by Matthew Rusling
WASHINGTON, Dec 14 (NNN-XINHUA) – Smash-and-grab robberies are headed towards crisis levels in some U.S. cities, with gangs of thugs rampaging unchecked, through stores and grabbing anything in site. City officials are accused of implementing policies that encourage such lawlessness.
On Saturday, two thieves walked into a Chicago store wielding hammers and a gun, smashing through display cases and stealing several watches valued at two million U.S. dollars, U.S. media reported.
A security guard was shot and killed last month, during a smash-and-grab robbery in Oakland, near San Francisco, California. He was protecting a local news crew, while they covered the uptick of looting in the city.
Outside Chicago, thugs recently stampeded through a Louis Vuitton store, filling large plastic bags with merchandise worth over 120,000 U.S. dollars, media reported.
A string of violent robberies took place all in one weekend, in the San Francisco Bay Area. Those included an incident whereby thieves with hammers ransacked several clothing, jewelry and sunglasses stores.
On the same weekend, as many as 80 bandits, carrying crowbars, hit a Nordstrom department store outside San Francisco, attacking one employee with pepper spray and stealing as much merchandise as they could get their hands on. The group fled via waiting getaway cars, U.S. media reported.
The same weekend saw roving groups of criminals carrying crowbars and hammers attack multiple retailers, including Burberry, Louis Vuitton and Bloomingdale’s, all around San Francisco’s Union Square, media reported.
The recent surge in online shopping, due to the pandemic, has given criminals a vast marketplace in which to sell stolen goods.
Senior executive vice president for public affairs, at the Retail Industry Leaders Association, Michael Hanson said, “Criminals saw that [increase in online shopping] and said, ‘Oh, my gosh. More people are shopping online. Let’s go get more and more product to sell on marketplaces because we can make a lot of money,'” as reported by The Hill.
Critics said, radical city officials are responsible for implementing policies that encourage smash-and-grab robberies. Those include downgrading offenses from felonies to misdemeanours.
The New York Post said, over a dozen suspected looters in Los Angeles were arrested but rapidly released, due to zero-bail policies that allow suspects to go free after arrest.
The 14 arrests followed a “rash” of 11 “flash-mob type” raids, in which nearly 350,000 U.S. dollars in goods was swiped in just 10 days, last month, in Los Angeles, with the most recent on Nov 28, city Police Chief, Michel Moore said, as reported in the New York Post.
“All of the suspects taken into custody are out of custody,” Moore said, blaming “zero-bail criteria” for the alleged criminals’ rapid release.
California last year implemented a no bail policy, for what the state called misdemeanours and lower-level felonies, in a bid to tamp down prison population, during the pandemic.– NNN-XINHUA
