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A woke Los Angeles mayoral candidate who once said she feels safe in her neighborhood despite rising crime returned home on Friday to find that a thief had made off with two of her handguns.
Rep. Karen Bass, a Democrat who is leading in the polls to become the next Los Angeles mayor, said she returned to her Baldwin Vista home from the National Hispanic Media Coalition’s annual Impact Awards Gala Friday night to find evidence of a break-in.
She then found that a thief stole two of her firearms that had been ‘safely and securely stored,’ but left behind the cash, electronics and other valuables she had out at her home, which is estimated on Zillow to be worth over $2million.
Police are now asking for the public’s help in identifying the suspect, whom they described on Twitter as ‘Hispanic, standing 5-feet-9-inches tall, [and] weighing 200 pounds.’
He was last seen wearing dark clothing, a black surgical mask, a blue baseball cap with a white emblem on it and black Asics sneakers.
Rep. Karen Bass, who is now the frontrunner in the Los Angeles mayor race, announced on Saturday that a thief broke into her home and stole two handguns
The suspect is described as ‘Hispanic, standing 5-feet-9-inches tall, [and] weighing 200 pounds.’ He was last seen wearing dark clothing, a black surgical mask, a blue baseball cap with a white emblem on it and black Asics sneakers
In a statement on Saturday night, Bass said the incident was ‘unnerving’ before addding that ‘unfortunately, it’s something that far too many Angelenos have faced’.
The theft comes amid a growing crime wave in the City of Angels, with robberies up more than 17 percent over last year, and burglaries up 15 percent.
Overall, violent crimes are now up nearly 5 percent from last year, with property crimes up a whopping 12 percent.
Crime has now emerged as one of the major issues in the city’s mayoral race, with a Los Angeles Times poll finding that 77 percent of voters are looking for someone who is tough on crime.
Yet during a mayoral debate several months ago, Bass insisted that she feels safe walking around her neighborhood, where homes go for over $1million.
‘I do feel safe,’ she said. ‘I feel safe, but I do understand that a lot of people around the city do not feel safe, and I respect that.’
Bass said in a debate a few months ago she feels safe walking around her Baldwin Vista neighborhood, where homes go for over $1million
Bass’s own home is worth over an estimated $2 million, according to Zillow
But in the weeks since, several surveillance videos have emerged showing brazen thieves stealing items from stores in view of security guards.
In mid-August, a group of thieves were caught barging into a Los Angeles grocery store and stealing thousands of dollar worth of liquor before fleeing out the exit into broad daylight.
Despite the mayhem, an idle security guard was seen standing a distance away from the thieves without interfering – in the county that is known for its lenient criminal policies.
The guard hesitated to get near the robbers, but slowly crept forward to pick up what appeared to be a bag nearby after the group had caused the commotion.
Another video from around the same time also showed a giant mob descending upon a 7-Eleven following a street takeover, throwing items over the counter and looting the convenience store.
The gang of people were seen ransacking the store while shouting, completely destroying the COVID-19 safety screen that had been set up to grab as much as they could.
They can be seen running across the store and grabbing drinks, cigarettes, lottery tickets, bags of chips and other items.
According to the Los Angeles Police Department, the suspects also started throwing items at them, with around 100 people involved in the chaos.
One store employee was even left fearing for his life after the incident, with a suspect wearing a Colorado Rockies hate throwing food at one employee.
LAPD Det. Ryan Moreno said that there was ‘no resistance’ and ‘no fight put up’ by the staff members working that day.
He added: ‘We really want to prevent this from becoming a new trend.’
Those involved face charges of vandalism, grand theft and looting when they are apprehended by authorities.
Two brazen thieves in Los Angeles were seen on surveillance footage making away with bags filled with hard liquor from a store in mid-August
Around the same time, a giant mob descending upon a 7-Eleven following a street takeover, throwing items over the counter and looting the convenience store
The gang can be seen running across the store and grabbing drinks, cigarettes, lottery tickets, bags of chips and other items
Meanwhile, actor Jeff Lewis recently opened up about the scene in his neighborhood after a woman was allegedly robbed down the street from his Los Angeles home in broad daylight.
Lewis’ neighbor, a 71-year-old woman in the Beverly Grove area, was zip tied, robbed and pistol whipped at her home, Fox 11 reports, citing authorities.
The Bravo star, 52, recalled being at home at the time of the invasion and revealed he refused to hand over surveillance footage from his backyard over fears detectives would see him naked in the videos.
‘Because there are a lot of beautiful houses in [my] neighborhood, but that house is kind of modest. So I was kind of like, “Why do they target them?” But they do have five expensive cars.’
However, when authorities asked him to turn over surveillance footage from his backyard to gleam more information about the robbery, Jeff refused to do so.
The Flipping Out star revealed he doesn’t ‘always wear clothes’ in the backyard and likes to go into the pool and ‘sex it up’ when his five-year-old daughter Monroe is not at home.
‘Our house is almost right across the street, so they were going and knocking on all the doors and they wanted to see our cameras… I looked at our camera and I can’t see the street past the wall and the hedges and the gates, so I’m like, this is not going to do them any sort of service because they can’t see the house for the street,’ he said.
‘But they came to the house like, three times. They said, “Look, we want to look at this footage in case there’s any shadows or anything like that.”‘
He later said he told authorities: ‘I said, “My AV cabinet is downstairs and I kind of don’t want you going through it. Because, to be honest with you, one of these cameras faces the backyard and I don’t always wear clothes back there.”
‘Like, if Monroe’s not home, we might go in the pool and sex it up. Sometimes I’m so drunk, I don’t remember what happens… There could be nine people for all I know,’ he admitted. ‘So I said, “You know, I just worry about giving the DVR to the detective. I’m on TV.'”
‘So I did not surrender the DVR… I did not cooperate,’ he concluded.
He said his neighbor was now ‘just bruised, banged up a little bit’ and, according to Lewis, she did not incur any broken bones or get stitches.
Fed-up residents have tried to recall woke District Attorney George Gascon (pictured), whose woke policies, critics say, have lead to more repeat offenders on the streets
Fed-up residents have even tried to recall progressive District Attorney George Gascon, who has pushed for criminal justice reforms that critics have said lead to more repeat offenders on the streets.
Their efforts ultimately failed last month when organizers ruled that 200,000 signatures on their petition were invalid.
The recall organizers needed to gather about 570,000 valid petition signatures to trigger an election, but he county registrar’s office announced they only found 520,000 valid signatures out of the 710,000 that were submitted.
It was the second attempt by critics to oust the woke District Attorney after the first failed last year.
Meanwhile, California assemblyman Rudy Salas, a Democrat, introduced a bill that would lower the amount a suspect can steal before facing a felony to $400, which was the original threshold before Proposition 47 passed.
Salas said: ‘Enough is enough, we need to fight back against the criminals who are stealing from our communities.
‘We have seen the unintended consequences of Prop 47’s weakening of our theft laws and I believe California voters are ready to make their voices heard on this issue again.’
Bass has a double-digit lead over her opponent, businessman Rick Caruso, who has positioned himself as the tough-on-crime candidate
Still, Bass has garnered a double-digit lead over her opponent, businessman Rick Caruso, in the mayoral election — despite him positing himself as the more tough-on-crime candidate.
A poll conducted last month found that Bass’ woke ideals align more heavily with the Los Angeles electorate, with about half of registered voters saying they had a favorable opinion of her with just 22 percent saying they did not like her and 29 percent reporting they have no opinion.
She has built her popularity among registered Democrats, people who identify as strongly liberal and black voters, as well as liberal white voters — who make up the majority of the electorate in Los Angeles.
The poll also found that 71 percent of voters said it was important to have someone who is progressive, 75 percent want a mayor with previous experience in office and 72 percent want someone who has a history of defending abortion rights in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v Wade.
Meanwhile, among voters who said it was important to have a candidate who is tough on crime, Caruso leads 47 to 29 percent.
And among supporters of the effort to recall Gascon, Caruso led 57 percent to 24 percent, after the former LAPD commissioner said he supported the effort and made crime a major focus of his campaign.