California has been on the cutting edge of social policy for decades now. We were defunding the police before it became cool!

We didn’t exactly take money out of law enforcement budgets until recently, but we “defunded” them by taking away their ability to make arrests, protect citizens and maintain peace.

Some people still don’t believe this, but Prop 47 is a law — deceptively titled ‘Safe Schools and Neighborhoods Act’ — that reduces many felonies to misdemeanors and provides for the early release of certain violent offenders and sex offenders. One of the most unbelievable provisions of Prop 47 is one that makes it just a ticketable offense to steal up to $949 worth of goods from any given retailer on any given visit. That’s right- visit. You can clean out the deodorant section at Walgreens, go back to your drug den, then come back an hour later and hit the diapers and feminine products if that’s your jam.

You’ve seen the videos. People do this. They take what they want and casually walk away. They know the law. They know law enforcement has no ability to stop any of it. It’s not just San Francisco that is seeing this nonsense growing; it has pretty much permeated every part of the state by this point.

What’s worse — the broken windows theory has most definitely applied to the chaos in California. Criminals have become emboldened by the tacit permission to loot stores at will. Now they are becoming organized and hitting larger targets. Both San Francisco and Los Angeles have seen large groups of sometimes violent theft rings, flooding high-end targets like Louis Vitton and Nordstrom’s, walking away with thousands of dollars in inventory. Some shoppers have been injured, retail is most certainly injured, but there is no recompense for beleaguered business owners. Calling the police is useless. Even if the people they manage to arrest just get released right back into the street, which is why these criminal rings are becoming bigger and bolder.

The @LouisVuitton store at @UnionSquareSF “got emptied out,” says @yealenne. Broken glass litters the store. Most of the thieves got away in multiple cars… pic.twitter.com/VztNFMby2t

— Henry K. Lee (@henrykleeKTVU) November 20, 2021

The solution would require some bigger and bolder steps in and of itself.

So what “big and bold” idea has San Francisco Mayor London Breed come up with to stem the tide of this crime wave in her city?

Limit parking.

And/or limit traffic.

London spoke briefly about the plans through a media statement but gave no other details at the time.

“We’re going to be making some changes to Union Square and how cars are able to access,” Breed said. “There will be limited access in terms of when you come to this area.”

That’s it. That’s the big idea. In an economy that is struggling to rebound under the weight of a careless administration and egregious COVID policies, Breed’s big, bold plan is to make it harder for people to do their shopping or take home their packages. I guess if you can’t keep some criminals away from the store, you just keep everyone away from the store.

Just brilliant.

To add insult to injury, Governor Hair Gel Gavin Newsom has said his “big, bold” idea is to increase investigations and police presence around retail through the holidays. I wonder where they’ll park their cars.

Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) increases police presence at retail stores following mob looting crimewave in San Francisco:

“We need to break up these crime rings, and we need to make an example out of these folks.” pic.twitter.com/a1YMTrOY5j

— The Recount (@therecount) November 23, 2021

What good are more police if they can’t arrest and detain suspects? What good is it if they know anyone they do manage to arrest will simply be back on the streets in a matter of hours?

This is all Democrat bloviating. They shot California in the face with useless, “woke” legislation and now they’re trying to fix it by put a dirty, used a Band-Aid on a gunshot wound.