Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón, who has presided over a crime wave and faces a potential recall vote, shared tips last week about how beleaguered residents can avoid car theft, which has become an increasingly common threat.
In a statement admitting that the number of car thefts has soared in the county, Gascón offered the following useful advice:
“Auto theft is a costly crime that impacts its victims’ ability to get to work and to school,” District Attorney Gascón said. “My office is working with our law enforcement partners to hold accountable the people who take vehicles. Help us prevent these crimes by taking a few simple steps.”
In Los Angeles County, motor vehicle thefts were at a 10-year high in 2020. The Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department reported a total of 39,894 vehicles stolen within their jurisdictions in 2021 compared to 34,003 in 2020.
While some vehicles were stolen for parts or to commit other crimes, most were taken for transportation and recovered within a three to five-day period.
Here are a few easy steps you can take to help us reduce crime in our community:
Always lock your car door.
Do not leave a spare key in your vehicle.
Park in a well-lit area.
Get an anti-theft device for your vehicle.
Gascón was elected in 2020, with the help of millions of dollars from left-wing billionaire George Soros. He challenged incumbent Jackie Lacey, the first black woman to hold the job, who was targeted by the Black Lives Matter movement. Outgoing Mayor Eric Garcetti switched his endorsement from Lacey to Gascón, joining much of the state’s Democratic establishment in backing him. He previously served as district attorney in San Francisco, where he also saw crime rise.
Gascón took office promising to enact radical criminal justice “reforms,” such as ending the use of the death penalty by prosecutors, refusing to prosecute juveniles as adults, and seeking reduced sentences even for the most violent criminals.
He stood up to victims’ families and survived one failed attempt to put a recall on the ballot, but he showed some signs of backing down after his office ensured that 26-year-old transgender convict Hannah Tubbs would be sent to a juvenile facility for sexually assaulting a 10-year-old girl shortly before Tubbs’s 18th birthday, meaning that Tubbs would not have to register as a sex offender. Outrage over the sentence has fueled efforts to collect signatures for a recall election by a July deadline.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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