Free Republic

A group of bold thieves, two of whom didn't even bother covering their faces, were caught on camera filling trash bags with cosmetics at an Ulta Beauty salon in Los Angeles County as a security alarm blared and fed-up shoppers groaned. 'When are people gonna say enough?' an exasperated bystander can be heard saying as the group of at least six shoplifters fled the store and piled into a white Dodge Challenger in the parking lot of the Azalea shopping center in South Gate. A witness to Thursday's Ulta robbery said the thieves 'knew exactly what they were doing.' 'They...

Walgreens closed 22 stores in San Francisco where thefts under $950 are effectively decriminalized...Shoplifter’s ParadisePlease note San Francisco Has Become a Shoplifter’s Paradise“Theft in Walgreens’ San Francisco stores is four times the average for stores elsewhere in the country, and the chain spends 35 times more on security guards in the city than elsewhere,” reported the San Francisco Chronicle. Earlier this year, a spokesman for CVS, which has closed at least two stores, told CNN that of its 155 locations in the Bay Area, the 12 in San Francisco account for 26% of all shoplifting incidents in the region.Much of...

San Francisco local businesses and employees are calling for change as they describe increasingly brazen shoplifting and car break-ins. Many residents told Fox News they believe changing California law Proposition 47 is the solution. "The police are actually wonderful, their hands are tied, that’s what’s going on out here." Gianni, a local who works in Fisherman’s Wharf, told Fox News. San Francisco Police Department's Public Information Officer, Robert Rueca explained "There’s a threshold of 950 dollars that needs to be met in order for a misdemeanor to turn into a felony when it comes to theft." "We have to enforce...

Back in 2014, the political leadership of California became alarmed at the rapidly rising prison population in the state. The state was also under court order to reduce the overcrowding in state prisons. The people of California set a grand objective to reduce the number of convicts in the state. Fewer people going to prison has to be a good thing -- right? The first thing they did was pass Proposition 47 -- the Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act. That sounds like something everyone would want. 58% of Californians voted in favor of the measure. There was just one problem....

With 60 days to election day, Rep. Devin Nunes (R–Tulare) still hasn’t uttered the name of his opponent on television. Instead, his barrage of television advertising – eclipsing hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign spending – has turned to another set of issues on the Nov. 3 ballot: a ballot initiative. Two new ads hitting Valley airwaves on Thursday from Nunes are highlighting the hangover effect of a pair of California decriminalization measures – 2014’s Proposition 47 and 2016’s Proposition 57. Prop. 47 notoriously reclassified a bevy of felonies – deemed to be “nonviolent offenses” – as misdemeanors, allowing...

California’s Proposition 47 reduced a number of “non-serious, nonviolent crimes” that had previously been considered felonies to misdemeanors. Among those crimes were shoplifting, grand theft, receiving stolen property, forgery, fraud, and writing bad checks. In terms of the numbers, as long as the total value of the stolen property is under $950, it’s simply a slap on the wrist. That also means a thief may now steal something under that limit every single day and it will never rise to felony status. When you eliminate stiff penalties for criminal activity, you almost guarantee an increase in these types of crimes,...

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., withdrew his endorsement of Los Angeles District Attorney Jackie Lacey, who is seeking a third term in office. Schiff had initially thrown his support behind Lacey last year, but the incumbent DA now faces a progressive challenger during a time when law enforcement is facing criticism across the country. "This is a rare time in our nation's history. We have a responsibility to make profound changes to end systemic racism & reform criminal justice," Schiff tweeted Saturday, adding that he and California Assemblymember Laura Friedman "no longer feel our endorsement of Jackie Lacey a year ago...

San Francisco used to be a beautiful place to visit or even live. Democrats have run the state into a shit hole status! Fentanyl and Heroin abuse, the numbers are frightening, but let’s worry about illegal immigrants. While our mainstream media is focused on how President Trump is handling the “China” virus, Pelosi’s San Francisco is going down. The streets of San Francisco look like a scene from a zombie movie. People around the city are looting the stores amid the Coronavirus threat. Video below: https://twitter.com/Pismo_B/status/1240779254998028288?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1240779254998028288&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.rightjournalism.com%2Fanarchy-in-pelosis-san-francisco-people-are-looting-the-stores-all-over-the-city%2F In San Francisco, this isn’t anything new but with all this hysteria around the...

"The Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act" isn't living up to its promise. Also known as Proposition 47, the California ballot initiative, which was approved in November 2014 with 60 percent of the vote, downgraded drug possession and many property crimes from a felony to a misdemeanor. Proponents argued that lesser punishment for low-level offenders would enhance public safety. San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon was the rare prosecutor who pushed for its approval. He told the San Francisco Chronicle, "What we have been doing hasn't worked, frankly." Gascon spokesman Alex Bastian told me, "The voters indicated that possessing small amounts...

Orange County continued its trend toward an electorate that looks more like the rest of the Democratic state when it supported Proposition 47 – which reduces some non-violent felonies to misdemeanors – with 53 percent of the vote. Republicans had a good mid-term election nationwide and in Orange County wrested two state legislative seats from Democrats. But a Register analysis of Prop. 47 found a broader ongoing shift of county voters. The county GOP advantage over Democrats has steadily declined from 22 percentage points in 1990 to 9 points today, with little indication that the slide’s end is in sight....

A ballot measure passed by voters this week is already freeing California suspects from jail as their felony charges are reduced to misdemeanors, and people previously convicted of the charges receive reduced sentences as they appear in court. Sheriffs across the state immediately began implementing Proposition 47, which calls for treating shoplifting, forgery, fraud, petty theft and possession of small amounts of drugs, including cocaine, heroin and methamphetamines, as misdemeanors instead of felonies. Two-dozen suspects who were being held on those charges walked out of Sacramento County jail two days after 58 percent of voters approved the initiative on Tuesday....