Seems more like a distraction from the real issue and evidence of the connection between retail crime and poverty. Nobody has the political courage to call out the suppression of the American middle class as the defining factor.
Except for the fact that most poor people don't engage in this kind of behavior. And frankly, to imply that people in poverty have no agency is paternalistic to say the least. We all have the capacity to discern right from wrong. If we choose to do bad things to others, that's on us, not anyone or anything else.
I think the quote from Goodfellas sums it up nicely: For us to live any other way was nuts. Uh, to us, those goody-good people who worked shitty jobs for bum paychecks and took the subway to work every day, and worried about their bills, were dead. I mean, they were suckers. They had no balls. If we wanted something, we just took it. If anyone complained twice they got hit so bad, believe me, they never complained again.
The fact that it might be largely driven by poverty doesn’t preclude the existence of people who are not doing it because of poverty.
That being said, nothing about your quote says anything about even the quoted person not being driven by poverty.
Nobody is doing it to feed their kids.
/s