Minneapolis Democrats let rioters burn the city down in 2020 and never made the businesses whole.
Now a state lawmaker is floating the idea that shoplifting might benefit people.
The mask has come off on the Democrats pro criminal agenda.
Minnesota Democrat Calls Retail Theft a Potential Benefit to Shoplifters
State Rep. Dave Pinto, DFL-St. Paul, made the remarks during a House Workforce and Labor Committee hearing.
The committee was reviewing worker misclassification – the illegal practice of treating employees as independent contractors to dodge paying wages and benefits.
Republican Rep. Isaac Schultz asked a straightforward question: had anyone studied whether forcing employers to pay higher wages drives up consumer prices?
Pinto didn't just push back.
He compared paying workers legally to shoplifting.
"It probably would have been good to make sure that they would study the benefit of shoplifting and of retail theft," Pinto said on the record, in a committee hearing, on camera.
He kept going.
"Because perhaps people are relying on that and sort of using that. Maybe it's, you know, assisting them in some way."
Then he acknowledged the obvious: "These folks were describing people violating the law."
And then said it might still be worth studying anyway.
State Rep. Krista Knudsen, R-Lake Shore, put her hands to her face watching the clip.
"There are no benefits to shoplifting for the people that are being shoplifted from," Knudsen said. "I have no idea what else to say."
She kept searching for words.
"Actually, I don't even know what to say."
She asked who benefits from shoplifting – then answered herself.
"The criminals," Knudsen said. "Once again, the criminals benefit from shoplifting."
House Republican Floor Leader Rep. Harry Niska went straight to the broader indictment: "If you listen carefully to those comments, I think you understand why it is that Democrats have been so unserious about the billions of dollars of fraud that have plagued Minnesota."
Dave Pinto Leads Minnesota Fraud Prevention While Defending Shoplifting
Here's the detail that turns a gaffe into a scandal.
Dave Pinto is the Democrat-Farm Labor lead on the Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight Policy committee.
The man Minnesota put in charge of stopping fraud just suggested studying whether theft benefits the thieves.
Minnesota has lost an estimated $9 billion to criminals across 14 benefit programs – money stolen from programs meant to feed children, support kids with autism, and help families find housing.
Pinto later told Fox News Digital his comments were "intended to be sarcastic."
Why Walmart Left Minneapolis and Businesses Keep Fleeing
Minneapolis Democrats let rioters torch the city in the summer of 2020.
Walmart closed its Minneapolis stores during the destruction and never came back – there is not a single Walmart location left inside the city of Minneapolis today.
Target – headquartered in Minneapolis – paid $110 million to break its own downtown lease early rather than keep doing business in a city where this is the political climate.
San Francisco ran this same experiment first.
Socialist Democrat prosecutors stopped treating retail theft as a serious offense, Walgreens closed location after location, and DA Chesa Boudin was recalled in a landslide once voters connected the ideology to the empty storefronts.
Minneapolis is living that same story now – except the Democrat running fraud prevention is still in office, still on camera, and still finding shoplifting "intriguing" to study.
This is what Minnesota's pro-criminal Democrat Party looks like from top to bottom.
Nine Minneapolis city council members stood on a stage in June 2020 and publicly pledged to defund the police.
Ilhan Omar and AG Keith Ellison both campaigned to replace the police department entirely.
Tim Walz watched an estimated $9 billion get stolen from programs meant to feed children and help families find housing – and did nothing fast enough to stop it.
Now the Democrat they put in charge of fraud prevention is on camera wondering out loud whether shoplifters deserve a study.
Businesses aren't waiting for the study results.
Sources:
- "Minnesota Dem suggests studying 'benefit of shoplifting' in committee clash, then says it was sarcasm," Fox News, March 2026.
- "Minnesota Democrat Lawmaker Urges Studying 'the Benefits of Shoplifting and Retail Theft,'" Townhall, March 6, 2026.
- "Lawmaker comment about 'benefits of shoplifting' goes viral," KSTP, March 2026.
- "Calculator thieves from Texas sentenced under new Minnesota law aimed at cracking down on organized retail theft," Twin Cities Pioneer Press, March 17, 2025.
- "Walmart makes a tough decision on closing stores," TheStreet, July 31, 2025.
