A social media post from the FBI was roundly mocked and ridiculed online after it added an image of white women to a report about retail theft rings in the U.S.
“Higher prices, dangerous products, and closing businesses. These are just some of the impacts Organized Retail Theft has on everyday Americans,” read the post.
One of the women in the image appears to be putting a purse in her coat.
The article outlines different kinds of retail theft operations and the effort the FBI is making to partner with local law enforcement agencies to thwart them and arrest the suspects involved.
Criticism of the post on social media focused on the race of the two women in the image.
“Yes folks, our FBI would like you to know that there is an epidemic of rich, young, attractive white women ransacking our retail outlets… How are they getting away with this lawlessness! This MUST be stopped!” responded John Zeigler.
“This picture is so conspicuously inaccurate you have to just marvel at our federal government humiliating itself just to avoid offending Democrats,” replied Joe Gabriel Simonson of the Free Beacon.
“Mobs of white women descending upon CVS are why it’s harder to buy deodorant,” joked Sam Mangold-Lenett of the Federalist.
“Apparently the @FBI thinks the organized white upper middle class teenaged girl gangs are the ones to blame for higher prices and businesses closing,” read another tweet.
“White people are finally back in advertising!” responded author Scott Greer.
“OMG, the WOKE FBI page is the funniest parody account on X. Yes, middle-class Wite women in designer clothes are the reason the laundry detergent is locked up at Walmart located in the South Side of Chicago,” read another tweet mocking the post.
The tweet from the FBI garnered over 5 million impressions from the criticism.
A poll from 2023 found that young people are far more inclined to steal from stores than their older counterparts. Nearly a third of Gen Z consumers said that they had stolen products at self-checkout kiosks, while only 15% of total shoppers said the same.
In one of the cases of thwarted retail theft documented by the FBI, four Ecuadorian nationals were indicted by a grand jury in November for allegedly orchestrating the theft of jewelry and 300 Apple Watches from their base in California, including $300,000 worth of diamonds.
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