Out in San Francisco, things have not been going well at the massive Westfield Mall, to put it mildly. As with most of the rest of the city – and all of California’s larger cities, really – conditions have become untenable for most retailers. Rampant retail theft and filthy conditions have made the mall far less safe and have driven away potential shoppers, causing sales to sag. One of the few larger stores that haven’t thrown in the towel yet is American Eagle Outfitters, the iconic clothing shop. The store’s management is fed up and they have now filed a lawsuit against the mall, claiming that Westfield hasn’t met its obligation to provide adequate security and has allowed the mall to “deteriorate into disarray.” But are they placing the blame where it truly belongs? (NY Post)

American Eagle, one of the largest remaining tenants in San Francisco’s massive Westfield Mall, is suing the shopping center’s owners for letting it “deteriorate into disarray” and allowing crime to run rampant.

The popular clothing company, which operates a large retail space inside the mall, accused Westfield of neglecting its security and management responsibilities required through its lease, according to the lawsuit, obtained by the San Francisco Chronicle.

American Eagle claims that between May 2020 and May 2023, the store was the scene of more than 100 “significant security incidents” — including customers flashing guns and verbally assaulting its employees.

The “more than 100 significant security incidents” included the types of things we’ve grown used to seeing in San Francisco these days. “Gun violence, physical assaults, burglaries, and robberies” were all listed in the lawsuit. The staffers at American Eagle have been personally assaulted and efforts to keep the store properly maintained are essentially futile. They’ve been losing employees as a result.

But holding the mall accountable may prove difficult. It’s co-owned by Brookfield Properties, who already announced that they were defaulting on their loan of more than half a billion dollars and effectively abandoning the facility. Too many stores have already closed and the mall isn’t profitable anymore. Most insurance companies either won’t offer coverage for retailers inside of Westfield at this point or, if they do, the premiums are unaffordable.

American Eagle should really be suing the city of San Francisco and the state of California over their “criminal justice reform” laws that have invited criminals to run hog wild across the state. They should sue them for their decriminalization of drug use and retail theft that have left the mall littered with the bodies of addicts who are stepped over by mass looters as they empty the stores. It is not the job of retail merchants to clean up the city and keep the criminals under control. That’s the responsibility of the government.

San Francisco could put an end to this carnage and collapse in relatively short order if the will existed among its elected officials to do so. The same goes for the entire state of California. All of the soft-on-crime laws need to be repealed and the police force needs to be massively expanded. It probably wouldn’t hurt to send in the National Guard for a while. Drug addicts need to be rounded up and if they won’t accept nonconsensual residency at a treatment facility, throw them in prison.

Criminals need to be met with force and put away for significant periods of time to send a message to others. Show everyone on the streets that crime not only doesn’t pay, but it can also bring you a butt-kicking. If you want to decrease unemployment in the city and across the state, hire thousands of cops and construction workers to build more jails. Take all of that money you wanted to put into reparations and use it to return the state to being a place where decent people would actually want to live and work and play. And let the criminals know in a clear and unambiguous fashion that they are not welcome. Yes, it would take a little while to get all of this activity in motion, but it could be done.