Don’t let the political class fool you: Crime in California is out of control

This morning, my neighbor texted me that thieves stole the side view mirrors off her car last night. Whoever did it didn’t just rip them off, they used tools to remove the mirrors along with the motors that adjust them. The damage was so severe that she couldn’t close her driver’s side door, rendering her car inoperable. I watched out my front window as the tow truck carried it off.

The left wing, “progressive” nut jobs who run Santa Monica and Los Angeles will tut-tut to her, who are you, housed and gainfully employed person, to complain about the mirrors being stolen off your European luxury car by someone who is in such desperate straits that they’ve resorted to thievery to survive? Do you know what those poor thieves have to live with every single day of their lives? Check your privilege!

Sure, side mirrors aren’t exactly family heirlooms. But my neighbor is a single woman who lives alone. She has confided in me in the past that she is a sexual assault survivor, and she has a scar on her cheek from the attack more than 15 years ago. She gets triggered if the neighborhood dogs bark too loudly. Now she is a victim all over again, with all the trauma that comes with it.

It wasn’t just a random act, some tweaker going on a rampage in his psychosis. Hers was the only car on the block that was hit. That strongly suggests that the crime was premeditated and that she was specifically targeted. Think about that: Knowing, as a survivor, that you were singled out. The theft happened literally 50 feet from her bedroom window.

She told me that she called the Santa Monica Police at 8am this morning, as soon as she discovered the theft. As I type these words it’s noon, and the cops haven’t shown up, nor will they. It’s just a rearview mirror, but it’s also a probable targeted crime. That could suggest there’s a larger issue at play. But because police in this city and throughout California have all but stopped responding to “minor” crimes like this, we likely will never know.

That’s not idle speculation or conspiracy mongering. During the pandemic, thieves from an organized crime ring stole another friend’s catalytic converter. In 2021 and 2022 there was a rash of such crimes. It was so bad that auto shops had months-long backlogs of orders for the stolen part. It took nearly three months for him to secure a replacement. He spent several thousand dollars on a rental car in that period. Insurance did not cover it. The cash came out of his pocket.

Last night’s theft is far from the first such crime on our block. A few months ago I happened to be up working late one night. I noticed a figure looking in car windows on the street. Because I’m a fool, I went outside to chase him off, but not before he’d cut a hole in the canvas roof of another neighbor’s Jeep and ransacked the interior.

Also a few months ago, yet another neighbor knocked on my front door and told me someone was inside the storage shed in her backyard. Once again, because I’m a fool, I went out to check and sure enough, a vagrant was inside smoking crack (or meth, or fentanyl, or whatever). And once again I chased him out. This was 20 feet from my backdoor, which often is unlocked, or at least used to be.

I say “I’m a fool,” but what I really mean is, “I had no choice.” Everyone in L.A. knows that in the vast majority of cases involving nonviolent crimes – and a substantial portion of the violent ones – the police aren’t coming. Even before the long, hot summer of George Floyd riots in 2020, police forces around the state were demoralized by the almost complete lack of support from the political class (that said, my empathy for the police only goes so far – as I have said to several cop friends, you took an oath to protect the people, not your pension).

It was bad even before Los Angeles County voters took temporary leave of their senses and elected the fraudulent George Gascon – a man who has never tried so much as a misdemeanor DUI in his life – as District Attorney. In the nearly four years since he took office Los Angeles County has become a criminal’s paradise. His green light to the criminal class is abetted by the County Superior Court, which last year eliminated cash bail for many “low level” offenses.

The ideological fervor, the neglect, and the incompetence are not limited to “minor” crimes. In 2021 yet another neighbor, a young, immigrant schoolteacher, was walking down the street to the Santa Monica bluffs in broad daylight when a vagrant came up behind her and violently sucker punched her in the face. The results were a fractured jaw and orbital bone, severe concussion, and lifelong trauma. A few weeks after the attack we went for a walk. Again, it was the middle of the day, and the whole time she quite literally clung to my arm, shaking uncontrollably. Two or three months later she stopped responding to texts from me and other concerned neighbors. Despite the fact that there were multiple witnesses Santa Monica PD never so much as assigned a detective to the case.

The thousand yard stare

I bumped into her at the grocery store last year. She had a haunting thousand yard stare. She said that she’d left teaching a few months after the attack because she couldn’t concentrate for more than a few minutes at a time. When I asked what she was doing these days she alluded vaguely to life coaching.

Mind you, every one of these crimes occurred within a ten or twelve block radius. None will make it into the official crime statistics, but every one of them affected real peoples’ lives. I myself have been the victim of several crimes. In that summer of 2020 I was walking my dogs one evening. We passed a vagrant and I made the mistake of making eye contact. His eyes bulged and he viciously kicked one of my dogs. Fortunately it was only a glancing blow (and suffice it to say he very quickly regretted his action).

I don’t know anyone in Santa Monica, Los Angeles, or California who believes the political class when they self-servingly declare that crime is at historic lows. Make no mistake, we are in the midst of a crime wave of historic proportions. Remember, the offenses I’ve described happened in a small part of the city.

It’s long past time for rational Californians to call bullshit on what the established, lavishly funded, and increasingly power mad political class is doing to the state. Crime has become an epidemic in the world’s fifth largest economy. That’s not an accident. At the lunatic fringe — which unfortunately constitutes much of the political mainstream in the state these days, there’s even a sense that people have it coming. We should always be cautious when drawing conclusions about intent, but it’s hard to look at the political class’s policies and priorities without seeing an agenda at work. From eliminating cash bail, downgrading some felonies to misdemeanors, and eliminating some misdemeanors altogether, law and order are under attack.

Not to be outdone in their insanity, the state legislature currently is considering Senate Bill 94 (“SB 94”). It would allow convicted murderers serving life sentences without the possibility of parole, and whose crimes included elements such as torture, a prior murder conviction, lying in wait, planting a bomb, and gang affiliation, among others, to petition a court for release if they have served more than 25 years or were convicted before January 1, 1990. Senator Dave Cortese (D-Campbell) introduced the bill last year only to withdraw it after public outcry. With just two weeks before the legislature adjourns this year, Cortese quietly reintroduced the bill last week. Even though Democrats enjoy a veto proof supermajority and can do anything they want, this has become an all too common tactic in Sacramento, lawmakers introducing unpopular legislation at the last minute to avoid as much public scrutiny as possible.

Allegedly, California remains a democracy.

Cortese and SB 94’s supporters argue that those after the age of 40 are less likely to commit violent acts. They can offer no scientific proof to back that assertion. They also argue that keeping elderly people in prison is a form of cruel and unusual punishment. This is, of course, nonsense. For example, this 2020 study in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence puts the notion to rest. But that’s the thing: in pursuing their radical, pro-criminal agenda Democrats, who claim to be the party of science, routinely take absurdly unscientific positions.

Hope on the horizon

Fortunately, there is a glimmer of hope on the near horizon. As I’ve written previously L.A. County voters seemed to have regained their sanity and are poised to kick George Gascon into the gutter where he belongs. Of all places, come January deep blue Los Angeles very likely will have a Republican D.A. in Nathan Hochman (technically Hochman is an independent, but he was a registered Republican until a couple of years ago, and was a Republican throughout his career as a federal prosecutor).

That’s a political earthquake. The rest of the political class should pay very, very close attention. Two years ago voters in the city of L.A.’s west side positively destroyed another radical leftist, former city councilman Mike Bonin, and replaced him with moderate Democrat Traci Park. Again, the political class should take note.

There are indications that they have. As I wrote in a pair of posts last week, erstwhile progressive darling and establishment fixture Gavin Newsom has been sounding like a moderate recently, demanding that cities do more to clear illegal vagrant camps. Of course, there’s a super tanker’s worth of gall in Newsom’s sudden concern. He’s done as much if not more than any single figure to create the homelessness and vagrancy crises. But better late than never.

I’ll be writing more in the coming months about the war for the soul of California. Every assault, every stolen piece of property, every trespass, is creating newly engaged voters. The radical leftist fever that’s gripped the state over the last decade may finally be breaking.

A particular Californian named Kamala Harris would do well to pay attention.

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