Car break-ins are so rampant in San Francisco that residents are leaving their trunks open and their doors unlocked to ward off burglars



Bay Area residents have resorted to extreme measures to prevent thieves from breaking into their cars.

Photos and videos that surfaced on social media over the weekend showed many San Francisco and Oakland residents leaving their vehicle's trunks open and doors unlocked to keep criminals from smashing the windows and rummaging through them for things to steal, KABC-TV reported.

Others have reportedly posted signs saying, “Please use the door” or “Please Do Not Break Glass!! Nothing Inside!!”

The thought evidently is this: If criminals see that there is nothing of value in the vehicle, then they'll move on. And if there are no windows or doors smashed, the vehicle owner could save money on a hefty repair bill.

Amid a spike in vehicle break-ins, some Bay Area car owners have been deliberately leaving their trunks open in an effort to avoid forced entry by thieves.https://abc7.com/11344070
— ABC7 Eyewitness News (@ABC7 Eyewitness News) 1639595958

KABC noted it has heard of people emptying their cars of valuables and leaving doors unlocked and windows rolled down. But the new practice of leaving trunks open is reportedly "raising eyebrows."

The strange development shows just how bad crime has gotten in the Bay Area over the last year.

According to the outlet, one witness, upon seeing trunks left wide open, wrote on social media, "Imagine having to clean out your car and leaving it open in public, just so people won't break your windows. Oakland we looking sad man."

SFPD said that car break-ins are up 32% so far this year. KPIX-TV reported last week that the city was hit with 3,000 car break-ins in October alone.

“It’s out of control," Alan Byard, a San Francisco Patrol Special Police Officer, told the outlet. "We have people that are doing this – are breaking into cars in Nob Hill, then they go down to Fisherman’s Wharf, then they come out here. Then they go to another part of the city and the police can’t chase the cars, it’s considered a misdemeanor."

“I come out here every night and I see new piles of glass,” Byard added.

But law enforcement is warning that while leaving trunks and doors open may seem like a good idea, it actually may put one's vehicle at greater risk.

"There's so much that can go wrong here," said former San Francisco Police Department Deputy Chief Garret Tom. "[Thieves] could steal your batteries, your tires. They could go into your glove compartment and find out where you live."

He called the practice an "invitation" for "disaster."

California Car Owners Leaving Their Trunks Open To Avoid Break Ins As Crime Skyrockets www.youtube.com

'This is self-induced REDLINING': Mark Levin blasts leftist looters for DESTROYING their own communities



Anarchists are meting out mob justice across America, storming into stores and looting thousands of dollars-worth of merchandise. As leftist politicians and media hosts of MSNBC and CNN spew their hateful, race-baiting dialogue in response to the Rittenhouse verdict, criminals are being emboldened to murder, rob and steal. On the latest episode of "LevinTV," Mark Levin sounded the alarm to defend our nation against a collapse of culture and morality amid the lawless spree of smash-and-grab robberies in California's Bay Area over the weekend.

"You know what this is? This is self-induced redlining," Levin said. "They're redlining their own communities because businesses are not going to go into these communities where they are not protected. They don't want their personnel, regardless of race, to be threatened or harmed. And they can't afford to keep stores open in [these] communities ... look at what the Democrats and their supporters, and rioters are doing to these communities."

Watch the video clip below to hear Mark Levin break it all down, or find more episodes of "LevinTV" here:


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'Experts' warn against calling California crime spree 'looting' because of racial connotations



Amid a spree of smash-and-grab robberies terrorizing businesses and shoppers in California's Bay Area, "experts" are warning against using the term "looting" to describe the crimes.

Dozens of storefronts and businesses in California were ransacked over the weekend in what local police are calling organized burglaries. In Walnut Creek, just 25 miles outside San Francisco, police said a "criminal mob" of 80 masked and armed robbers raided a Nordstrom department store, assaulting three employees and stealing thousands of dollars in expensive goods. Three suspects were arrested, but dozens more escaped with the merchandise.

San Jose police said thieves made off with an estimated $40,000 worth of merchandise stolen from a Lululemon store Sunday night. At the same time, a bigger attempted robbery took place at the Westfield Valley Fair Mall.

Another smash-and-grab robbery was caught on video at a jewelry store at Southland Mall in Hayward, California. Hayward police said no arrests were made and the suspects fled in several vehicles, making off with an unknown amount of loot.

And a San Francisco Louis Vuitton store was ransacked by robbers on Saturday.

Police have characterized these crimes as looting.

"The Louis Vuitton store was burglarized and looted. The Burberry in Westfield Mall was burglarized and looted," San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott told reporters on Saturday.

But others have shied away from using that term to describe the robberies, including experts who say "looting" is a term with racial connotations.

"We are talking about two incidents, we're not going to call this looting. This is organized robbery. That's what it is," said Sergeant Christian Camarillo with the San Jose police department, referring to the robbery at Lululemon.

KGO-TV reported Tuesday that under California Penal Code, the crimes committed do not meet the technical definition of "looting."

California law defines looting as "theft or burglary ... during a 'state of emergency', 'local emergency', or 'evacuation order' resulting from an earthquake, fire, flood, riot or other natural or manmade disaster."

A criminal justice professor at the University of New Haven said that the words police and journalists use to describe the crime matter.

"Looting is a term that we typically use when people of color or urban dwellers are doing something. We tend not to use that term for other people when they do the exact same thing," said Lorenzo Boyd, Ph.D., Professor of Criminal Justice & Community Policing.

KGO-TV observed that while there was no local emergency declared in the Bay Area cities where smash-and-grab crimes were committed this weekend, the identities and races of the majority of the suspects remain unknown.

Still, another expert who spoke to the local news station suggested the term "looting" has racial undertones.

Martin Reynolds, the co-executive director of the Robert C. Maynard Institute of Journalism Education, observed that after Hurricane Katrina, a large number of black New Orleans residents were labeled looters for "crimes of survival" — stealing water, food, and supplies before federal government aide arrived.

"This seems like it's an organized smash and grab robbery. This doesn't seem like looting. We're thinking of scenarios where first responders are completely overwhelmed. And folks often may be on their own," Reynolds told the local news station.

"People draw their own conclusions, if the terminologies that you use are tethered to people's understanding of how they have been used in the past," he added.

Former Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer assaulted, robbed in broad daylight in Oakland amid soaring crime in the Bay Area



Former California Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer became the latest victim of surging crime in California's Bay Area Monday afternoon.

The 80-year-old former lawmaker was reportedly assaulted and robbed in broad daylight while taking a leisurely stroll near her home in Oakland's Jack London Square, KTVU-TV reported. Boxer said that she was pushed from behind by a young man who snatched her belongings before hopping in a getaway car.

Earlier today former Senator Barbara Boxer was assaulted in the Jack London Square neighborhood of Oakland. The ass… https://t.co/r4DQ3tzQc5

— Barbara Boxer (@BarbaraBoxer) 1627337892.0

"I was walking around this neighborhood that I love so much," Boxer told the local news outlet after the attack. She reportedly added that she had noticed a black sedan double-parked roughly 30 seconds before the assault. Then she saw a young man get out of the car.

"I tried to cross the street and get away and he slammed me on the back and reached across me. He was behind me and grabbed my cellphone out of my hand," Boxer recalled. "I said how can you do this to a grandmother? I want to call my grandkids. Why are you doing this? He could care less and got into the car and sped away."

She said she was fortunate not to have fallen.

"My heart was pounding. My hands were shaking. I was glad I was on my feet," she said.

Boxer was able to walk to a nearby Verizon store and call the police. Through an investigation, law enforcement reportedly learned that the incident involving Boxer was part of a string of robberies in the area.

A law enforcement source reportedly told KTVU that the getaway car used in the assault was "the same one used in several vehicle break-ins in this area and in other parts of Oakland during a half-hour span prior to the attack on the former senator."

The Bay Area, which includes Oakland and San Francisco, has been rocked by a wave of violent crime in recent months. Many blame the progressive city council's decision to defund the city's police department for the rise in crime.

"[Criminals are] so bold. I just can't understand it. It'd be nice if we had foot patrol police down here walking the area," one Oakland resident said after news of the attack on Boxer broke.

Last month, the city's new "violence prevention" chief — who is tasked with replacing police with other public safety initiatives — was attacked by armed robbers while he discussed how to confront soaring crime with local reporters.

At around the same time, Oakland Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong delivered an impassioned rebuke of the city council's decision to cut the police budget, arguing that the progressive initiative would only result in a loss of lives.

Fmr. CA Senator Barbara Boxer Robbed, Assaulted In Oakland's Jack London Square www.youtube.com