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Comment by ampgt | Hacker News Reader

This is surreal. I’m a US expat living/working in the UK. Mostly disconnected from US media. Those of you living in LA… is it really this bad?

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A friend of mine told me that those who did this are actually repeat offenders who kept getting released from jail due to a no-bail policy. Shows you the current state of the criminal justice system in LA.

Can someone explain why this is supposed to be due to a "no-bail" policy? Many other places don't have a bail system and people aren't looting stores or robbing trains.

It’s not just no bail. It’s no consequence. Criminals don’t get charged or sentenced or fined by city prosecutors. If they do, the consequences amount to a weak slap on the wrist at best. One of the big practical reasons is that George Soros and the nonprofits he funds have financially backed many extremist leftist/progressive district attorneys who practice “restorative justice” (https://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-prosecutor-ca...), which is a totally simplistic approach where the lack of consequences is thought to lead to less crime and recidivism. The outcomes of such policies are very predictable and it is why LA, SF, Seattle, etc have experienced a massive amount of crime, blight, and deterioration in the last 5-10 years.

The whole situation is very upsetting because previously safe and beautiful cities have been turned into dangerous slums. And during COVID, the fact that large quantities of PPE and test kits and so on have been stolen from these trains and just discarded on the tracks (not valuable / sellable) is incredibly harmful to the public on a whole other level.

I don't think that article supports your argument. Looking at the elections highlighted there it seems more like donations don't matter.

Sacramento - Noah Phillips - Lost

San Diego - Geneviéve Jones-Wright - Lost

Alameda - Pamela Price - Lost

Contra Costa - Diana Becton - Won

Three of the four candidates highlighted by the article for getting support from Soro's PAC lost. The one who won was the incumbent in that race.

That article is just one of many and this isn’t a comprehensive list of candidates he’s backed (directly or indirectly). LA’s DA George Gascon is one of them (https://nypost.com/2021/12/16/how-george-soros-funded-progre...).

This is just a bunch of talking points. When you look at the facts, we can see:

Union Pacific has its own police force, and just cut the number of their own police officers from 60 to 8 along that route:

https://www.lataco.com/union-pacific-theft-police-laid-off/

The LAPD has a $3b a year budget, and crime is down:

https://twitter.com/pplscitycouncil/status/14744980717110108...

Coincidentally the LAPD is trying to get a 12% budget increase:

https://twitter.com/equalityalec/status/1484966544681619461?...

So we have a private company who fires 80% of their police force (not security! They have arrest powers!), then there is a shocking, SHOCKING rise in theft, which the LAPD turns into a cry for more funding despite crime being down. Remember that the reason railroads got the right to have their own police force was because it was their RESPONSIBILITY to protect the goods they carried - this is just shifting responsibility from them to the public.

There’s a reason why this crime spree is happening in LA. I don’t think it’s because of UP’s jurisdiction over railroads. It’s because LA effectively attracts crime and criminals, because in practice they don’t face consequences (deterrents) and become increasingly bold as repeat offenders. LA has induced a cesspool that then bleeds into affecting things like the railroads that run through the area. There’s a reason you don’t hear about this sort of thing happening in Texas or wherever else.

You’re also ignoring the fact that the arrested criminals are handed over to the LA criminal justice system, where the city prosecutors (led by Soros-funded progressive restorative justice advocate George Gascon) reduced/dismisses charges and releases repeat offenders back into the public. This is exactly what the Union Pacific has complained about (https://www.up.com/cs/groups/public/@uprr/@newsinfo/document...).

Finally, the claim that crime is down in cities practicing restorative justice is completely disconnected from reality and laughable. Individuals and businesses see and experience crime regularly and simply don’t bother reporting it anymore. Nothing is done about these incidents by city leadership and prosecutors, criminals aren’t brought to justice, and insurance claims are expensive due to deductibles. Crime is therefore, predictably, grossly underreported.

This is an excellent amount of statements lacking either facts or data. I’m also curious why:

> Soros-funded

Is even relevant? You mentioned it twice as though it changes any elements of your argument.

I grew up in California but left in 2019 because of desertification (increasing wildfires and droughts) and the tone-deaf, utopian absurdity not directed at traditional liberalism, problem-solving, healing social problems, or long-term sustainability.

Recently, on CBSN LA, they made the usual ("If it bleeds, it leads") big deal when a pretty young white chick working in a store alone was violently murdered by some criminal jackass with a lengthy record. Fodder for the middle class and upper classes to demand "law and order" at any cost, while of course the upper classes enjoy preferential protection and treatment.

Even if all cops were suddenly idealistic, professional "Boy Scouts" independent of political concerns, they aren't and can't be everywhere at once. But, in California, honest citizens aren't legally allowed to defend themselves or their families. And, most cops have given-up and many DAs aren't prosecuting crimes. Sounds like a recipe for a swing to totalitarianism if you ask me, not building a social safety net, a mental healthcare system, and universal healthcare (which Medicare is not).

The most important question is: Are you familiar with Skid Row or what Venice looks like? How about SF, San Jose, or Sacramento? In 2018, I saw a homeless dude proudly relieving himself in the middle of Sac's main library front lawn in front of rush hour traffic. Also, it's not limited to California. Austin had a visible homelessness issue until outdoor living/poverty was criminalized, but now it's out-of-sight, out-of-mind with a quick "fix". The two hotels (e.g., literal concentration camps rather than death camps) the city owns for the homeless quickly filled up and the remaining people had to scurry to hide anywhere else less visible. LA also criminalized poverty for a while through an ordinance that was struck-down in federal court.

Overall, in the US, there's a sense that there is a risk of civil war around 2024-2025 due to a number of colliding factors. Matters that are forbidden from being discussed here because respectful debates and dialogue are often impossible, and also a certain kind of ideological/academic fascism and reality warping and isolation that exists in two camps. Don't dare speak heresy against either camp or be instantly "cancelled" if belonging, or attacked if outside, for daring to challenge tribal dogma. Most people are divided-and-conquered, and there's a certain group who feels they're losing their entitled power. Another issue is the widening bifurcation between the real impoverishment of the majority and the recent doubling of the wealth at the top.

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