The inmates are no longer running the asylum — they’re running the entire city.
In a release the Los Angeles Police Department tweeted out this week, authorities advised city residents to “cooperate and comply” with criminals while being robbed.
“Due to an increase in violent street robberies, Robbery-Homicide Division has become aware of an ongoing crime trend of follow-home robberies,” the release begins. “Suspects have been locating victims in Los Angeles, following them, and then committing the robberies as the victim arrives home or at their business.”
LAPD then outlined seven points constituting the department’s advice for how people should react to the robberies described.
Point five reads, “If you are being robbed, do not resist the robbery suspects; cooperate and comply with their demands. Be a good witness.”
Considering California’s gun laws, cooperating and complying with robbers may be the only thing citizens can do. The state has had universal background checks and an “assault weapons” ban since the ‘90s.
Other gun restrictions include a limit on the number of guns citizens can buy each month, a requirement that individuals show “good cause” in order to be approved for a concealed-carry permit, a prohibition on campus carry, a 10-day waiting period for firearm purchases, a ban on “high-capacity” magazines, and a red flag law.
California also has ammunition controls, which includes background checks for ammunition purchases.
But even while the Golden State has made it harder for law-abiding citizens to buy guns, it has taken a relaxed approach to actual criminals.
The ballot initiative Proposition 46, adopted in 2014, has turned places such as liberal San Francisco into shoplifters’ paradises by, among other measures, establishing that shoplifters must steal over $950 worth of goods to be charged with a felony. Thieves openly and brazenly fill their bags with items from shelves then walk out without paying while store clerks and security guards look on helplessly.
Retail chains such as Walgreens are reporting that recent store closures are due, in part, to “organized shoplifting” rings cutting heavily into their revenue.
“We’ve been sounding the alarm for a while that this issue is not getting better,” Rachel Michelin, president and CEO of the California Retailers Association, said in reaction to the store closures.
The Left claims legal gun owners are a bigger threat to public safety than telling criminals they can steal and rob with impunity. An article at Insider explains how the Left’s gun laws fail to help those most affected by gun violence — those in black and Hispanic communities.
“In the communities that we’re working in and we’re advocating for, unfortunately a lot of them are already saturated with guns,” says Gregory Jackson, executive director of the Community Justice Action Fund. “And so frankly, when we look at addressing gun violence in Black and brown communities, we know that you can’t just focus on the hardware. We have to also focus on the people, and how do we make sure that they are in better living conditions.”
The Supreme Court looks poised to shake up the Second Amendment battle with a case currently being examined in relation to New York’s strict gun policies.
The high court’s conservative majority has signaled it is likely to strike down as unconstitutional a current state law that insists citizens show “proper cause” to obtain a concealed-carry permit. That is, they must demonstrate they have a particular, unusual need to get a permit to carry a gun outside the home.
As Politico notes:
The Republican-appointed justices contended that such rules treat Second Amendment rights as inferior to other constitutional rights like freedom of speech and freedom of assembly.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh said he was troubled that New York’s system allows officials “blanket discretion” to accept or reject a request for a permit. “That’s just not how we do constitutional rights,” Kavanaugh said.
Chief Justice John Roberts expressed similar reservations.
“You don’t have to say when you’re looking for a permit to speak on a street corner that your speech is particularly important,” Roberts said. “The idea you need a license to exercise the right, I think, is unusual in the context of the Bill of Rights.”
The Supreme Court’s decision in that case could impact gun legislation in California, which has similar “proper cause” legislation in place for those seeking a concealed-carry permit.
