this case. Or not. I don't know.