Wants to appear ‘tough on crime’<\/p>\n
Newsom Announces $267 Million Program to Combat Organized Retail Theft.<\/a><\/p>\n In another effort to be perceived as \u201cdoing something about the problem,\u201d California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a $267 million initiative to combat organized retail crime.<\/p>\n \u201cEnough with these brazen smash-and-grabs,\u201d\u00a0Newsom said<\/a>. \u201cWith an unprecedented $267 million investment, Californians will soon see more takedowns, more police, more arrests, and more felony prosecutions. When shameless criminals walk out of stores with stolen goods, they\u2019ll walk straight into jail cells.\u201d<\/p>\n To put it delicately, that\u2019s a load of crap.<\/p>\n First of all, police have to catch the criminals. While they apprehend some of them, most get away. And even when arrests are made, good luck seeing many of these criminals at trial when their bail is a joke or even non-existent.<\/p>\n As far as prosecutions are concerned, you have to have state\u2019s attorneys willing to enforce the law and put these people in prison. But we know that\u2019s not going to happen. So even if they\u2019re convicted, the chances of the thieves going to prison are small. Instead, the criminals will be back on the streets preparing for their next payday.<\/p>\n The Messenger:<\/a><\/p>\n Individual sheriffs offices and police department will be awarded over $23 million each in funding to be used for creating \u201cfully staffed retail theft investigative units, increase arrests, install advanced surveillance technology, train loss prevention officers, create new task forces, increase cooperation with businesses and the community, target criminals in blitz operations, as well as crack down on vehicle and catalytic converter theft.\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n The<\/span>\u00a0Organized Retail Theft Prevention Grant Program<\/a>\u00a0will partner with law enforcement agencies in seven counties and 34 cities across the Golden State.<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Is organized retail theft \u2014 or shoplifting \u2014 really that much of a problem?\u00a0Popular Information<\/a>\u00a0doesn\u2019t think it is.<\/p>\n 2023 data from most major California cities, however, does not reflect a significant increase in shoplifting or organized retail crime. In San Francisco, larceny-theft, which includes shoplifting, is<\/span>\u00a0down 5.6% year-to-date<\/a>. Burglary in San Francisco is<\/span>\u00a0down 6.8% year-to-date<\/a>. In San Jose, burglary and larceny are both<\/span>\u00a0down nearly 20% year-to-date<\/a>. In Los Angeles, burglary has\u00a0<\/span>decreased 2.7% year-to-date<\/a>, but theft has<\/span>\u00a0increased 14.1% year-to-date<\/a>.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Taken as a whole, the available data suggests organized retail crime does not appear to be a growing problem in the nation or California. So is combating organized retail crime the best use of $267 million in taxpayer dollars<\/span>?<\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n What matters far more than dollars and cents on this issue is the perception that retail smash-and-grab thefts are out of control and something needs to be done.<\/p>\n The videos<\/a>\u00a0of these robberies\u00a0are terrifying<\/a>. Shoppers are thinking twice about going into a brick-and-mortar retail store. Hence, Newsom\u2019s totally useless program that looks good on the nightly news but doesn\u2019t do a darn thing to change the situation.<\/p>\n Robberies won\u2019t stop until store owners make it too difficult for the thugs to steal from them. Whether its armed guards or putting merchandise under lock and key, store owners will figure it out eventually.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Wants to appear ‘tough on crime’ Newsom Announces $267 Million Program to Combat Organized Retail Theft. In another effort to be perceived as \u201cdoing something about the problem,\u201d California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a $267 million initiative to combat organized retail crime. \u201cEnough with these brazen smash-and-grabs,\u201d\u00a0Newsom said. \u201cWith an unprecedented $267 million investment, Californians … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,64,50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crime","category-deceit","category-goobermint"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=96018"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96018\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":96019,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96018\/revisions\/96019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=96018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=96018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=96018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}