ABC finally discovered rampant burglaries plaguing liberal cities like San Francisco, on Monday’s Good Morning America. But ABC wouldn’t mention the city’s radically lax policies that encourage crime and even seemed to suggest these thefts were related to the holiday season.
GMA fill-in co-anchor T.J. Holmes led into the report sounding surprised by the news. “Now let’s turn to the flash mob robberies. A few popular stores, being ambushed across the country. Rushed and looted by mobs of people and all this as the holiday shopping season is picking up,” he noted. Holmes seemed to be proposing this could be related to Christmas shopping. But just because ABC is finally now reporting on it, doesn’t mean this is new. These brazen robberies have been going on for months.
Reporter Kaylee Hartung at least noted this latest incident wasn’t novel: “More retailers are now taking action after this series of really brazen smash and grabs. Thieves are entering stores at all hours of the day, and some are making off with up to a million dollars in goods.” She reported how the robbers were targeting high end retail stores like Nordstrom as well as pharmacies like Walgreens:
Eighty thieves running into a Nordstrom, stealing goods and smashing shelves. Officers stopping one car, arresting a man and a woman, and then a third suspect was caught on foot. A day earlier, also in San Francisco, more than $1 million in merchandise was stolen after thieves broke into several stores that day. Walgreens is already closing several San Francisco stores after videos of brazen shoplifters went viral including video appearing to show a man riding his bike out of a store with a bag full of stolen items...
Hartung also noted how criminals stole over $120,000 worth of purses in Chicago, this week, without mentioning this happened just a few weeks ago as well.
But ABC refused to blame the crime surge on the city’s progressive leadership or controversial policies pushed by the left like Prop 47, which basically decriminalizes theft up to $950.
The top law enforcement official in the city is a socialist and son of lefty terrorist cop-killers. District Attorney Chesa Boudin has served since January 2020 and ran on being soft on crime. In 2020, burglaries rose 50 percent and auto theft rose 22 percent in the city while both were down nationwide, according to the New York Post. CNN reported that, in the Central District, larceny and theft is up 88 percent from last year and overall crime up nearly 52 percent. Boudin actually defended shoplifters.
But the local and national media has given Boudin a pass. The San Francisco Chronicle even asked readers recently if they should just “tolerate” the rampant burglaries and home invasions rather than incarcerating the criminals. That doesn’t seem to be working for residents however, as Boudin is facing a recall election like Governor Gavin Newsom (D) did recently. Even his progressive supporters have abandoned him for being unwilling to “effectively prosecute crime, in any fashion.” But it’s not just Boudin.
In July, Mayor London Breed (D) announced she was defunding the police department to put that money into social justice programs instead. And in September, the city announced it plans to pay criminals every month not to shoot people. With genius ideas like these, is it any wonder San Francisco is having problems with rising crime?
But on Fox News this morning, radio host and former gubernatorial candidate Larry Elder responded, blaming the leadership.
He told Fox and Friends host Steve Doocy that anti-police policies and soft on crime policies had made the “perfect storm” for this crime wave:
Well, Steve, it's a perfect storm. It's one of the reasons I ran for governor. Under this governor, some 18,000 convicted felons were released early because of covid. You have a bunch of D.A.s that were supported by George Soros. One of whom is a D.A. in Contra Costa county where Walnut Creek is. She’s a soft on crime, cashless bail, believes in decriminalization. Believes systemically racist judicial system is prosecuting too many black and brown people. You have D.A.s like that in San Francisco. You have D.A.s like that in Los Angeles. You have a proposition that allows people to steal up to 950 bucks. Not just a day but per store and only be accused of committing a misdemeanor.
So you have this whole anti-police business about systemic racism. Cops are pulling back. Harder to recruit people because cops are retiring early. Morale is bad. Can't recruit new cops. Add all that up. Crime is going up….
It seems obvious that a spike in crime and brazen burglaries should warrant attention and suggest a cause, but the network thinks that their climate change agenda is a more pressing issue. It’s so unimportant to the networks that they skipped California’s longtime Senator Barbara Boxer being assaulted and robbed last July.
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Read the transcript below:
ABC's Good Morning America
11/22/21
7:12 a.m. EasternTJ HOLMES: Now let’s turn to the flash mob robberies. A few popular stores being ambushed across the country. Rushed and looted by mobs of people and all this as the holiday shopping season is picking up. Our Kaylee Hartung is tracking this for us. Kaylee, good morning to you.
KAYLEE HARTUNG: Hey, good morning, T.J.
More retailers are now taking action after this series of really brazen smash and grabs. Thieves are entering stores at all hours of the day, and some are making off with up to a million dollars in goods.
The latest robbery on Saturday in San Francisco. 80 thieves running into a Nordstrom, stealing goods and smashing shelves. Officers stopping one car, arresting a man and a woman, and then a third suspect was caught on foot.
A day earlier, also in San Francisco, more than $1 million in merchandise was stolen after thieves broke into several stores that day. Walgreens is already closing several San Francisco stores after videos of brazen shoplifters went viral including video appearing to show a man riding his bike out of a store with a bag full of stolen items, and the Chicago area has also been hit hard. Just last week, 14 suspects ran into this Louis Vuitton store grabbing $120,000 in purses and other items before fleeing in getaway cars, and police say in that case, the store’s security guard was on a break. George?
