Los Angeles police vowed on Thursday to crack down on looters, after organised gangs of robbers raided luxury shops in broad daylight, making off with hundreds of thousand of dollars.
In recent days, masked groups have smashed the windows of high-end boutiques in the Californian metropolis and raided designer bags and clothes. Disseminated on social networks, videos from flabbergasted witnesses show up to 50 looters acting in a coordinated fashion, under the noses of shop assistants and security guards.
The city’s mayor, Karen Bass, has announced the creation of a task force bringing together various Los Angeles County law enforcement agencies to curb the looting.
On Wednesday, ten offenders targeted a Gucci shop and stole handbags worth $100,000.
On Saturday, dozens of people looted a department store in an upmarket shopping centre in the San Fernando Valley. They made off with around $300,000 worth of goods.
The images of these coordinated raids play into the hands of Republicans in the United States, who regularly repeat that cities run by Democrats are locked into a lax drift, with crime out of control.
The reality is more nuanced, according to law enforcement data in Los Angeles County, which has a population of 10 million.
The Los Angeles Police Department, which is responsible for the densest areas in the region, recorded a very slight 0.4% increase in property crime over the first eight months of the year, compared with the same period in 2022.
On the other hand, the sheriff’s department, which operates in less urbanised areas, reported a 2.09% increase in property crime in the first half of the year.
