Major Cities are deteriorating due to crime. The problems caused by defunding and attacking the police are manifest.
According to the Santa Monica Police Department, officers were called to The Real Real on Nov. 27 at about 10:55 a.m. after four masked suspects entered the luxury resale store and forced their way past the front door security.
Once inside, they used hammers to smash multiple display cases containing brand-name purses worth over $50,000. The suspects then fled the scene in a waiting vehicle. It was another smash-and-grab robbery.
In August 2023, a rise in organized retail thefts prompted SMPD to join the Los Angeles Police Department in the formation of the Los Angeles County Organized Retail Crime Taskforce (ORCT).
The press didn’t mention the boatloads of anonymous illegal aliens pulling up on Santa Monica’s shores.
Even the super-wealthy of Santa Monica will not be exempt from what their policies have wrought.
City leaders are now trying to work with police departments to prevent crime just after trying to defund them.
D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) is expected to announce a new “real-time crime center” on Thursday, where police will monitor live-stream video from hundreds of closed-circuit television cameras across the city.
Not yet completed, the crime center will be staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It is one component of Bowser’s strategy to confront crimes such as carjackings, robberies, and homicides that are soaring in the District this year.
The Washington Post reports that the announcement comes as robberies and homicides are soaring in the District, and a rise in carjackings has left people across the Washington region on edge. Bowser’s administration is under increasing pressure to curtail violence and restore a sense of safety to the city.
“The goal of this is to respond faster and more efficiently when crime happens in our community,” Bowser said at the Thursday announcement.
The [Anti-] American Civil Liberties Union of D.C. immediately raised concerns about how authorities might respond to what they see on video and whether it could lead to anyone being illegally targeted.