someone actually drove their car through those doors and started stealing thieves
stole one hundred thousand dollars worth of stuff from this Louis Vuitton store in Orange
County California since the incident they've now closed the main entrance door so the only way to
access the store is to go through the department store crime in California has been surging I had
somebody slash the four Michelin tires that were almost brand new people are just doing whatever
they want California's violent crime rate and property crime rate are up you guys have seen
those videos where like someone Parks their Tesla with all the windows rolled down and there's like
the back seats are tilted for just so people know that there's nothing in here don't break in if
you think about it overall crime should be down surveillance cameras and security technology is
more advanced than ever but none of that seems to matter the Looting is crazy laptop stolen
Opera vaccine retail crime which costs the state billions every year and across the US it's costing
trillions of dollars every year I worked retail sorry all kinds of people walking in all times
of the night most people are blaming a change to California's law which reduced the consequences
for stealing and in some cases no consequences at all Smash and grab of the Louis Vuitton store
there in Union Square they're actively looking for about 30 people who are trying to break into other
stores and they get to walk out of the store with everything or are we supposed to fight them are
we supposed to like incite more violence retailers are having to change their strategy and now stores
and malls are having to step up their security measures like crazy or putting locks on freezers
so if you want to buy something like frozen mac and cheese you'll need to call for an attendant
to help and in some cases it might be cheaper to literally just close your store completely it is
closing five more stores amid High retail theft in the city this surge in crime has become not just a
safety matter but a political one too robbing it shouldn't happen in general but I'm sure people
have like their reasons or like what they want to stand for so oh yeah some will justify their
actions with complaints about their government but most people here seem Fed Up the city they don't
do anything so why has the crime gotten so bad around the U.S especially in California the people
had spoken it was 2014 when 60 of Voters said they were in support of what's called Prop 47 and this
law stated that stealing merchandise under 950 dollars worth of value would just be classified
as a misdemeanor see something like that used to be considered a felony so if you stole let's say
an iPad that used to mean you could go to jail for one year or more but after this was put into place
you might get a fine just for an hour in a local jail or even let off the hook completely Prop 47
also applied two levels of drug possession too those in favor of Prop 47 say that it'll actually
improve Public Safety and it'll save taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars it clearly is
going to reduce the numbers of people in prison instead of investing in punishment we're investing
in people but what was supposed to save taxpayers money has left many people I interview feeling
unsafe and angry why is it that people can go in and shoplift and as long as they shoplift under
950 can't do a damn thing to them a lot of them would just walk away out of the store with like
huge case of beer or whatever and there's they're not stopped and that's that's the problem where
we're afraid to touch we're afraid for other issues so we don't stop them we let them go
critics said Prop 47 is basically a get out of jail free card and when you let a thief go after
getting caught chances are they'll do it again and again and again the one person got arrested
three times in the same day for stealing car he got busted three times in one day and they still
put them out into out on the street now that's totally ludicrous when you don't have consequences
for actions people just kind of come in and start thinking that they can do whatever they want and
that we're free so therefore nobody's gonna stop us and in a weird series of events cops actually
might be happy if the value stolen was more than 950 dollars I had somebody slash the four Michelin
tires that were almost brand new car of mine had the policeman came out and asked me he said well
at least his first thing out of his mouth is how much is the value of the damage you had done and
I said about twelve hundred dollars he says good I need since I can go ahead and report it if it was
950 or less he said I would have to just ignore it and say have a good day while the newer criminal
justice policies created a big change the surge in crime cannot solely be attributed to prop
47. see California has a high level of economic inequality its poverty rate is higher than the
national average and with higher poverty sometimes that drives people toward crime and then there's
the pandemic if you look at San Francisco much of the city went from being a bustling business
vibe to a ghost town because businesses chose to let employees work remotely instead of coming in
this city was heavily dependent on business and workers to survive and without those people the
city has been suffering a year after Prop 47 was put into place almost two hundred thousand
felonies were erased of course many of those were not limited to thefts but the purpose of Prop 47
well it began to work see the number of people in California's jails did go down after this was
put into effect but in recent years things have become very chaotic if the criminal knew he stole
somebody's car and he was going to get five years without plea bargaining it down to time sir then
I think that they would think twice about doing stuff like that if somebody comes out and gives
them a hard time the person that did it will end up in jail or lose his job for trying to do what
is right I think Gaston is the worst thing that we've ever had here in California unfair I'm not
gonna lie like that just being a misdemeanor I feel like it should be a little bit more but what
happens next a new bill aims to tackle retail theft for people who are repeat offenders the
government should do a lot of things they should fix a lot of problems and they're not doing any of
that I think it's just us to up to us the people right retailers signed an information sharing
agreement hoping to improve their collaboration with law enforcement change that make it a little
more strict so people can't stop looting there has been talk to repeal or revise Prop 47 or
even reduce the 950 threshold to like 400 some Studies have shown that proposition 47 has led
to an increase in property crimes there's also been an increase in the cost of crime even though
property 7 has truly saved the state money on incarceration costs it's also increased the
cost of crime in other ways businesses have had to increase security measures to protect themselves
from shoplifting and other crimes and often these mean higher prices for consumers no one
seems to know how to fix this problem and some don't even see it as a problem Prop 47 is once
again in the spotlight at least three bills have been introduced on this topic so so far see Prop
47 has many supporters to this day one of them John Legend since it passed Prop 47 has reduced
incarceration in the nation's most populous state by more than 20 000 people annually without
making crime go up but one girl I meet during an interview thinks that the ultimate solution is me
and you we the people should be the ones that are stepping up to this and just like not be afraid
to just step in and just say like hey this is not okay it comes down to if there's not anybody that
can come in and save us we got to save ourselves right if there's if you see something that's going
on that's not okay and you don't feel safe in a store or something I realize that our life is
precious and we're scared like what if we die what if I don't owe this person anything why should I
jump in you never know you could be saving a life you could do something really great but
I do understand that it's a big issue and the government has a lot of work to do currently