The primary purpose of government is to protect the liberty and property of the citizens. We have seen, for some time and in almost every major American city, how municipal governments from Boston to Los Angeles have utterly failed in this primary role. In Los Angeles in particular, the despicable phenomenon of "flash mobs," organized (presumably) online, strikes with the speed of summer lightning and loot convenience stores, threatening the owners and employees, and stealing everything but the shelving and light fixtures - leaving chaos in their wake.
On X, a prominent Californian, Justine Bateman, took to her X account to remind us of an incident from 2025, which resulted in no arrests or prosecutions: Just a ruined store.
.@MayorOfLA @nithyavraman @spencerpratt @NathanHochmanDA This is embarrassing and makes those currently in office look like children.
— Justine Bateman (@JustineBateman) May 9, 2026
Time for you to finally let the @LAPDHQ enforce laws again or you will have even more businesses and residents leave LA. This is one of the… https://t.co/SfKxiiSoSR
Ms. Bateman wrote:
.@MayorOfLA @nithyavraman @spencerpratt @NathanHochmanDA This is embarrassing and makes those currently in office look like children. Time for you to finally let the @LAPDHQ enforce laws again or you will have even more businesses and residents leave LA. This is one of the reasons people here resent the high taxes: we get very little in exchange. This is why our insurance rates are so high: to cover all the losses in a free-wheeling crime city.
She's not wrong. This incident, as noted, happened last summer, in Los Angeles.
In an interview with ABC7, owner Jeremy Salib said about two-dozen high schoolers took armloads of merchandise including candy, chips and beer during the "premeditated, organized" theft.
"Of course, they're gathering -- so many of them -- that I can't stop just one kid, right? It's 24, 25 kids, so it leaves me kind of helpless -- especially with LAPD saying they can't do anything about it," Salib said.
This is just one incident of several. Another smash-and-grab flash mob looted another Los Angeles convenience store in December 2025.
A flash mob of armed teens brazenly invaded a Los Angeles 7-Eleven and swiped anything they could get their hands on as one of the suspects bragged that surveillance cameras couldn’t catch his face.
The teens arrived on their bicycles and stormed the downtown convenience store on Saturday, breaking down the door and tossing food to others gathered in the lot, according to wild footage.
And, last March, in Sacramento.
A swarm of teens turned a Sacramento gas station convenience store into a scene of chaos in a matter of moments, as surveillance video shows merchandise flying and a lone employee left to fend for himself.
The incident happened March 19 at a Chevron station along Folsom Boulevard, where a large group of juveniles flooded the store and began vandalizing the business, according to the Sacramento Police Department.
Police told Fox News Digital officers received a call that night about 25 to 30 juveniles involved in the disturbance at the location in the 8000 block of Folsom Boulevard. At the time, the caller indicated they did not expect to be contacted by officers.
The common thread? Little or no police response.
Read More: Teens Swarming Chicago Streets in Viral Street Takeovers
NYC City Council's Unbelievable Plan to Tackle Self-Checkout Retail Theft - Punish Business Owners?
The municipal governments of Los Angeles and Sacramento had one job. Just one job. Protect the liberty and property of the people. They have failed.
Why have they failed? By preventing an effective police response. Why does that matter? Because the criminals know they can commit these acts with impunity. Why is that wrong? Because the criminal element in every society should live in fear. Would-be looters should live in a constant state of terror, terror of discovery, of capture, of confrontation. In our major cities today, the opposite is true – in some neighborhoods, criminal gangs have all but taken over.
What's more, it is in precisely these locations that the citizenry had been largely deprived of their right of self-defense.
If you live in California, especially if you live in Los Angeles, or in or near any major city, for that matter, remember this in November, when you go to vote.
Editor’s Note: The American people overwhelmingly support President Trump’s law and order agenda.
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