State Assemblywoman Emily Gallagher, a Democratic Socialists of America member from Brooklyn, told a crowd outside Manhattan Criminal Court that stealing necessities like soap and toothpaste should go unpunished, drawing swift condemnation from fellow lawmakers and everyday New Yorkers.

Gallagher stood alongside criminal justice advocates and other left-leaning politicians at a news conference last week and framed shoplifting as an act of survival, not a crime. She called on New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani to make good on his campaign promise to end what she called "broken windows policing", the NYPD practice of cracking down on lower-level offenses like graffiti, fare evasion, and retail theft.

The assemblywoman, who represents Greenpoint and other sections of northern Brooklyn, did not hold back about where her sympathies lie. The New York Post reported her remarks in full:

"Most of what we saw were crimes of poverty, people who are stealing things like toothpaste, people who were stealing things like, you know, soap. And that means if you're stealing those things, you need them."

She went further, casting the real wrongdoing not as theft but as the economic system that produces it:

"And we are choosing to protect billion-dollar companies, like CVS and Walgreens, over the people who are struggling to get by. So I would say that the true crime is that there is such incredible wealth disparity in this city that there are people who can be thrown in jail simply for having a biological need."

Gallagher also said she would continue pushing for "treatment-not-jail" punishments for shoplifters. She did not return a request for comment from The Post.

Shoppers and store managers in the Bronx see it differently

Whatever Gallagher thinks about "biological need," the people who actually live with the consequences of retail theft in New York City are not buying it. The Post spoke with shoppers and a store manager at a Food Universal supermarket in Co-op City, a large residential development in the Bronx, and the reaction was blunt.

Rev. Susan Webb, 68, dismissed the idea outright.

"It's foolish to think one should not be punished for stealing. It is a crime."

Webb offered a pointed counter-proposal: if the mayor wants to give away necessities, he can do it through the city's own grocery stores. "Mamdani can implement that in his stores, so if you don't have the necessities, you can go there and get them for free," she said.

Jeanette Mack, a 49-year-old academic adviser and single mother, put the matter in personal terms. She told The Post she once held four jobs at the same time and never considered stealing.

"Allowing people to shoplift with no consequence is wrong. I'm a single mom and at one time I had four jobs. I would never think of stealing anything."

Mack also raised the fear that hangs over neighborhoods already losing retailers. She said a Rite Aid near Co-op City had already closed. The pattern is familiar in cities where progressive officials have relaxed enforcement: stores leave, and the residents who played by the rules pay the price. Across the country, communities have watched theft charges pile up in places where enforcement gaps invite more crime.

"They already closed a Rite Aid around here. Now I'm worried that if they put that in place, they are definitely going to close this supermarket, and I would suffer because I'd have to drive to somewhere else instead of walking. And gas price nowadays, that's another thing."

Edwin Pichado, the 33-year-old manager of the Food Universal, laid out the math in plain terms. He described Gallagher as "living in a fantasy world."

"Rent is high. You have to pay workers, utilities. Goods going out, but no money coming in. We cannot run a business like that. If they see that you do nothing, they'll keep coming back. They tell their friends, and it becomes a free for all."

Fellow lawmakers condemn Gallagher's position

Gallagher drew fire from both Republicans and at least one Democrat on the New York City Council. Councilwoman Vickie Paladino, a Republican from Queens, posted on X that Gallagher's rhetoric is not confusion, it is strategy.

"People like Emily Gallagher try to obfuscate reality because they want to enable this very activity. They know it's devastating to retail stores and that's the point, they're communists and want to use crime to force these stores to close. It's social justice."

Paladino added a prediction: "Soon enough we'll be hearing about the need for government-run drug stores to replace the shops they drove out of business."

Councilwoman Joann Ariola, another Queens Republican, told The Post that businesses are already struggling and that politicians "now advocating for thievery is going to push even more of them to close shop." She did not hold back in her assessment of where Gallagher's priorities lie:

"This is the kind of backwards, left-wing lunacy I would expect from someone who values the rights of criminals more than those of business owners. Policies that Gallagher is pushing are exactly what's driving so many of them away."

Former Queens Councilman Robert Holden, a moderate Democrat, was more succinct. He called Gallagher "a major dope" on X. When officials across party lines reject a proposal this forcefully, it is worth asking what constituency it actually serves, because it does not appear to be the shoppers, store owners, or workers who keep a neighborhood running. The broader pattern of officials who prioritize ideology over enforcement has played out elsewhere, including cases where a Wisconsin judge obstructed an ICE arrest and received only a fine.

Court Watch NYC's arraignment data and NYPD numbers tell different stories

Gallagher's news conference was organized in part by Court Watch NYC, a criminal justice advocacy group. The group claimed it monitored 360 arraignments over four days and found that more than half were for misdemeanor offenses. That finding was presented as evidence that the justice system wastes resources on minor crimes.

But NYPD crime statistics as of August 9 tell a different story about the city's theft problem. Retail theft was down 14.7% compared to the same point the previous year, and petit larceny, the charge that covers most shoplifting, was down 5.4%. If enforcement is working, Gallagher's argument amounts to a demand to stop doing the thing that is producing results.

The assemblywoman's record invites scrutiny on its own terms. A card-carrying member of the Democratic Socialists of America, Gallagher was sworn into the state Assembly in January 2021 after defeating longtime Democratic incumbent Joe Lentol in her 2020 campaign. She has pushed an anti-car agenda in Albany while racking up dozens of traffic and parking tickets herself. In October 2021, she used a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for her cat Roland's emergency surgery bill. In 2024, she attended an anti-Israel phone bank sponsored by the New Jersey chapter of American Muslims for Palestine, an organization whose leaders have been accused of antisemitic rhetoric and that Virginia's attorney general has investigated for potentially funding terrorists.

Her political career has carried a pattern of contradictions between her public positions and personal conduct. She has also allegedly blocked constituents from posting comments on her social media pages when they disagree with her. Accountability for public officials, whether foreign nationals charged with voting illegally or elected representatives who want rules for everyone but themselves, remains a recurring concern for voters who expect their leaders to practice what they preach.

During her 2020 campaign, an online journal from her days as a student at Ithaca College in 2003 surfaced. In it, she boasted about immature antics, including mooning a couple she spied on and throwing a "homeless party." The entries did not derail her campaign, but they offered an early glimpse of the judgment now on display at the steps of Manhattan Criminal Court.

Gallagher's argument collapses under its own logic

Strip away the rhetoric about "biological need" and "wealth disparity," and Gallagher's position reduces to a simple claim: if someone wants something and cannot afford it, taking it should carry no legal consequence. That is not a policy proposal. It is the abandonment of the concept of property rights, dressed up in the language of compassion.

New York already has social services, food pantries, and public assistance programs designed to help people who cannot afford basic necessities. Gallagher did not explain why those programs are insufficient, nor did she propose expanding them. She skipped past the hard work of governing and went straight to excusing the crime.

Edwin Pichado, the Food Universal manager, understood what Gallagher apparently does not: when theft carries no penalty, it multiplies. Goods walk out the door, revenue disappears, and stores close. The people hurt worst are not CVS shareholders, they are the residents of neighborhoods like Co-op City who lose their nearest pharmacy or grocery store and have to drive farther and pay more.

Jeanette Mack said it plainly: "People are going to feel entitled because they know they can walk in and walk out and nothing will happen." That is not a theory. It is the lived experience of communities across the country where progressive prosecutors and lawmakers have signaled that shoplifting is a low priority. The legal system can produce strange outcomes, but few are stranger than an elected official standing outside a courthouse and arguing that enforcing the law is the real injustice.

When a lawmaker earning a state salary tells struggling New Yorkers that stealing is a "biological need," the people stocking shelves and paying at the register know exactly who is living in a fantasy world.