CALIFORNIA FOCUS
FOR RELEASE: FRIDAY, JANUARY 7, 2022, OR THEREAFTER
BY THOMAS D. ELIAS
“CRIMINALS WILL DECIDE HOW BIG AN
ISSUE CRIME WILL BE”
Politicians thrive on power.
Psychological studies often find they seek office and once there, try to stick
around to preserve their power more than to get rich.
So it’s
ironic that criminals, a group despised by this state’s political class, should
now be in position to set much of California’s political agenda for 2022. In
this state of almost 40 million persons, as few as 200 to 300 individuals took
group actions in November that might reverse years of liberal lawmaking and
leftist defiance of the voters’ will on things like cash bail.
There was
nothing constructive in what they did. The agenda has already been shifted
somewhat by a group of supposed gang members via their series of
“smash-and-grab” burglaries in November and early December, almost exclusively
targeting high-end stores like Nordstrom, Louis Vuitton and Lululemon.
Riding
four to a car, these organized and prepared bandits appeared suddenly in dark
evening hours, sledge-hammered their way through thick plate glass windows and
made off with goods worth as much as $5 million.
In some
cases they failed, as police arrived before some stores in Palo Alto and Los
Angeles could be looted. Some stolen goods were later recovered from storage
lockers, where they were stashed to await eBay appearances and flea market
sales.
With the
aid of security cameras and tips from persons who recorded license numbers from
among the fleets of getaway cars, police caught some of those alleged to have
conducted the raids.
They were
a mix of men and women of several ethnicities, and because of the left-leaning
politics that have governed California for the last few decades, most of those
captured did not spend much time in jail.
In Los
Angeles, where District Attorney George Gascon imposes an almost absolute
no-cash-bail policy on the nation’s largest local court system, all 14 bandits
arrested locally were quickly released to await court appearances. That spurred
fears the same suspects would soon commit other crimes. In LA County, which
voted 55-45 percent on a 2020 state ballot referendum to keep cash bail in
effect, it was no coincidence when Gascon was served with fresh recall notices
within days.
In San
Francisco, where ultra-leftist DA Chesa Boudin already faces a recall vote, a
few suspected group burglars who operated in posh Union Square were held in
custody on judges’ orders, but others were released.
Meanwhile,
Gov. Gavin Newsom looked nervous and uncertain as he proclaimed that the flash
mob attacks must halt. And Attorney General Rob Bonta, who voted while a state
legislator to end cash bail, staged a San Mateo County appearance to announce a
six year sentence for the final and primary defendant in a years-ago scheme to
heist drugs from stores there and sell them overseas.
No one could
remember the last time Bonta joined local authorities in celebrating a tough
sentence.
Bonta has
been joined by other Democratic leaders like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and
Gov. Gavin Newsom in revising prior soft-on-crime rhetoric.
It’s uncertain how much all
this action will change the state’s 2022 political scene, already sure to
feature issues like housing and water, not to mention a host of hot
congressional and legislative races in newly revised districts.
But fear
has always been a huge factor in voting, and it’s been at least a decade since
Californians felt a strong fear of crime just before casting their ballots.
Exactly such fear motivated the 1986 campaign ginned up by then-Gov. George
Deukmejian, who succeeded in ousting three liberal justices of the state
Supreme Court opposed to the death penalty.
With an
almost entirely different electorate today, the potential effects of fear and
crime on the year’s politics are less predictable.
But the
reactions of Newsom, Bonta and others to the rash of smash-and-grab robberies
was probably instructive. The California banditry drew more publicity than
similar crimes in other places as varied as Chicago and New Orleans.
Top
Democrats displayed far more anxiety over the mass burglaries than over any
other issue they’ll face this year. They obviously realize fear of crime could
hurt them badly. Which puts an awful lot of power in the hands of the criminals
who organized the raids here and could orchestrate more.
-30-
Email Thomas Elias at
tdelias@aol.com. His book, "The Burzynski Breakthrough, The Most Promising
Cancer Treatment and the Government’s Campaign to Squelch It" is now
available in a soft cover fourth edition. For more Elias columns, visit www.californiafocus.net
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