H.R.895 – Combating Organized Retail Crime Act of 2023
Double-edged sword for small-government advocates and the historic American nation viewpoint
Organized retail crime is financially and morally debilitating to traditional values Americans. It’s disheartening to see in person and videos of organized shoplifters pushing carts of merchandise through store checkout areas without that they don’t intend to pay for and encountering little or no resistance.
So why not cheer that a bill has been introduced in the House of Representatives designed to address ORC?
Because the bill’s official summary at CONGRESS.GOV is replete with words to make a freedom advocate cringe:
“broadens the scope of conduct that qualifies as offenses”
“authorizes the criminal forfeiture of any property.”
And the big one:
“the bill establishes a center—the Organized Retail Crime Coordination Center—within the Department of Homeland Security to coordinate the federal law enforcement activities related to organized retail crime.”
Just what we want—more overreaching bureaucracy within Homeland Security. A bill that allows sponsor Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO) and its 134 both Democrat and Republican cosponsors to put themselves on the back and gives them something to crow about in newsletters to constituents back home.
Just enforce the laws on the books. Not more bureaucracy and control over us via Homeland Security expansion.
The bill’s official summary at CONGRESS.GOV:
Combating Organized Retail Crime Act of 2023
Introduced in House (02/09/2023)
This bill expands federal enforcement of criminal offenses related to organized retail crime. Organized retail crime typically refers to large-scale retail theft and fraud by organized groups of professional shoplifters, or boosters, who make money by stealing merchandise and reselling it for a fraction of the retail cost.
First, with respect to criminal offenses involving the transportation of stolen property across state lines and the sale or receipt of stolen goods, the bill broadens the scope of conduct that qualifies as offenses. Additionally, the bill makes the offenses predicate offenses (i.e., underlying offenses) for prosecutions under the federal money laundering statute and authorizes the criminal forfeiture of any property representing or traceable to the gross proceeds obtained as a result of an offense or a conspiracy to commit an offense.
Second, with respect to criminal offenses involving theft from an interstate or foreign shipment, the bill makes an offense an underlying offense for prosecution under the federal money laundering statute and authorizes the criminal forfeiture of any property representing or traceable to the gross proceeds obtained as a result of an offense or a conspiracy to commit an offense.
Finally, the bill establishes a center—the Organized Retail Crime Coordination Center—within the Department of Homeland Security to coordinate the federal law enforcement activities related to organized retail crime.