Ayanna Pressley blames racism for pharmacy closure in crime-ridden neighborhood

Businesses continue to flee various Democrat-controlled cities in the face of unrelenting crime and ruinous leftist policies.

Israel critic and gun-control activist Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) recently figured out who to blame for this unfortunate trend: not the criminal elements directly responsible or the leftist in the mirror who championed "unrest in the streets," but rather the very businesses forced to pull up stakes on account of persistent risks to their workers and the guarantee of financial ruin.

According to Pressley — a member of "the Squad" who in recent years supported defunding the police while blowing taxpayer money on her own private defense — at least one business is fleeing on account of racism contra desires to survive and thrive.

Walgreens recently announced that it is permanently shutting down its location on Warren Street in Boston's Roxbury neighborhood, one of the most dangerous areas in the city. The Roxbury closure is the fourth Walgreens branch to shutter in Boston since November 2022, reported WBUR-FM.

"With Walgreens' goal to be the independent partner of choice, not just in pharmacy but also in health care services where we can improve health care, lower costs, and help patients, we need the right network of stores," a spokesman for the company said in a statement obtained by WHDH-TV.

Walgreens is reportedly planning to shut down 200 stores nationwide.

"When faced with the difficult decision to close a location, several factors are taken into account, including our existing footprint of stores, dynamics of the local market, and changes in the buying habits of our patients and customers, among other reasons," added the spokesman.

Areavibes indicated on the basis of FBI data released in September 2023 that Roxbury's rate of violent crime is 214% higher than the national average. Its property crime rate is 48% higher than the national average. The region has a overall crime rating of F (the lowest possible rating).

The local Walgreens appears to have been a popular target for robberies and shoplifting.

The Boston Globe indicated that by late 2022, Walgreens and similar stores had resorted to locking up everything from toothpaste to bigger-ticket items on account of massive spikes in theft. This appears to be a problem affecting businesses in Democratic cities across the country.

The National Retail Federation's latest security survey indicated that "retail crime, violence and theft continue to impact the retail industry at unprecedented levels," adding that shrink represented $112.1 billion in losses in fiscal year 2022.

Pressley took to the House floor Tuesday to condemn the DEI-captive company's decision.

"Walgreens is planning to close yet another pharmacy in the Massachusetts 7th. This time on Warren Street in Roxbury — a community that is 85% black and Latino," said Pressley. "This closure is part of a larger trend of abandoning low-income communities like the previous closures in Mattapan and Hyde Park."

"These closures are not arbitrary and they are not innocent," continued the radical leftist. "They are life-threatening acts of racial and economic discrimination. ... Shame on you, Walgreens."

Democratic Massachusetts Sens. Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren joined Pressley earlier this month in injecting race into the matter, claiming that Walgreens was partaking in a trend of pharmacies "moving away from black and Latino neighborhoods to mostly white, higher income areas."

"These closures reflect a larger legacy of historic racial and economic discrimination, which has created pharmacy and food deserts and a lack of access to reliable transportation," added the race-obsessive Democrats.

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