In the USA shoplifting is up because most states no longer prosecute. Which is also the reason a lot of retailers have or are in the process of closing stores in big cities. Had a friend that worked at Riteaid, once a week several women would come in with trash bags and empty the makeup section. Even with them on video nothing came on it.
Well, the police have to do work and find the people. You can't expect the police to actually do anything. That's asking way to much. Ask anyone who's ever needed the police to do their jobs (aside from beating or shooting folks who don't pass the patented brown paper bag text of course).
Watch the video then. It's from an anarchist. He says essentially the same things as the article but doesn't dance around the issue or it's implications. As long as you're aware of the biases of corporate media, you can still glean useful information from it.