There has been an alarming rise in looting in Democrat states like California, due to many factors, including diminished penalties, less police, wokeness and economic factors such as inflation. Flash mobs descend upon stores and raid them, being the human equivalents of locust plagues.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/repeated-organized-flash-mob-robberies-san-francisco-security-experts
“The San Francisco area saw back-to-back flash mobs ransack a Nordstrom and a Louis Vuitton over a 24-hour period, alarming security experts in a city that has already been struggling with rampant smash-and-grab incidents.
"I think what happens now is there's no accountability for it anymore, and the liability for the stores if they try to apprehend these guys. They just stand by and watch," Steve Reed, a retired police officer and the former head of security at Arden Fair Mall, told ABC 10.
Some security experts are pointing to California’s laws that are intended to reduce costs of incarceration as to why there is an increase in such crimes, ABC 10 reported. Shoplifting charges regarding the theft of $950 or less were lowered from felonies to misdemeanors under Proposition 47 in 2014. Stores also often have no-chase policies of shoplifters.
"Some people calculate, 'Hey, you know, I don't want to go over the $950, so let me steal $949 worth of property,'" San Francisco Police Chief William Scott said earlier this year.
"If it's a felony, our officers can take action," he added at the time. "But if it's a misdemeanor, that arrest has to be a private person's arrest. And that makes a difference because they have to be willing to do that."
Other security experts in the area are advising that the best precaution people can take during such incidents is not intervening.
"I cannot overstate the importance of doing that," Hector Alvarez, a corporate security expert with more than 15 years of training, told ABC 10. "Find a way to duck into a corner, get behind something and literally become spam, don't become part of the noise."
About 80 people dressed in ski masks armed with crowbars stormed a Nordstrom location in Walnut Creek on Saturday night. The town is located about 30 minutes from San Francisco.”
It is not California Dreaming, but California Looting; the 1960s song needs updating!