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The socialist state lawmaker who claimed that ripping off stores for “biological need” goods is OK is off her rocker, GOP attorney general candidate Saritha Komatireddy said Thursday.
Komatireddy, who hopes to unseat Democrat Attorney General Letitia James in November, told reporters that theft of any kind hurts hard-working retailers and ultimately consumers — and said state Assemblywoman Emily Gallagher, a Brooklyn Democratic socialist, just hasn’t done her homework.
“The scenario that you’re hearing from people like Emily Gallagher, that’s not what is actually happening,” Komatireddy said outside a South Ozone Park gas station mart. “If you look at the cases, the people who are stealing from stores, they come here with a big truck.
“They go in there with garbage bags, and they swipe everything off a shelf, put it into a garbage bag, load it into the truck, and then they drive down a couple of blocks into a different neighborhood or a different city, and they resell it,” she explained. “That’s the kind of crime that is affecting small business owners.”
Gallagher shockingly suggested last week that shoplifting for products like soap and toothpaste should be fair game for sticky-fingered thieves, claiming they are being stolen by needy New Yorkers who can’t afford them.
The socialist lawmaker whined that the criminal justice advocacy group Court Watch NYC had monitored 360 arraignments over four days and maintained that most of the petty thieves needed the items they were stealing.
“We are choosing to protect billion-dollar companies like CVS and Walgreens over the people who are struggling to get buy,” Gallagher told reporters.
But Komatireddy, a veteran prosecutor, said the lefty pol was off the mark.
“People make comments like that, it’s because they haven’t done the work,” Komatireddy said. “I’ve done the work.”
She also took aim at her opponent James, claiming theft rings represent organized crime and that the AG has the means to crack down but she hasn’t prioritized it.
“She has assigned twice as many people to prosecute cops, than organized crime,” Komatireddy railed. “And we are seeing the result. Criminals are in control, and innocent New Yorkers are paying the price.
The Republican cited an exclusive report by The Post about Shaquan Seth, a career crook with nearly 150 busts on his rap sheet who remained free because of the Empire State’s lax bail laws.
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