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California Reaps Disaster: Coordinated Raid on Nordstrom with 80 Looters in Ski Masks with Weapons

Elizabeth Allen By Elizabeth Allen
Published November 21, 2021 at 12:49pm
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A coordinated attack made up of 80 masked looters, many carrying weapons, unfolded Saturday evening at the Nordstrom department store in Walnut Creek, CA.

Local P.F. Chang manager, Brett Barrette described the scene this way to KPIX 5:

“I probably saw 50-80 people in like ski masks with crowbars, a bunch of weapons,” he said. “They were looting the Nordstrom.”

“There was a mob of people,” he continued. “The police were flying in. It was like a scene out of a movie. It was insane.”

The P.F. Change restaurant is across the street from Nordstrom. Fearing for the patrons, Barrette started locking the doors.

“I had to start locking the front door,” he said. “Locking the back door. You never know, they could come right in here. It was crazy…All the guests inside were getting concerned. It was a scary scene for a moment.”

A local reporter tweeted footage of the scene.

“About 25 cars just blocked the street and rushed into the Walnut Creek Nordstrom making off with goods before getting in cars [a]nd speeding away. At least two people arrested at gunpoint.”

During the theft, two Nordstrom employees were punched and kicked, while another was sprayed with pepper spray. All three individuals were treated for their injuries on scene.

Walnut Creek Lt. Ryan Hibbs said calls started coming in about the looting around 9:00 pm. He said told KPIX approximately 80 individuals “ran into the store and began looting and smashing shelves.”

Dozens of police vehicles also responded to the scene.

Officers stopped one vehicle arresting both occupants, a male and a female. The male was charged with robbery, possession of stolen property, conspiracy to commit burglary and possession of burglary tools. The female was arrested for unlawful possession of a firearm.

A firearm and stolen property from the looting were recovered from the vehicle.

Officers also arrested a third suspect who ran on foot. He was also charged with robbery, possession of stolen property, conspiracy to commit burglary and possession of burglary tools.

The scene was absolutely scary and “insane” but this was no movie. It was the direct result of liberal ideology overtaking reality.

In 2014 California voters passed Proposition 47 which, among other things, made shoplifting of items valued at below $950 a misdemeanor rather than a felony. This has created a nightmare scenario where thieves brazenly walk in to retail stores in broad daylight, openly steal items and walk out unobstructed. A simple YouTube search yields dozens of videos documenting these thefts.

Add to the equation progressive district attorney’s in CA’s liberal cities who just do not prosecute these crimes.

Then comes the dawn of organized thefts that began to take root. The “Smash and grab” groups have been wreaking havoc on the golden state.

In San Francisco, the problem is so bad that Walgreens announced it was closing an additional 5 stores due to “organized retail crime” bringing it’s total to 22 stores closed in the city.

The clearly failed proposition led to California to passing a law establishing the crime of organized retail theft allowing prosecutors to charge the crime as either a misdemeanor or a felony. The law applies to people work with others to steal merchandise with the intent to sell or return the merchandise. In addition the law applies to those who work with others to receive stolen merchandise, or steal for others or recruit or organize for a theft ring.

The law was inexplicably allowed to lapse spawning a new law authored by Democratic Assemblyman Reggie Jones-Sawyer. According to Jones-Sawyer, CA’s woke legislature and Governor Gavin Newsom who signed the bill into law July 21, the goal is “to ensure we targeted sophisticated crime rings that took advantage of loopholes in state law as opposed to theft for personal use simply because someone was hungry.”

Clearly there are approved uses of “loopholes” in the law as opposed to others who take “advantage.”

While the insanity has no bounds in California, their plight continues and the thieves are getting bolder.

The city’s Union Square Louis Vuitton was also hit by a large “smash and grab” group earlier in the week.

There is no end in sight without the obvious solutions.

“The easiest way to reduce crime is to fix Proposition 47 and reimpose strong sentencing for the pervasive retail theft that is literally closing stores across our state,” said Tracy McCray vice president of the San Francisco Police Officers Association. “Exacerbating the situation is San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin’s insistence on dropping or downgrading charges of those caught red-handed that allows those very same crooks to further victimize our communities over and over again.”

According to a report by the Daily Mail:

Boudin’s office has only been charging people of theft in 46% of all cases since taking office. In comparison, his predecessor George Gascon made such charges in 62% of all cases in 2018 and 2019, according to city data.

Boudin has an even lower rate in petty crime and has only made charges in 35% of all cases, compared to Gascon’s 58%.

Boudin has also convicted far less people of both crimes than Gascon, only convicting thieves in 79% of thefts and 62% of petty thefts. Gascon has an 82% conviction rate for theft and a 77% conviction rate for petty theft.

Sadly, California seems doomed to disaster as voters with any sense are fleeing to free, rational places like Florida leaving the loons in place to destroy anything good that is left.

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