“Caravans Full of Looters”

Looted Ross store, Emeryville, May 31st. (Chron photo)

Over the past week significant law enforcement resources had been assigned to the George Floyd protests.

Criminals exploited the lack of police presence elsewhere by hitting stores miles away in "caravans full of looters." [bold added]

at around 10 p.m. on Saturday, Oakland police responded to calls for assistance from police in Emeryville who were dealing with looting on 40th Street at stores like Best Buy, Target and Decathlon.

Even with Oakland’s support, the officers were outnumbered and had to pick and choose their battles. They secured one store only to stand by helplessly as hundreds of people walked and drove to another store and looted it.

Besides the lack of police, additional factors in the crime wave are possibly the passage of Proposition 47, which reduced the theft of anything under $950 from a felony to a misdemeanor, and the increasing prevalence of "no cash bail," that is, releasing alleged criminals if an algorithm says they are likely to make their court appearance.

In the Bay Area we are living through a live experiment about how to build a society based on progressive beliefs of human nature, governance, and racial fairness. I just hope that there are enough people and businesses left to rebuild after everyone recognizes that the experiment has failed.