The head of a Los Angeles police union is warning Americans considering a visit to the city over the holidays and beyond to stay home instead or go somewhere else.
Jamie McBride, an LAPD detective and director of the Lost Angeles Police Protective League, Fox News earlier this week that the city was not safe.
Among other crimes, so-called “smash-and-grab” retail theft by gangs of robbers have dramatically increased, along with murders and other violence.
He told people “don’t visit because we don’t think we can keep you safe right now” and compared the City of Angels to “The Purge,” while claiming that “instead of 24 hours to commit your crime, they have 365 days.”
Fox 11 further reported that “McBride blamed the crime surge on things like Proposition 47, which changed sentencing guidelines, as well as the state’s zero-bail policy, which he said puts criminals back on the street, ‘faster than the officers can finish the report.’”
The outlet adds?
Last week, LAPD Chief Michel Moore and LA Mayor Eric Garcetti announced 14 arrests in connection with a series of smash-and-grab robberies spanning late November. All 14 of those people who were taken into custody were later released due to the state’s zero-bail policy.
In order to fix the problem, McBride suggested starting from the top with California Gov. Gavin Newsom. Newsom though called out local officials last week, saying that shoplifters should be prosecuted, calling the spate of robberies “unacceptable.” The governor has also promised the proposed budget he sends to state lawmakers next month will “significantly increase our efforts to go after these retail rings.”
Last week, a family with young kids who were visiting San Francisco had their rental car broken into and a number of valuable items stolen.
What’s more, and to show how brazen criminals are getting, the family was in the car when the theft occurred.
“I was in the car when it happened. All I could hear was a smash and then I said no, I jumped out of the car but it was quick. It was five seconds,” Kimberly Balde told KRON 4.
“You could see people were in the car so each seat was taken and my two daughters were in the back, one’s two and one’s four and it was behind the 4-year-old and like I said, she seen him. He was wearing all black with a black ski mask and she said, ‘that ninja took that bag,'” Balde added.
Los Angeles Democratic Mayor Eric Garcetti said during a press conference regarding the incidents that the city needs “the help of our criminal justice system, of our judges, of our jailers.”
“We have opened up a lot of the city because we’re in a better place with COVID,” Garcetti added. “We should be able to also open up our jails, and we should be able to have judges that put people behind those bars.”