Karen Bass Launches Task Force to Fight Retail Theft; Newsom Triples Highway Patrol in L.A.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass launched a new task force Thursday to fight mass looting and retail theft in the region, and Governor Gavin Newsom announced that he would triple the number of California Highway Patrol officers in the city to assist the effort.

Bass announced the task force at a press conference Thursday morning, days after a mass looting event in the Westfield Topanga mall made national news.

I was shopping at Topanga Mall when this happened!! They started stealing all the Designer from Nordstroms 😩 pic.twitter.com/VY3Z2P0E11

— Noel Escobar (@Noelskeez) August 12, 2023

There have been several such events in the last few years, thought to be connected to organized crime.

The mayor elaborated in a press release:

“What we’ve seen over just the past week in the City of Los Angeles and in surrounding regions is unacceptable, which is why today we are here announcing action,” said Mayor Karen Bass. “These are not victimless crimes – especially in the case where Angelenos were attacked – through force or fear – as they did their jobs or ran errands. No Angeleno should feel like it’s unsafe to go shopping and no Angelenos should feel like it’s unsafe to open a business in Los Angeles or Los Angeles County. This task force will aggressively investigate these incidents and hold individuals that are responsible for these crimes fully accountable.”

Newsom announced that he would triple the number of California Highway Patrol officers in the city to assist Bass’s task force.

His office added a boast: “Under Governor Newsom’s leadership, public safety funding is at an all-time high in California.”

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 new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.