Young Not Stupid: Every Time I Write a Story Like This About CA, I Thank God I Don't Live There Anymore
The following is an installment in a weekly series of commentary articles by Cameron Arcand, host of the Young Not Stupid interview series and a contributor to The Western Journal.
Every time I write a story about California, I thank God that my family and I left the most chaotic state in the union behind.
It came as no surprise to most ex-Californians that Los Angeles and San Francisco have become the hotbeds of the recent wave of flash mob-style thefts in retail stores.
Piss-poor policies such as zero bail and Proposition 47 — which turned many property crimes from felonies into misdemeanors — have incentivized criminals to fuel the cycle of lawlessness because they know that the consequences will be minimal.
Law enforcement is furious about the soft-on-crime mentality, but that perspective has been largely dismissed in Sacramento.
Now, private businesses are being forced to pick up the slack and take preventative measures.
At one Safeway location in San Fransico, gates are being added at the front of the store in order to slow down and stop potential thieves, KPIX-TV reported.
“Like other local businesses, we are working on ways to curtail escalating theft to ensure the wellbeing of our employees and to foster a welcoming environment for our customers,” a company spokesperson told Fox Business.
“Their safety remains our top priority.”
It feels slightly dystopian that people now need to go through anti-theft barriers in order to do their grocery shopping, but this is a sadly necessary move by Safeway.
Other businesses in the Bay Area are also taking matters into their own hands, with luxury stores such as Chanel and Louis Vuitton boarding up their windows after over $1 billion in merchandise was stolen from regional businesses in November, according to Business Insider.
“If people are breaking in, people stealing your property, they need to be arrested,” Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom said last week, according to KTLA-TV.
“Police need to arrest them. Prosecutors need to prosecute them. Judges need to hold people accountable for breaking the law. … These are not victimless crimes, and I have no empathy for these criminal elements.”
Of course, it’s easy for Newsom to suddenly care about crime when his liquor store in San Francisco has dealt with three break-ins this year.
Yet Newsom and his progressive lackeys have remained staunch supporters of Prop. 47 and have done little to actually tackle crime.
California continues to devolve into a nightmare, and it might be a long time before voters wake up.
The views expressed in this opinion article are those of their author and are not necessarily either shared or endorsed by the owners of this website. If you are interested in contributing an Op-Ed to The Western Journal, you can learn about our submission guidelines and process here.
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