A socialist lawmaker in New York City told reporters Thursday that shoplifters have a “biological need” to steal — and the law should protect them, not the stores they’re robbing.
State Assemblywoman Emily Gallagher, a self-described “democratic socialist,” made the stunning claim outside Manhattan Criminal Court after her group Court Watch NYC monitored hundreds of arraignments.
Half the cases were misdemeanors — mostly theft of everyday items like toothpaste and soap.
Gallagher told reporters on social media:
“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. 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 added she’s fighting to “pass things like treatment not jail” and hold the line on “criminal justice reforms” of the last two decades — reforms she says are “constantly being threatened by right-wing media who are looking to fear monger.”
Social media users immediately pushed back.
One user wrote, “The entire foundation for a civilized society rests on private property, ownership, and not stealing. If you legalized stealing, society would literally crumble overnight. Stealing should face SEVERE punishment.”
Another pointed out the real-world cost of Gallagher’s worldview:
“You know what else separates people from their jobs? Rampant shoplifting. Our nearest pharmacy closed due to unchecked shoplifting. All of those employees lost their jobs. Now all the elderly people in my neighborhood have lost their closest pharmacy. Last year I witnessed a guy clear out every toothbrush and every tube of toothpaste at my local CVS. He wasn’t doing that for his oral health. He was doing it to resell.”
The backlash comes as two Republican congresswomen from New York — Reps. Claudia Tenney and Nicole Malliotakis — are warning that socialist ideas are spreading among young voters ahead of November’s midterms.
Malliotakis told reporters socialist regimes always start small — price controls, rationing, subtle erosions of freedom.
“It is sort of the baby steps where they begin to implement changes. They begin to take away freedoms. They begin to ration things, to implement price controls that are very destructive to the economy,” she said.
Tenney recalled living in Yugoslavia in the 1980s and watching the shelves empty.
“There wasn’t anything on the shelves,” Tenney said. “I mean, you had to wait in line for bread, and everybody just figured that was part of it.”
Meanwhile, the Democratic Socialists of America has been quietly working to take over the Democratic Party from within — a trend Breitbart News has been tracking closely.
Today’s cover: Socialist NY lawmaker Emily Gallagher says shoplifting for ‘biological need’ is OK https://t.co/eza6XgAKyp pic.twitter.com/zp8lSHCjCv
— New York Post (@nypost) August 16, 2026
No one should be arrested—much less jailed—for stealing a tube of toothpaste.
Incarceration separates people from their jobs, support services, & loved ones. It perpetuates cycles of poverty & crime.
That’s a fact, no matter how much fear mongering the right wing media does. pic.twitter.com/WjyEPGIXqU
— Emily Gallagher (@EmilyAssembly) August 13, 2026
