Bonta talks smash and grab + Fong slams street racing + Kiley wants answers
Good morning and welcome to the A.M. Alert!
BONTA: SMASH AND GRAB IS AN “ORGANIZED CRIME”
Via Jeong Park...
A recent string of “smash-and-grab” retail thefts across the state is “organized crime” that requires an organized response, California Attorney General Rob Bonta said at a press conference in Los Angeles Tuesday.
“What we don’t always see in those viral videos is an organized chain of events that occurs weeks and months before,” Bonta said after he took part in a roundtable with law enforcement and business leaders to address retail theft in the state.
Videos have shown people breaking into a Louis Vuitton store in San Francisco and running away with merchandise. Three people were arrested in late November for breaking into a Nordstrom department store at the Grove mall in Los Angeles. Those and other incidents have put some retail stores on alert, with law enforcement increasing police presence at certain malls.
To address and prevent incidents like those, Bonta called for an increased sharing of intelligence between law enforcement entities, retail stores and online marketspaces. The state will also work with tech companies to stop the sale of stolen goods online, Bonta said.
Bonta said so-called “zero bail” and a law that reduced penalties for shoplifting are not causing the thefts, pushing back against some prosecutors and retailers. Prop. 47, which passed in 2014, classifies shoplifting of under $950 as misdemeanors.
“Those are felonies. Those are organized retail theft. They are robberies,” Bonta said. “When 80 people go into Louis Vuitton or Nordstrom... you’re over $950 in seconds.”
Bonta noted that Texas classifies theft as felony only when the value of the stolen goods exceeds $2,500.
“I understand the narrative, but the narrative doesn’t fit with the facts,” Bonta said.
FONG SPEAKS OUT AGAINST STREET RACING
Assemblyman Vince Fong, R-Kern County, held a press conference alongside California Highway Patrol Commissioner Amanda Ray on Tuesday to discuss the dangers of illegal street racing.
The assemblyman used the presser to remind the public of AB 3, which cracks down on illegal street racing by allowing courts to suspend the driver’s license of people found guilty for up to six months. It also defines such “sideshows” as “two or more persons blocking or impeding traffic on a highway, for the purpose of performing motor vehicle stunts, motor vehicle speed contests, motor vehicle exhibitions of speed, or reckless driving, for spectators.”
“Deaths and injuries from street racing and sideshows are 100 percent preventable, and yet, they continue to occur,” Fong said. “Proactive enforcement is critical to stopping dangerous sideshows before they start.”
Ray also used the occasion to discuss a new grant that will let the CHP step up enforcement operations against such races.
“The CHP was recently awarded a traffic safety grant by the Office of Traffic Safety to deter street racing and sideshows,” Ray said. “The Communities Against Racing and Sideshows grant will allow the CHP to dedicate additional resources to specifically reduce the number of victims injured and killed resulting from street races and sideshows.”
KILEY REQUESTS REVIEW
Assemblyman Kevin Kiley, R-Rocklin, who serves as vice chair of the Assembly Education Committee, sent a letter to Government Operations Agency Secretary Yolanda Richardson in response to a recent Politico story about how Daniel Lee, the deputy superintendent for the California Department of Education, draws a six-figure salary from the state while living and working in Pennsylvania.
“In a recent interview Amy Palmer, spokesperson for the California Government Operations Agency, stated that ‘State employment is for California residents unless the job requires a different location.’ She made it clear that there are few exceptions to this rule. I respectfully request that you determine if Mr. Lee’s current employment is allowable under state law or procedure and report your findings to the Legislature,” Kiley wrote in his letter to Richardson.
Kiley also took to Twitter to discuss Lee.
“California is illegally paying six figures to a ‘Superintendent of Equity’ who lives and works as a life coach in Philadelphia. He was in the wedding of our state schools chief who hired him,” Kiley tweeted.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“I am excited to see that the county’s independent commission has decided to keep nearly all of the San Fernando Valley together.... I’m seriously considering running for the LA county BOS.”
– Sen. Bob Hertzberg, D-Van Nuys, via Twitter.
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