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MY THOTS - A person may not be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law or denied equal protection of the laws – California Constitution Section 7a
Chicago is safer than LA! That seems Cirque du Solei contortionist astounding. Almost every Monday, I hear reports of 25 or more people being shot in Chicago. According to Crimegrade.org, the Chi gets an overall grade of D for safety, while LA receives a D-. LA gets the lowest possible grade for property crime, a big fat F. Quelle surprise!
We should all thank George Gascón, the District of Attorney of the County of LA, the Board of Supervisors, and the City Council for this negative distinction. We must vote them out of office on November 5th.
They are depriving us of the ability to safely keep our property, depriving us of our liberty by making us prisoners in our own homes, and perhaps adding and abetting a criminal who will take a life. They do this by not upholding their constitutional duties to enforce the laws of the State of California. Their actions are also responsible for creating a special class of persons who are above the law and seemingly immune from prosecutions, which denies the good citizens of California equal protection under the law.
It is horrifying that the enablers who have put us in this situation of having to live with daily high doses of fear have nothing to fear as they live in a consequence-free zone for their actions. You and I live in a consequence-intensive zone of their bad laws, horrible decisions, lack of concern for the common good, and atrophied common sense. Hell, they can't even define what a woman is. So why are they intellectually qualified to make laws?
We, voters, are perpetually seduced by misleading names of the propositions we're voting for. The more benign the name, the worse the consequences for the citizenry. The infamous Proposition 47 was marketed by its supporters as the Safe Neighborhood and Schools Act. It had nothing to do with schools or neighborhood safety. Proposition 47 decriminalized thievery at a rate of $950 a day, every day, making thievery almost quasi-legal. There were no cumulative totals added to repeat offenders and zero felony charges. These $950 pilfering a day or less are considered petty theft by George Gascón, who helped author Prop 47. Gascón is George Soro's DA, and he is so pro-crime that his office has a backlog of over 10,000 cases he shows no intent on prosecuting.
If a hapless thief is caught, citations or tickets are issued, and the offender is expected to appear at a hearing at a later date—sometimes years later. Therefore, they may be back on the street in no time, maybe to be more successful at their next criminal impulse.
Proposition 47 also decriminalizes certain drug crimes. These and other policy changes outlined below have led to a public epidemic of burglaries. Let's call it The Soros' Crime Epidemic. This law-and-order crisis was created, abetted, and fueled by the people who were supposed to enforce the laws and protect public safety. They have intentionally turned their jobs into a support system for the worst elements in society. Forsaking the jobs they were sworn to uphold. The Poster Boy for this is George Gascón, the highest-ranking law enforcement officer in LA County.
The Soros Crime Epidemic is also a public health emergency due to its ability to cause post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and anxiety. Anxiety can cause physical tension, hyperactivity of the nervous system, and other symptoms that can increase the risk of cardiovascular disease. It can also lead to digestive or bowel problems, such as irritable bowel syndrome or ulcers. Anxiety can also cause headaches, migraines, and chronic pain and illness. PTSD symptoms include feeling tense or always on guard or on edge, having difficulty concentrating and having difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep, feeling irritable, angry, or being subject to aggressive outbursts.
Then, we voted for Proposition 57, the Public Safety and Rehabilitation Act of 2016. Another double-think Orwellian titled backwards Proposition which was supposed to only let nonviolent criminals out of jail early if they completed specific requirements. The vague language in Proposition 57 allowed for thousands of violent criminals to be released early. As always, we were not adequately educated by the press, which did not delve into the fine print and parse the legal meaning so we could understand the ramifications of the vote ahead of time.
Prop 57 wouldn't have been so bad if there were adequate halfway houses, enough parole officers, job training, job placement, and psychological counseling to make sure these people who presumably paid their debt to society became decent citizens. With the money we saved by closing state prisons and reducing the incarcerated population, one might think we could fund such programs. However, due to the ongoing financial mismanagement of the state, the county, and the city, we don't have the funds to ensure the successful rehabilitation of the early released inmates. So, they are dropped off on the street with $200 in their pocket and nowhere to go. What could go wrong?
Now, to our horror, we watch the state legislature try to jam through Senate Bill 94, co-authored by the worst State Senator in California, Scott Weiner. Benignly named the Recall and Resentencing: Special Circumstances Bill. Who can tell what that means from the title? The legislature in the bill's preamble has the gall to suggest that “The people of the State of California do enact as follows” another of these insane soft-on-crime bills. We, the people, do not the sociopaths in the legislature do.
SB-94 would allow murderers to be released even though we were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Convicted felons cannot vote, so this begs the question: why are state elected officials so keen on letting them out of prison? Who do they think their constituents are? Felons, pedophiles, murderers, people who have committed manslaughter, and people who perpetrate gun violence.
When googling crime statistics in Los Angeles, the statistics cited are bogus, as a lot of crimes go unreported because police officials and our current district attorney's office have convinced people there are no consequences to reporting crimes. If an alleged burglar is unlucky enough to be caught, we all know they will be immediately released. This is called criminal justice reform: no justice and no consequences. Presto change-o reform! Even the LA Times has noted that the LAPD has stopped posting crime numbers on its public website. In a recent Los Angeles Times article, the Times said that: "criminologists and others who study crime have long cautioned about the reliability of statistics reported by police agencies, Warning that the numbers are open to manipulation for political purposes and often provide only a narrow view of the ebb and flow of violent crime.
It has been widely publicized that Encino is experiencing repeated break-ins and home invasion robberies, but the LAPD crime map shows no notice of these break-ins to homes, especially South of Ventura Blvd. This map below covers three months of reported crimes.
https://www.crimemapping.com/map/ca/losangeles#;
ABC channel 7 highlighted a recent Home Security Fair in Encino, which was well attended as residents do not feel safe and seek ways to fortify their homes from robberies. Residents are reportedly afraid to sleep at night and are planning to buy guns.
However, the bigger question is why home burglaries are not showing up on the LAPD crime map. Homeowners of Encino heard that Nithya Raman, Councilwoman for District 4, allegedly does not want the LAPD publicizing any home break-ins in the Encino area as it highlights her defunding the police rhetoric and efforts, which she would like voters to forget about. Apparently, the LAPD has been ordered to use only back channels when communicating about any crime situation in Encino, which the local news organizations don’t have access to. Therefore, we are having a blackout of essential news, and the LAPD and City Council offices are censoring the press for their political gain.
The Democratic Socialist of America (DSA) is an extreme left-wing group that advocates for the abolition of the police, abolishing all prisons, and releasing all people from involuntary confinement. Councilperson Raman has never renounced her allegiance to the DSA. Additionally, Police Captain Brian Wendling of the West Valley police division, who had a community meeting with 50+ Encino residents, tried his best to soft-pedal the Encino/Soro's crime epidemic by suggesting that crimes come in waves, as in peaks and valleys. He made it seem like it was the stock market, but it’s not. People’s lives are at stake.
The same police captain is against people taking personal responsibility and acquiring non-lethal means to protect themselves. With the blessing of the DA, LAPD, Board of Supervisors, and City Council, we are a City of sitting ducks and hapless victims. If the police can't stop crime and the district attorneys won't prosecute crimes, is it not our right to protect ourselves with all the legal means available? Note that the failure of the District Attorneys to act vigorously to protect citizens’ lives and property may violate the California Constitution.
California has the strictest gun laws in the nation, but that has not stopped criminals from using guns to commit crimes. Using a gun to commit a crime does not mean that you will have to post bail; it does not mean that you won’t be released on your own recognizance quickly. So why do we have these strict gun laws? Maybe it’s to make it harder for you to get a gun?
The Soro's Crime Spree costs ridiculous amounts of money for the State, the City, and the average family. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) estimates that organized retail theft costs the average family more than $500 annually. That is an additional surcharge or markup on all the things we buy. In California, the DHS estimates that the totals are almost $8 billion per year in direct losses and another $568 million in lost tax revenue. These statistics are from 2022; those losses have probably increased in 2023 and 2024.
Politics, agendas, and ideologies have entirely corrupted the prosecution of crime. Therefore, the epidemic of crime will not stop any time soon. Nor will this have any chance of an equitable ending till we get tough on crime. Families all over LA are being victimized unfairly. The families that have worked especially hard to afford nice homes in the San Fernando Valley and elsewhere are now targeted by a criminal element. It is not right that their success makes them victims. Perhaps their only fault is that they believed our politicians' lies. So, if you vote for an incumbent, you are voting for being a victim and all the other dysfunctions that go with the multiple epidemics of crime, homelessness, expensive housing, sky-high energy prices, corruption, an obscene tax burden, and fiscal mismanagement. Do the right thing and vote all incumbents out of office!
(Eliot Cohen has been on the Neighborhood Council, serves on the Van Nuys Airport Citizens Advisory Council, and is on the Board of Homeowners of Encino and was the president of HOME for over seven years. Eliot retired after a 35-year career on Wall Street. Eliot is a critic of the stinking thinking of the bureaucrats and politicians that run the County, the State, and the City. Eliot and his wife divide their time between L.A. and Baja Norte, Mexico.)
