It has led to increasing numbers of officers leaving the force or retiring early. With fewer officers on the street and the remainder being hesitant to act, the criminals are taking advantage of the situation.
The Los Angeles Police Department recently started warning people not to wear expensive jewelry in public, or they might become the target of thieves. Thieves have become so brazen that they smashed in the front window of Luxury Jewels, a Beverly Hills jewelry store, in broad daylight and fled with merchandise estimated to be worth $3 to $5 million dollars.
“We’re in the heart of Beverly Hills. Who thought this would happen in broad daylight?” Owner Peter Sedghi said. “Over the last year, there has been a marked increase of armed robberies involving victims wearing expensive jewelry while in public. If it is visible, it can be a target,” an LAPD statement said.
The Associated Press also reported about other high-end robberies. “In one case, the armed thieves allegedly stole more than $3,600 worth of jewelry from a man at a mall parking garage. In the other incident, one victim was pistol-whipped and the other had their Rolex and phone stolen at gunpoint during a follow-home robbery,” according to the AP.
In the city of Los Angeles alone, robberies are up 18 percent this year compared to the same time in 2021. Robberies with a firearm are up 44 percent in the same time period across the city.This means that not only is there a greater chance that a victim may be shot, but police responding to the incident are also endangered.
Because of the growing exodus of police officers, police departments are working to put new officers on the street faster. This could be a mistake for a couple of reasons.
One, officers need to be trained on how to respond properly to a situation. Lack of training is one of the reasons often cited as to why police reputations have taken a hit.
Two, those new officers need to have it drilled into them to always wear personal protective gear when dealing with the public. Nowadays, they often aren’t because they are being taught to understand the criminal and not trigger them to violence.
In November 2021, detectives from the LAPD’s Robbery-Homicide Division formed a Follow-Home Task Force to investigate crimes where people are targeted by criminals and tailed home or to an isolated area. It focused on areas of the city that were wealthier and had high-end businesses.
“The victims were being targeted based on the high-end jewelry they were wearing or the high-end car they were driving,” police said in a statement when the task force was announced.
Don’t expect it to be enough -- and not because the police aren’t doing their jobs. They are risking their lives to capture criminals, only to have liberal district attorneys and judges release them or give them a soft sentence.
When there’s no fear of punishment, you can’t expect the bad behavior to stop. “You can’t blame the cops. Between the defunding movements, the race hoaxes, and the revolving doors in prosecutors’ offices, what are the police supposed to do?
They’re understaffed, under-funded, under fire, and at constant risk of becoming the corporate media’s hate object of the week. A police department can’t function at 100 percent under those circumstances,” states a Breitbart article by John Nolte.
You also have a problem when people ignore simple rules that will help keep them safe, such as heeding the advice of the police and not wearing expensive jewelry.
While some people have paid attention, there are others like Brenda Nolan, a 70-year-old woman who believed she could defend herself against armed robbers because she knows karate. It sounds like she may believe too many of the movies they make in Los Angeles.
Sadly, she and other residents may wind up becoming victims of the criminals believed to be misunderstood and who don’t deserve to be punished. It is reminiscent of something parents sometimes say about destructive children. It applies to the Democrats in Los Angeles and their soft stance on crime. “They’re the reason we can’t have nice things.”
Author Michael A. Letts is the CEO and Founder of In-VestUSA, a national grassroots non-profit organization helping hundreds of communities provide thousands of bulletproof vests for their police forces through educational, public relations, sponsorship, and fundraising programs.
