*In a new video posted to Facebook, Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable President Earl Ofari Hutchinson stood outside a ransacked Superior Market in South Los Angeles on Sunday, Aug. 30, calling for the creation of a joint LAPD-community alert task force to combat organized looting.
Hutchinson said the incident is the latest in a series of stores targeted by groups of looters, with the affected businesses located in predominantly Black and Hispanic areas of Los Angeles.
He warned that the damage goes beyond what is stolen from individual stores. Continued looting in lower-income Black and Hispanic communities, Hutchinson argued, could discourage major retailers from opening or remaining in those neighborhoods.
If name-brand stores leave or avoid these communities, residents could be left with fewer shopping options and potentially face higher prices for groceries and other necessities. Hutchinson also warned that the availability, variety and quality of food could suffer as a result.
For Hutchinson, protecting neighborhood businesses is therefore not simply about stopping theft. It’s also about preserving access to affordable goods and services in communities that could be hit hardest if major retailers decide the risks of doing business there are too great.
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