Newsom Likens Railcar Thefts To "Third World Country" As Liberal 'Law & Order' Agenda Implodes
Having shrugged off 'mostly peaceful' protests and reclassifying nonviolent felonies like shoplifting and drug possession as misdemeanours, it appears the increasingly progressive policies of Soros-sponsored DAs - especially in California - have come back to bite as a tsunami of violent crime has forced woke liberal leaders to face up to the reality that their voters (and more importantly donors) are facing every day.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom and his left-leaning comrades in the Golden State spearheaded the move to reform police departments and the state's criminal justice system that allows people who shoplift or are in possession of drugs to be released from jail (or avoid it all together) with minimal consequences for their actions.
Newsom's acquiescence to 'progressive' DAs has single-handedly transformed numerous metros areas into hot spots for violent crime, resulting in businesses and people packing up their bags and getting the heck out of dodge.
For the longest time, progressives have denied their social policies contributed to the rise in violent crime.
But that is changing fast. Along with NYC's new mayor demanding federal aid to deal with that city's crime wave, it appears Newsom's statements about the wave of freight train looting in Los Angeles are very suggestive that his party is quickly recognizing their 'law and order' policies are miserably failing.
Last week, the governor visited the site as an effort was already underway to clean up the shredded boxes after looters broke into railcars to steal Amazon and UPS packages.
"What the hell is going on?" Reuters quoted Newsom as saying amid the aftermath of the railcar thefts on Union Pacific train tracks in downtown Los Angeles.
Newsom said the scene "looked like a third world, these images, the drone images that were on the nightly news."
"This is not a one-off. This is organized theft. They're organized groups of folks that move from site to site," he said.
Newsom added that "...we need all of us to start supporting one another to address these issues."
'It looked like a Third World country': California Governor Gavin Newsom visited railway tracks in east Los Angeles littered with thousands of open and damaged packages looted from freight trains pic.twitter.com/8dR8qU4S1X
— Reuters (@Reuters) January 21, 2022
As a reminder, in December, Union Pacific sent a letter to LA DA Gascón urging more aggressive prosecutions for cargo thieves and calling for an end to a no-bail policy for some defendants aimed at reducing overcrowding at jails during the coronavirus pandemic.
"These individuals are generally caught and released back onto the streets in less than twenty-four hours. Criminals boast to our officers that charges will be pled down to simple trespassing - which bears no serious consequence," the letter said.
Newsom couldn't quite commit to reality though as he apologized for calling looters "gangs," ,
"Forgive me for saying 'gangs' - that's not a pejorative...They're organized groups of folks that move from site to site."
...which sparked more than a little mockery on social media:
'Gov. Gavin Newsom is an idiot. He called LA area a 'Third World Country' because of 'Gangs', then apologizes for calling them gangs!' wrote Twitter user @CJ4America.
'Hahaha the most Newsom thing ever - pretending to get mad about crime increase but then apologizing for using the word "gangs,"' echoed @TrajanSF who apparently resides in San Francisco.
Perhaps Mr. Newsom has been quietly reading Michael Shellenberger's thoughts on how we got here and where we need to go.
Commenting on the demise of California is Michael Shellenberger, known for his best-selling book Apocalypse Never (HarperCollins 2020) and San Fransicko (HarperCollins 2021), who said the downplaying of crime by progressive Democrats is tearing the party apart as violent crime rips across the country.
Shellenberger said the defunding of the police movement has backfired, and liberals can no longer ignore the fact that their policies increase crime.
Real-world consequences of failed progressive policies have contributed to the wave of lootings across California cities, he said, adding San Francisco is being transformed into a ghost town as businesses board up their shops and people avoid the metro area for fear of being targeted by gangs.
Shellenberger points out that defunding the police has resulted in a police shortage across the US that is resulting in declining patrols and parts of metro areas turning into lawless warzones.
What's remarkable - given the shift in tone by Newsom, and his apparent urging for help to address the crime wave - is that the LA train lootings appear to be the last straw on woke Democrat's downplaying-crime camel's back and perhaps, just perhaps, Californians may live in a safer place soon (though of course, Dems will have to see how their votings blocs feel about cracking down on crime ahead of the midterms).
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