The morning of Sunday, Feb. 26, started as any other day in my store. Workers got to my store on East 194th Street in the Bronx in the morning, and they proceeded normally. Little did we know that was all going to change.
In the afternoon, two people came into the store and began to pummel a cashier. The attack stemmed from an incident the week prior, when the cashier politely asked a customer to wait her turn behind other customers before checking out. The woman became irate, and said she was going to come back and beat her up.
One week later she did.
The cashier does not remember much from the attack, but it was caught on video for all to see. The cashier was jumped out of nowhere at her register. In the ensuing melee, she was hit, had her hair pulled and was shoved. Even though everyone was taken by surprise, the big heart that most New Yorkers have quickly took over, and customers jumped in to help her, as did her co-workers. Just as quickly as it started, the assailants ran out of the store. The police promptly came.
It was a horrifying experience. She could have been severely injured or even killed, as we have seen happen to other retail workers. This was all because someone was asked to wait her turn in line.
While the video and subsequent media stories may have shocked many New Yorkers, the truth is shoplifting and assaults have been a regular occurrence for retail workers. In the Bronx, there was a 63% increase in shoplifting complaints in 2022 compared to 2021. In Manhattan, shoplifting is up 44% and in Brooklyn it’s up 49%.
This has just been a regular workplace occurrence for far too many retail workers across New York City.
But these crimes are more than just statistics. These workers are often immigrants and people of color — the working class New Yorkers who make up the backbone of our city. At the same time, these are the workers who helped keep New York City alive at the height of the pandemic. We didn’t have the luxury of staying home….
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