"Californian Dream": prosecutor from Soros allowed LA residents to rob trains

МОСКВА, 28 января 2022, Институт РУССТРАТ. Looting on the railroad under the cover of night becomes the hallmark of Los Angeles. This follows from the video testimony of CBS journalist John Schreiber, who filmed the consequences of the looting of postal railway containers in the largest city of California on January 14, 2022. The shocking footage shows hundreds of meters of tracks in Lincoln Heights, one of the oldest neighbourhoods of the City of Angels. Thousands of torn packages with Amazon and FedEx logos on them are randomly lying along the rails. "There’s looted packages as far as the eye can see," Schreiber wrote on Twitter, adding that the thieves never coveted some of the goods. “Unused Covid tests, fishing lures, epi pens… Cargo containers left busted open on trains…" Hundreds of local robbers open an average of 90 cars a day, the Union Pacific (UP) railroad operator admitted in a December complaint to Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon. Over the past year, the number of thefts from the company's trains in this city has increased by 160%, and the closer it was to the end of 2021, the worse it got. All of this is exacerbating the supply chain crisis in the United States caused by a shortage of labor due to the coronavirus pandemic. The reason for the rampant "railway" crime is the connivance of justice. The guards of the carrier company catch the intruders and hand them over to local courts, but they are almost always released there after paying a nominal fine. As a result, looters run to rob trains again a day later. The RUSSTRAT Institute recently wrote about the strange judicial practice of "minor crimes" in California. Releasing a criminal without bail in a courtroom turns entire categories of offences into a regular source of illegal income for many Americans. And this is not at all a defect in the law enforcement system of the Golden State, but the personal merit of the "progressive" district attorney Gascon. As well as the traditional sponsors of the US Democratic Party, who "bought" a victory for him in the 2020 election. "Rob, drink, rest!" 70% of the residents of 40,000 Lincoln Heights, according to data for 2019, are Hispanics, mainly immigrants from Mexico. Another quarter of the population is Asian, mostly Vietnamese. The proportion of whites in the district does not exceed 3%. In the 2020 presidential election, California's 34th congressional district, which includes Lincoln Heights, cast 80.8% of the vote for Joe Biden, and has been voting for Democrats for generations. But John Schreiber, of course, does not write about this. He is more interested in the principle by which looters choose their prey. "UPS bags are especially sought after by thieves opening cargo containers… they are often full of boxes with merchandise bound for residential addresses," the journalist notes. "More valuable than say, a cargo container full of low value bulky items like toilet paper." All the garbage along the rails is relatively fresh: the tracks in this place were cleared of boxes and clothes just a month ago. This time was enough for a carpet of packages from looted goods to reappear there. In one of the videos, Schreiber shows how the train stops near downtown. This is where the robbers use the opportunity to jump on the platforms, break into containers and take what they want. According to the journalist's calculations, the container is open on every fourth or fifth platform. The protection of this and other Union Pacific (UP) railways is not handled by the city police, but by the carrier itself. Schreiber saw how the guards drove a couple of people away from the train, but it is obvious that the forces are unequal. This is recognised by UP itself. Its 1,600 employees are only enough to clean up the tracks, but they are unable to straighten the criminal situation out in Lincoln Heights. There is little hope for drones and fences. In the aforementioned complaint to the District Attorney Gascon (also, by the way, an immigrant who fled from communist Cuba and did not speak English until he was 13), UP's general director of Public Relations Adrian Guerrero complains about the current justice system in Los Angeles. According to the directive issued by Gascon in December 2020, even overt and undisguised theft of private property from railway containers is usually qualified in the district courts as a misdemeanour, not even requiring bail to be released. As a result, the criminals brag to the officers that the charges will be reduced to a one-time invasion of someone else's property, which does not entail any consequences, says Guerrero. UP understands the well-intentioned goals of such a "social justice policy", but something has to be done, the company representative adds. Otherwise, there is nothing left but to change train routes. In response, the prosecutor's adviser Alex Bastian referred to the lack of evidence, promising to work more closely with UP. And as if that wasn't enough, two days later one of the trains in Lincoln Heights derailed. "It's not us who are like that - it's life which is like that" What kind of decree is this, with which Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon actually decriminalised a number of crimes a little over a year ago - and in a way that now it is allowed to rob trains? Special Directive 20-07, which entered into force on December 8, 2020, as stated in its preamble, aims to "reimagine public safety and best serve the interests of justice and community well-being." It concerns the following crimes: - trespassing - disturbing the peace; - driving without a valid license; - criminal threats; - drug and paraphernalia possession; - under the influence of controlled substance; - drinking in public (and separately - intoxication in the same place); - minor in possession of alcohol; - resisting arrest; - loitering, including for the purpose of prostitution. For all this, anyone in California is now supposed to be released if there were no aggravating circumstances in their actions, for example, a relapse in the last 24 months. Explaining his decision, Gascon cited directly in the directive the standard argument in favour of the liberalisation of criminal legislation. Prison sentences for nonviolent crimes hit socially vulnerable segments of the population, ruin their lives and their families, turn them into hardened criminals, spend taxpayers' money, etc. Many are driven to the crimes by excessive poverty, especially which has grown against the background of lockdowns during the pandemic. And in general, we must first eradicate the social causes of crime, and then punish someone. In a word, "it's not us who are like that - it's life which is like that." It's a typical, by Russian standards, "administrative", to which most of the listed articles of the California Criminal Code (Penal Code) belong, is perhaps really not a reason to send those who made a mistake to prison. Especially taking into account the peculiarities of the American legal system, for example, the "three strikes law", when for the third penny ante case you can go to jail for life. But what does train robbery have to do with it? The correct answer to this question is as follows: this is the request of Californians. Being under the watchful supervision of the powerful (there are 165 billionaires in the state alone, according to Forbes for 2020), the Golden State has long been considered the "most advanced" in the United States in various issues of public morality, including crimes and punishments. And the prosecutor indulges his voters in everything. "We want it to be like in San Francisco!" Gascon was elected to the post of Los Angeles District Attorney at the same time as Biden in the election on November 3, 2020, defeating Jackie Lacey who held this post with a result of 53.53% against 47.47%. The latter, despite being African-American, was fiercely criticised by the Black Lives Matter movement, as well as by LGBT activists for delays in a 2017 crime case where the victim was a black gay man. In addition, Lacey's husband came up with the idea in the summer of 2020 to point a gun at a BLM "activist" when he was just breaking into their house. All of this was regarded by most Californians as a betrayal of democratic ideals. As a result, not only Governor Gavin Newsom, but also the junior senator from California, Kamala Harris, opposed Lacey in the election. In his turn, George Gascon went to victory under liberal-populist slogans. He promised to soften state legislation, including the final abolition of the death penalty and cash bail. At the same time, he was not a dark horse for anyone in California. For eight years before that, Gascon had worked in a similar position in San Francisco, replacing the same Harris, who left in 2011 for the post of state Attorney General. In “Frisco”, Gascon became famous for the fact that he began to retroactively apply the new law on the permission to smoke marijuana to drug addicts with experience who were threatened with re-imprisonment (so as not to burden the charge). He investigated cases of "toxic racism and homophobia" among police officers. And he was the only one of the California security forces who supported the tightening of the requirements for the use of force by the cops. And most importantly, back in 2014 Gascon became a co-author of the so-called Proposition 47, or, as its supporters called it, the "Safe Neighbourhood and Schools Act”. It was about the transfer - including retroactively, according to already executed sentences - of a number of nonviolent offences from felony to misdemeanour, if the damage involved did not exceed $950. The list of articles of the California Criminal Code that have fallen under the liberalisation is interesting: forgery and the issuance of a fake check, fraud, the use of most illegal drugs, shoplifting, grand theft and the purchase of stolen goods. In general, hello to the railwaymen! Proposition No. 47 was adopted by the votes of almost 60% of California residents in a referendum on November 4, 2014, and in Los Angeles the percentage of those who supported it turned out to be above average (64.3%), and in San Francisco it went off the scale - 80.1%. The result of that wonderful initiative was a little predictable: the number of thefts, break-ins, forgeries, etc in the state increased, but they were no longer considered crimes. At the time of Gascon's victorious 2020 election, the level of official crime in Los Angeles was at a historic low thanks to Lacey's efforts. And yet it was a half-measure, since residents of the city were still sent to jail four times more often than in San Francisco. In general, the ten-million district accounted for almost a third of the 130,000 prisoners in forty-million California. It is not surprising that many residents of the City of Angels wanted to put the squeeze on the situation and do "like in Frisco”. Calling a spade a spade, tens and hundreds of thousands of immigrants living in Los Angeles in the first and second generations were simply tired of going to prison "for nothing”. They were ready to support anyone who would listen to their voice, and even more so the "progressive" George Gascon. And now, to the horror of the state prosecutor's office, he pays back his voters in reciprocity. However, not only them. "They're all a bunch of cheats - as bad as they come" "He’s more focused on the rights of the defendants than he is the rights of the victims," said Fresno County District Attorney Lisa Smittcamp, commenting on the situation. ”The people who funded him and are interested in seeing his principles executed throughout the state of California." So, who "bought" Gascon the prosecutor's chair for $12.4 million - more than his competitor managed to collect? The names of the sponsors are well known. Unlike Lacey, who was supported mainly by police unions, her "progressive" opponent campaigned on the money of the super rich. At the top of this list is the founder of the Open Society Foundation, George Soros, who needs no introduction and who invested $2.25 million in the "Cuban refugee". Second and fourth places were taken by philanthropist Patty Quillin ($ 1.65 million) and her more famous husband Reed Hastings ($ 500 thousand). This is none other than the founder of the Netflix media company, which in the United States is accused of promoting "black racism" and "soft paedophilia". This married couple is separated in the list of Gascon sponsors by Liz Simons, who took third place ($785,000). She is the chairman of the board of directors of the Heising-Simons Foundation and part-time daughter of billionaire "Lord" Jim Simons. At one time, he successfully stored up 8 billion in an offshore trust in Bermuda, but out of fear of a giant fine, he distributed half of it to his own children for "charity". And since 2010, the daughter has been financing a variety of projects, mainly related to climate protection, "early childhood education" and support for LGBT communities around the world. Next on the list are: - Quinn Delaney, co-founder of the foundation for assistance to illegal migrants and BLM "activists": her foundation demands reprisals against police officers whom it considers to be racists; - Cari Tuna, wife of billionaire Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz and the owner of several foundations at once: ecology, support for illegal migration and BLM, defamation of Trump supporters, the fight for the decriminalisation of property crimes; - Susan Pritzker, wife of billionaire Nicholas Pritzker (the family owns the Hyatt hotel chain), in the history of which there is the Libra Foundation: abortion, LGBT, drug legalisation, the dismissal of "racist cops"; - Kaitlyn Krieger, the wife of co-founder of Instagram Mike Krieger: their foundation "Future Justice Fund" is against imprisonment and pursues "unfair" prosecutors; - Nicole Shanahan, wife of Google creator Sergey Brin: their Bia-Echo foundation also fights against prisons, supports feminism, "global climate equality", etc. - and other nice people who are "all a bunch of cheats - as bad as they come”. So it turns out that the election of the most liberal George Gascon as the district attorney of Los Angeles County was paid for by the financial bigwigs of the state to the delight of the criminal punks. With their money, they could rid the population of California of poverty forever. Instead, they are promoting the very "agenda" that leads to daily train robberies in the heart of the City of Angels. Do they send each other Christmas gifts bought on Amazon? Unlikely.