Free Republic

Berkeley, Calif., once a bastion of liberal idealism, currently mirrors the lawlessness of the Wild West. Its streets resemble an open-air drug den, overrun by homeless encampments. Tents block streets and parking, making sidewalks impassable for pedestrians with disabilities. Human waste, syringes and hazardous materials spill directly on private property and in waterways, polluting them. Open-air fires in the middle of public thoroughfares offer scenes more reminiscent of the Great Depression than the prosperous, innovative community associated with the Berkeley name.

COMPTON, Calif. -- More and more stores across the Southland and the country are taking stricter measures to fight a growing epidemic of shoplifting. At least one Rite Aid store in Compton appears to be taking security to the extreme. The store on Long Beach Boulevard installed locked glass cases on every aisle, meaning a majority of items for sale apparently require the assistance of a store employee. It's a sign of a growing and disturbing trend that's been seen in social media videos and news reports of shoplifters taking items from retailers without significant resistance by employees or security....

About 50 juveniles ransacked a 7-Eleven in Los Angeles on Friday night, the LAPD confirmed. The department said officers received a call around 7:25 p.m. that about 50 kids biked to the 7-Eleven located on the border of Beverly Hills at 8500 W Olympic Blvd. and stole items from the store. The underage suspects fled the scene on their bikes before officers arrived. An Instagram account named Street People of Beverly Hills posted videos that show the crowd of minors biking into the parking lot, running inside and escaping with their hands and pockets full of snacks and other items....

Anarcho-tyranny refers to a societal condition where the state fails to enforce basic law and order against serious crimes (anarchy) but simultaneously imposes excessive control, regulation, and punishment on ordinary, law-abiding citizens (tyranny). The goal of anarcho-tyranny is to maintain power and control by targeting the compliant majority while neglecting or enabling more serious, disruptive elements within society. This dynamic serves to suppress dissent and maintain the status quo, often at the expense of individual freedoms and true justice. The concept of anarcho-tyranny was coined by Samuel T. Francis. His “Leviathan and Its Enemies: Mass Organization and Managerial Power in...

CHICAGO (CBS) -- Next week marks one year since Illinois outlawed cash bail, and advocates and critics of the change have been waiting patiently to see it if has been successful — or as some predicted, a disaster. A panel of stakeholders, including Cook County Chief Public Defender Sharone R. Mitchell Jr., spoke Wednesday about the largely positive outcomes of ending cash bail. "There were a lot of predictions about things that did not happen," said Mitchell.

CHICAGO - A group of at least a dozen people looted a UPS tractor-trailer on Chicago's Southwest Side Thursday morning following a crash. At 10:46 a.m. in the 2100 block of South Kedzie Avenue in the city’s Little Village neighborhood, the truck’s roof was torn off while attempting to drive underneath a viaduct. The slight miscalculation was only the first in a series of bizarre events that unfolded. As the truck was traveling northbound on Kedzie Avenue, just past Cermak Road, the truck driver struck the viaduct. SkyFOX captured stunning video of its roof peeled off like a tin can....

BOSTON — Boston police are investigating after high-end items were stolen from several Back Bay stores Saturday. Alo and Zara, both of which are on Newbury Street, were two of the stores that were robbed in the area, which is a shopping destination for locals and tourists. Advertisement Store management at the Sunglass Hut in the nearby Prudential Mall said they were hit as well on Saturday. They said a group of men and women walked out of the store with expensive sunglasses without paying for the items.

Oakland’s crime rate, consistently higher than the Bay Area’s other big cities, has surged since the COVID-19 pandemic, while the rates in San Francisco and San Jose have leveled off, an analysis of California Department of Justice data shows.

“They’re coming.” That’s what Miguel, a Venezuelan migrant who came to America with his wife and two daughters, told me about the gang, Tren de Aragua, earlier this year. “And they’re very bad.” The past few days have shown how far the Venezuelan gang appears willing to go. In Aurora, Colorado, Tren de Aragua has allegedly terrorized the local community. According to Mayor Mike Coffman, at least two buildings in the city “have fallen to” a group of armed men, suspected to be gang members. “This is an organized criminal effort. Whether it’s Tren de Aragua, that remains to be...

America is a trust society. We trust our elected representatives will work in our interests. We trust the police will honestly and apolitically enforce the law. We trust criminals will be prosecuted and if convicted, sentences commensurate with their offenses will be imposed. We trust our currency will retain its value, and contracts and property rights will be enforced. We trust we’ll be able to go about our daily business without risking injury or death. We trust our borders will be protected, and our national security secured. We used to, anyway. Graphic: Libs of TikTok screenshot. The gang takeover of...

...Referring to one of ABF’s constituent brands, Primark, Mr Weston said the retailer annually lost more to shoplifting than it paid in business rates... Shortly before Mr Weston’s despairing announcement, Paul Gerrard, who runs public affairs at the Co-op...spoke of “people coming into our stores with wheelie bins, people coming into our store with builder’s bags to steal the whole confectionery section, the entire sprit section, the entire meat section”... The lawlessness that gives Britain such a dystopian feel – the marauding shoplifters, the Rolex rippers, the smartphone thieves, the lethal parade of teenagers with knives whose conception of the...

The famed Langer’s Deli in downtown Los Angeles could close, its owner tells the Los Angeles Times.Norm Langer, 79, has spent almost his entire life growing up around and running the 77-year-old delicatessen.But with the persistent public safety and homelessness issues plaguing nearby MacArthur Park and the surrounding area, Langer is “considering closing,” he told Times columnist Steve Lopez, who called the possibility a “hole-in-your-soul development.”Langer added that he hopes city officials provide “improved lighting, increased police patrols, social services outreach and targeted clean-up efforts,” and Lopez noted that “the more I talked to Langer, the more I got the...

Thrift shoppers will need to find a new location to score deals in Seattle, after the company announced that it will be closing two locations due to "escalating theft, safety concerns" as well as "rising rents." Evergreen Goodwill of Northwest Washington announced the closures Friday in a blog post, saying that the decision came after they were unable to "maintain a secure and sustainable environment for both employees and shoppers." "The announcement was made as escalating theft, safety concerns, and rising rents have made it increasingly difficult to maintain a secure and sustainable environment for both employees and shoppers," the...

Blades are carving up the Big Apple. Stabbings and slashings across the city this year spiked 6% to 3,582 incidents through Aug. 11, up from 3,370 during the same period time last year, according to NYPD data requested by The Post. So far this year, 60 people have died by the blade — an 11% surge from the 54 in 2023. “There’s no reason for so much crime to go on,” Alton Scott, a veteran MTA conductor who needed 34 stitches to close a gruesome neck wound after being slashed in March, told The Post. In May, 17-year-old Sarah Rivera...

Two brutes accused of randomly pummeling an 82-year-old woman on a Bronx street have been released without bail — even though the violent pair has a combined 18 prior arrests, The Post has learned. William Ballinger and Tammie Moore — both of whom have lengthy rap sheets — were busted by cops last week and charged with second-and third-degree assault for the vicious Aug. 2 attack on the elderly home health aide in Olinville, police said. Prosecutors asked that each of the 32-year-old defendants be held on $30,000 cash bail or $90,000 bond during their arraignments in Bronx Criminal Court...

Starbucks just closed a 30 year location that operated in Manhattan NYC since the 90's, and was once the largest of its kind in the city. Store workers blame rent increases which the landlord disputes, but local residents think the store may have had other problems that lead to its closure... NYC crime, homelessness, and employee safety all play into this review of why the largest Starbucks in NYC is gone.

Hours after California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a crime bill to stop "smash and grabs," a bicycling mob ransacked three Hollywood 7-Eleven stores in under 25 minutes. NBC Los Angeles reported that the first store was hit shortly after 8 pm. The bike gang reportedly broke into the store, stealing food and beverages, and left the store with a broken window. Just 16 minutes later, a second 7-Eleven near Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue was attacked, during which an employee was allegedly assaulted. A third store on Santa Monica Boulevard was hit at 8:22 pm.

Brazen thieves on bikes raided three 7-Eleven stores in California in the space of half an hour, smashing their way in and taking all they could carry. About 20 robbers swarmed inside the shops in Hollywood, grabbing food, drinks, cigarettes and anything else on shelves. Staff could only stand by helplessly as their convenience stores were ransacked in the blink of an eye before the invaders moved on to the next. The raids lasted a matter of minutes each, starting at 8:02pm on Friday when the 7040 West Sunset Boulevard store was hit, police said. Another near Hollywood and Highland...

CHICAGO — Mayor Brandon Johnson personally intervened in a dispute between his own administration and a coalition of activist groups set for a massive protest at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago next week, helping reverse the city’s denial of a permit to set up stages and sound systems for rallies in a park near the United Center, the coalition’s leader said Friday. The agreement, which was reached after hours of back-room negotiations between the parties, nullified an emergency motion filed in U.S. District Court earlier this week alleging the city had violated protesters’ First Amendment rights by restricting how...

Amajority of likely California voters support stiffer penalties for crimes involving theft and fentanyl, according to a new UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll co-sponsored by The Times. The results of the poll released Friday showed that 56% of Californians would support Proposition 36, an initiative on the November ballot that would impose stricter sentences for repetitive theft and offenses involving the deadly drug fentanyl. The proposition has been at the center of a battle in the state Capitol this year as Republicans and law enforcement advocates call for the undoing of Democratic reform policies that downgraded some felonies...