NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles!
More than a dozen street gangs are raiding affluent areas of Los Angeles, tracking residents to their homes and robbing them of valuables, police said.
Captain Jonathan Tippett, who heads a Los Angeles police task force, told the city’s police committee during a meeting Tuesday that at least 17 gangs, most of them based in South Los Angeles, have staged robberies on their own, sometimes using look for targeting people wearing high-end watches or driving expensive cars.
Videos released by Los Angeles police show that crime suspects hit a woman with a vehicle and robbed her after she left a jewelry store in the jewelry area of downtown Los Angeles. (LAPD)
About five people have pursued some targets by forcing them to steal watches, bags or cars before they have a great chance to oppose, Tipet said.
In one case this month, a man was arrested on suspicion of robbing a victim of two watches worth about $ 600,000.
A woman was followed by a crime suspect on Monday after leaving a jewelry store in the jewelry area of downtown Los Angeles, police said. After stopping at an intersection, one of the suspects got out of a car and smashed the driver’s glass on the driver’s side. The woman abandoned her car and was chased by suspects who hit her with a vehicle, kept her under fire and stole her watch, police said.
SHOOTING IN BROOKLYN: BLOOMBERG, MSNBC, DEMOCRATS AND MORE DISTRIBUTED LESS POLICE IN THE SUBRO
“We have seen countless people traumatized by a gun pointed at them,” Tipet said. “Many others deal with injuries and injuries from hitting, kicking, beating, punching and hitting the head with a pistol.
Tippett told Fox News that the gangs are based mostly in South Los Angeles, but the forces have seen individuals linked to those gangs living outside the county.
Tippett said the robberies took place mainly in the city center and the Wilshire area with a significant amount in the Hollywood area.
In downtown Los Angeles at night. (iStock)
Tippett said there were 165 such arrests last year and 56 so far this year. Thirteen victims were shot dead, including two. Fifty robberies were committed in the Hollywood Police Department in Los Angeles and almost as many in the Wilshire Division.
Such attacks were “almost unheard of” before last year, Tipet said.
THE MODEL FOR MAYAM’S SELF-FAMILY SELF-DEFENSE THE EXCLUSION OF COURT TAYLER’S SELF-DEFENSE IS “SELF-SERVICE,” SAID THE ATTACKED LAWYER’S LAWYER
“In my 34 years with the Los Angeles Police Department, I’ve never seen this type of criminal behavior” in such large, coordinated groups, Tippett said.
The task force has made dozens of arrests for robbery, gun crimes and attempted murder, along with four arrests on suspicion of murder, Tipet said.
On Wednesday, Los Angeles police sent a signal from the community, informing residents to be on the alert for an increase in subsequent home robberies.
LA DISTRICT TO GASCON EFFORTS TO MAINTAIN ELECTION OF 3.5 MILLION ROADS TO COLLECT NECESSARY SIGNATURES, ORGANIZERS SAY
A source with close ties to the Los Angeles Police Department, who wished to remain anonymous, accused the wave of brazen subsequent home robberies of the contradictory policy of the Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon.
Cityscape of Los Angeles in the evening. (iStock)
“When DA Gascon said it would not seek improvements for the band, it was essentially ringing the bell for many of these bands,” the source told Fox News. “Soon gangs from other counties like San Bernardino and Riverside came to Los Angeles to commit their crimes. Why commit crimes in their own counties when they know they get a lighter sentence if they get caught in LA? ”
Fox News has left messages for Gascon’s office seeking comment.
After taking office, Gascon issued directives suspending claims for bail, suspending the trial of juveniles as adults, suspending the search for the death penalty and banning prosecutors from seeking improvements in sentences and attending parole hearings.
Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon spoke at a news conference on December 8, 2021 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Robin Beck / AFP)
The move against improvements – which could lead to tougher penalties for crimes such as the use of weapons – is particularly controversial.
The increase in burglary and theft in Los Angeles follows the nationwide trend of increasing crime since the COVID-19 pandemic. Last year, we saw a number of organized crime gangs targeting high-end stores looting up and down Golden State.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APPLICATION
Nathan Hochman, a Republican candidate to oust Rob Bont as California’s attorney general, weighed in on the Los Angeles robbery.
“With escalating robberies being targeted in Los Angeles and across California, we must stop the turnstile of justice, where suspects are arrested in the morning and back on the streets until the afternoon,” he tweeted on Wednesday.
The Associated Press and Luis Cassiano of Fox News contributed to the report.
Add Comment