Given that I remain a denizen of a rural community in Alaska, I'm an odd one indeed to be writing about the state of America's urban areas and Democrat/leftist jurisdictions. If you've been reading my work at all, you know I grew up in a rural setting in Iowa and am a content rural dweller myself now. I have little time for cities, despite having lived in them for four decades. I find them unpleasant; crowded, noisy, and, to be honest, they smell bad. I like the clean country air of the Susitna Valley, and if that means I have to put up with the occasional bear wandering around the neighborhood, that's fine.
With that being true, why am I still worried about America's cities? Because our cities are the beating hearts of our nation. Much of the country's economic activity happens there. Urban areas contain a lot of the country's industry and academia. What's more, our cities used to be the pride of the nation, but that's not so much the case anymore. Case in point: Several upscale neighborhoods in the Los Angeles area are being terrorized by home invasions, and the goblins carrying out these invasions seem to be frighteningly technically and tactically proficient.
A fast-moving burglary spree is unfolding across Los Angeles, with thieves targeting some of the city’s most affluent neighborhoods and striking multiple communities over the past week — even as police flood the area with patrols.
The latest incidents unfolded Wednesday night in the San Fernando Valley, where burglars hit homes in Studio City and Toluca Lake and targeted a commercial property in a separate theft that led to a police chase.
This isn't the usual run of home invasions. These goblins are doing reconnaissance, they are choosing targets, and they are planning their attacks.
Former LAPD investigator Moses Castillo said the scope and speed of the crimes point to a broader shift in how burglars are operating.
"We used to think high-end neighborhoods were exempt from crime...that’s no longer the case," Castillo told Fox News Digital. "You’re not safe anywhere anymore, especially in affluent areas."
"These criminals aren’t looking at zip codes — they’re looking at opportunity."
In other words, these bad guys are showing a little more brains than the average run of crook, and that's a real problem.
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And for all the planning, the crooks aren't necessarily waiting for the homes to be empty. There have been several recent attacks carried out that involved personal confrontations, too. In one, a 70-year-old woman was attacked, strangled, and is probably lucky to be alive.
A woman was strangled during a home invasion in the Hollywood Hills, and police were searching for the suspects on Thursday night.
Officers responded to the home in the 8500 block of Lookout Mountain Avenue, near Wonderland Avenue Elementary School, just before 8:30 p.m., according to the Los Angeles Police Department. When they arrived, they learned a resident in her 70s had been assaulted and strangled during the incident.
Police say she was taken to a hospital and later released.
So, what's to be done?
As I've said and written many times over the years, the government has one legitimate purpose: To protect the liberty and property of the citizens. Many people will tell you, correctly, that this is why we have police and a military, to carry out just this purpose. But our cities, as this disturbing trend is illustrating, are not only failing in this purpose, but they are being challenged by an increasingly capable opponent.
Law enforcement agencies in the Los Angeles area are making some reasonable recommendations: Don't post your daily activities online, don't post photos of your home and your valuables online; this seems obvious to most, but apparently it's something that people, even in a city plagued by crime, have to be warned about. And the home invasion crews are adapting tactics to deal with law enforcement responses, too; a neighborhood quiet today may be swept through by these goblins tomorrow, as the area they had been working in started to draw too much police attention. So what's a homeowner to do?
First, camera up. Anyone living in one of these high-end neighborhoods should be able to keep security cameras operating, and it seems like a good idea to have some cameras visible as a deterrent to casual thieves - and to have some hidden, for the more sophisticated goblins. Now, some of these gangs are capable of detecting and bypassing these cameras, which brings me to:
Second: Arm up. Even in California, it's possible; we are, after all, guaranteed that our right to self-defense shall not be infringed. There will doubtless be questions asked after any self-defense shooting, even in your own home; this is California, after all. But it may still save a homeowner the loss of valuables, not to mention their lives. Arm up, get training, know the law around defensive gun use in your jurisdiction, and practice. It's a dangerous world, and in America's failing major urban areas, it's getting more dangerous.
Any government, at any level, must above all things protect the liberty and property of the citizens. When the government fails in that task, the responsibility falls on the citizens to protect themselves.
