As RedState’s Ward Clark reported, the FBI just busted a major burglary tourism ring in the Van Nuys neighborhood of Los Angeles. Seven defendants were charged with multiple felony offenses, including wire fraud, money laundering, conspiracy, and structuring transactions to avoid federal financial reporting requirements.
In layman’s language, they used a car rental business to disguise a criminal operation that used associates, “often members of a South American crime tourism theft group, to travel to various parts of the US to commit thefts, including shoplifting, burglarizing homes and commercial businesses, and stealing victims’ credit cards and debit cards.”
Good News: FBI Busts Major, South American Burglary Tourism Ring in Los Angeles
Being an Angeleno, I figured I’d check out their alleged headquarters, and they were anything but glamorous. It was a nondescript ugly building on an ugly street, and you would have no reason to believe that the occupants were behind more than $5.5 million in thefts:
(The building that says "Auto Repair" is next to the alleged HQ, which is pictured on the right and top left in the photos above. One engineering question: why did they build the front door several feet off the ground?)
A local TV news cameraman was setting up his camera rig. “It's amazing how they were hiding in plain sight," he said as a visibly disturbed homeless woman pushed past him. This wasn't Beverly Hills.
Good for the FBI for taking care of business, but guess who wasted no time in trying to suck up some of the limelight? None other than LA Mayor Karen Bass:
BREAKING NEWS: I just joined federal and local law enforcement officials to announce new arrests related to home burglaries in L.A.
— Mayor Karen Bass (@MayorOfLA) August 28, 2024
Recently, we have increased @LAPDHQ crime suppression efforts in impacted neighborhoods.
Today’s announcement represents progress but we will… pic.twitter.com/ifngXwtwJh
This announcement represents the urgent coordination that the chief and I have been working on for a very long time. Make no mistake, this is not the end of our work. It is ongoing.
And recently I've been meeting with residents from the Valley, from Brentwood, Encino, and I just have to tell you that those neighborhoods have been terrified and terrorized by what has been happening.
We have increased crime suppression efforts in these areas, along with our partners and we will continue this effort because obviously the goal of all of us up here is to make our community safer.
It always makes me shake my head in frustration when leftists stand up and angrily denounce what’s happening and vow to fight it with everything they’ve got—when they’re the ones who caused it in the first place. Make no mistake, Karen Bass is no friend of the police, and she has been in lockstep with Gov. Gavin Newsom, former Attorney General Kamala Harris, soft-on-crime district attorneys like the notorious George Gascon, and Rep. Nancy Pelosi et al. in dragging this state into its current hellhole status as a center of crime, homelessness, drugs, and sky-high living costs.
It’s very similar to when Harris released an ad recently saying how tough she would be on the border—despite mountains of evidence showing she would be nothing of the sort. The only wall she’s ever really supported was the one that protected the DNC in Chicago earlier this month.
Even San Francisco Mayor London Breed is tougher on crime than Bass:
Breed, 49, has backed a tough-on-crime statewide ballot initiative that Bass, 70, does not support. The San Francisco mayor has also worked to toughen criminal penalties for fentanyl dealers and require drug screening and treatment for certain welfare recipients — issues the Los Angeles mayor has not weighed in on with financial assistance overseen by the county.
The Los Angeles mayor’s propaganda, and gaslighting campaign continues. If she actually wanted to be good for business, she would fight to repeal Prop 47 and replace Gascon as DA to prevent smash and grab burglaries, and would remove more than 200 homeless people from the streets… https://t.co/rVk0aWKIbL
— Houman David Hemmati, MD, PhD (@houmanhemmati) December 5, 2023
Take the case of actor Johnny Wactor, who was shot in downtown LA in May by criminals who were trying to steal his catalytic converter. His heartbreaking story is one of many in the City of Angels, and his family wants Bass and others to do more than just talk about the scourge:
On Tuesday [August 13], the family and friends of slain “General Hospital” actor Johnny Wactor demanded L.A. Mayor Karen Bass and other city officials do something about crime in the city.
The group, Justice for Johnny, gathered outside city hall for a news conference. Micah Parker, a longtime friend of Wactor’s, told KNX News’ Jon Baird that it’s time city leaders took action to make L.A. a crime-free city.
“The pendulum has swung too far with this soft-on-crime social experiment, and it's not working,” he said.
So Tragic: From LATimes - Actor Johnny Wactor was shot dead in downtown L.A. upon confronting 3 masked men stealing his catalytic converter.
— Houman David Hemmati, MD, PhD (@houmanhemmati) May 27, 2024
These thefts are incredibly common. Why? Even if they’re caught, they’re given a TICKET and released. They immediately go back to… pic.twitter.com/R3tJ3x1Zrs
These thefts are incredibly common. Why? Even if they’re caught, they’re given a TICKET and released. They immediately go back to stealing more converters.
As Jeff Charles reported on August 9, residents in several well-to-do Valley neighborhoods were told to pipe down and stop whining about the endless burglaries because they were making it up:
Local law enforcement tried to minimize the threat. “I can’t emphasize this enough that people tend to overreact to spikes and dips in crime all the time,” said Captain Brian Wendling, commanding officer of the LAPD West Valley Division. He said the crime rates in Encino “do not tell an accurate story of the situation on the ground.”
Wendling appeared to blame the media for concerns about crime, indicating that it has been hyperfocused on problems in the area.
Perhaps one of the most jaw statements Bass made, therefore, was that residents from those very areas have been “terrified and terrorized by what has been happening."
Which is it LA officials—are people overreacting, or are they being terrorized?
I can tell you personally that we’re not making it up: someone I know recently had to shoot a home invader who put his family at risk. Meanwhile, this morning, a man outside my house asked if my Ring camera caught the thieves who stole his catalytic converter in the middle of the night (it didn’t; I’m going to get another one and put it closer to the street).
Last year, my daughter’s car was stolen from right out front of our home; it was found a month later, trashed, at SoFi Stadium (nowhere near where I live). Mind you, this isn’t some undesirable neighborhood; in fact, it’s not far from the Brady Bunch house, yet I don’t remember any plot lines about home invasions in that sitcom.
I could go on, but I already have:
It's not just California, folks: Latest Stabbings Reveal the Violent Underbelly of Santa Monica After Dark: Chop Shops, Meth, Death on the Streets
I Write About Lawlessness in America Because It's Happening Right Outside My Front Door
Bass should be more than familiar with the reality—her own home was robbed in April while she was inside the residence. That shows you where we're at here. Luckily for her, since she's the mayor, the LAPD showed up quickly and nabbed the perp. The rest of us would not be so fortunate.
I know, I know, folks will say, “Why don’t you move?” A) It’s still a wonderful place, despite what the commies are trying to do to it; B) If you can find me a mortgage under four percent, then maybe we’ll talk; and C) It may not matter where a person lives, because if Kamala Harris is elected and brings the California model to the rest of the country, you’ll soon be experiencing this too. Expect folks like Karen Bass to cheer her on every step of the way.
