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Posted on 05/29/2026 6:11:36 AM PDT by Red Badger
In the months following the devastating Palisades Fire of 2025, residents who lost everything have faced a second assault—not from flames, but from opportunistic thieves preying on their efforts to rebuild. An LAPD email obtained by the New York Post reveals a surge in thefts targeting construction sites, with criminals making off with plywood, tools, copper wiring, and other essential materials under the cover of darkness caused by absent streetlights.
This is not mere misfortune; it is the predictable result of governance that prioritizes ideology over public safety in one of America’s most liberal strongholds.
These “ghouls,” as aptly described, exploit the very vulnerability created by bureaucratic delays and inadequate law enforcement. While families struggle to secure permits and insurance payouts, thieves operate with relative impunity.
The senior lead officer’s plea for residents to install their own cameras and solar lights underscores a damning reality: the state has abdicated its core duty to protect life, liberty, and property. In a functioning society, citizens should not need to militarize their rebuilding sites against fellow citizens turned predators.
At least eight such incidents occurred in May alone, according to the officer’s warning. The darkness—literal and metaphorical—looms over the “alphabet streets” where power remains inconsistent and patrols insufficient. Residents like “Scott” report flatbed trucks arriving to strip freshly delivered lumber, forcing him to hire private security at his own expense.
“It is not normal,” he noted. “In a normal society, you don’t have to have security cameras on your locked fence. It’s a government failure.”
Nina Madok, a 65-year-old resident, has seen this coming. She tracks incidents in a community spreadsheet, attributing the crime wave to law enforcement feeling “not empowered to deter” wrongdoing. Even with Proposition 36’s reforms, the cultural rot runs deep in Los Angeles. Criminals sense weakness—the same weakness that left neighborhoods exposed during the fires themselves, when reports of looting in evacuation zones prompted task forces and arrests.
This pattern exposes a deeper contradiction in progressive governance. Leaders promise swift recovery and “equity” while policies erode the rule of law that makes recovery possible. Irony abounds: a city that lectures on compassion allows the vulnerable—those already scorched by wildfire—to be picked clean during their most desperate hour.
Where is the vaunted social safety net when private citizens must fund their own protection? Constitutional principles rooted in ordered liberty demand better; the government’s monopoly on force exists precisely to prevent this descent into vigilantism.
Reza Akef, a local builder, offers another angle, suggesting underpaid subcontractors might rationalize theft as self-compensation. Yet this merely highlights fractured trust in a system where honest work yields diminishing returns under heavy regulation and taxation. The broader failure lies not with individual workers but with leadership that has normalized lawlessness across California.
Residents supporting candidates like Spencer Pratt signal a hunger for common-sense leadership. They recognize that true compassion involves secure borders, both literal and societal—protecting communities so families can thrive without fear. The Palisades tragedy reveals how progressive experiments in criminal justice reform have real victims: hardworking Americans trying to restore their lives from ashes.
Civilized societal norms call us to diligence and accountability, principles that stand in stark contrast to a “progressive” culture excusing predation. Without a return to moral clarity and strong enforcement, rebuilding will remain an uphill battle against both nature’s fury and man’s greed.
The opportunist ghouls in the Palisades are symptoms of a larger affliction. Until leaders prioritize safety over slogans, Americans in disaster zones will continue paying the price—not just in stolen materials, but in eroded faith in the institutions meant to serve them. The path forward requires rejecting failed ideologies and embracing timeless truths about justice, responsibility, and ordered society.
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Click here: to donate by Credit Card Or here: to donate by PayPal Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794 Thank you very much and God bless you. |
Shoot a few of them.
Leave the bodies to rot.
The rest will get the message.
L
Trespassing on a designated construction site is a felony in Florida.
Probably is in California too, but if they don’t enforce the laws what good is it?................
Stuff's just lying around waiting on permits. Contractors can't work there, so they can't pay the help, so they work other sites instead, using building materials already bought and just lying around.
Even if they get permits, there are no streetlights, no utilities, no police watching over the stuff...
Construction site thefts have been going on forever. Most of the thieves are members of the construction trades.
Time to send the social workers in to talk with the would be thieves...
I'm not going to look in the article because this should be front and center.
Strong letter first.
They are not thieves. They are cashless shoppers.............
“The state has abdicated its core duty to protect life, liberty, and property.”
All a part of the lefty ideology “defund the police” - which the leading democrat candidates for governor and mayor of Los Angeles promote.
Of course, while they live behind gates with armed security.
Although...a “demonstration” homeless camp was set up outside Nitya Raman’s home in Los Feliz - and she didn’t like it one bit... not one bit - while she fights tooth and nail to keep homeless encampments outside of schools, hospitals, roadways, etc.
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