by Frank Holmes, reporter
The bad news is that crime remains a terrifying problem. The good news is right now you’re only likely to experience the worst of it if you live in a Democrat-controlled major city.
Gangs of people—up to five carloads of people at a time—will follow people home, assault them, and steal their money and prized possessions.
Police warn citizens be aware of groups following a driver home. They call it “follow-home robberies,” and they’re on the rise in deep-blue California.
Criminal gangs have “scouts” go to upscale restaurants and scope the location out for people flashing large amounts of cash, wearing multi-carat jewelry, or holding expensive handbags. They tip off gang members, who put a tail on the couple as they leave—then show up at their door, ready to rob, hurt, or even kill them.
In April, a gang armed with a rifle and two handguns followed a group of tourists to a rental house and stole $75,000 from them. Police warn that gangs targeted well-to-do people like entrepreneurs, learned their daily routines—and struck when the victims least suspected it.
Tinsel Town’s richest residents have found themselves in the crosshairs. Erika Girardi of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills said three men entered her home last October 27, held her at gunpoint while her children slept, and stole $1 million in goods. “When they came into my bedroom, when they had the gun to my head, I thought, ‘This is it, this is how I’m going to die,’” she said.
Gang-bangers regularly hurt the victims of this crime spree. In one case, thieves ran a woman over with a car when she fled from them.
Law enforcement officers say, in many cases, gang members don’t even give their victims the opportunity to hand over their belongings: They immediately turn to pure brutality. Victims “are being tackled, punched, hit and pistol-whipped,” Captain Jonathan Tippet, head of the LAPD’s Follow-Home Robbery Task Force told the New York Post.
It’s shocking, and it’s on the rise. Between last January and June of this year, Los Angeles police recorded a total of 254 follow-home robberies. That’s 111 in 2021 and 86 through the first half of the year. If these reports are any indication, this dangerous new crime is becoming more common. Up to 18 different street gangs have been accused of committing these thefts—which means it’s not just one group; it’s a plague bedeviling the City of Angels.
Of course, Los Angeles is seeing a spike in crimes like this. Robbery is up 20 percent over the last year, and 16 percent since 2020. Burglary rose 15 percent. Motor vehicle threats increased by 25 percent in the last two years, according to figures supplied by the Los Angeles Police Department.
What’s behind all this? Many people point to the soft-on-crime policies of Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon. One of the Soros D.A.s, who received massive financial support from the shadowy Hungarian billionaire in exchange for criminal justice “reforms,” Gascon has also decided not to enforce laws that would tack on additional years in jail for crimes committed by gangs or by gun-wielding criminals.
“State policy is allowing violent criminals to post bail and not return to court for months, and during that time we know many are committing violent crimes,” said Tippet.
And minorities continue to pay the price for uncontrolled crime. The LAPD says that 45 percent of victims were Black, 11 percent were Latinos and five percent Asian. Only one in five victims is white.
“Hispanics, Blacks and Asians account for 62 percent of the victims of these violent armed gang robberies [since January 2021],” Tippet told the Post. Left-wingers like Gascon like to say they’re “bringing social justice, but he isn’t bringing safety and protection to minorities.”
The legacy media tried to tamp down criticism of the Left Coast. “Critics of City Hall and the Los Angeles Police Department say the smash-and-grab incidents, while alarming, have been happening for at least the better part of a decade,” reported liberal NBC News.
That’s true to an extent—though it’s not very comforting. In 2016, a 27-year-old man from San Jacinto was convicted of a string of follow-home robberies that targeted elderly people going home from the store—and resulted in the murder of a 77-year-old man.
And it’s not just confined to Los Angeles.
Philadelphia police warned business owners in certain neighborhoods to watch their backs in 2014, after the brutal murder of 58-year-old Korean businessman Robert Chae. He and his wife were on their way to their store, the Penn Center Beauty Supply, when three men forced them to hand over their goods, and the perpetrator stabbed Chae to death; his wife escaped.
Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and other cities with shocking theft, assault, or overall crime statistics have a few things in common: They’re all run by Democrats, and most have a Soros-linked prosecutor who refuses to make criminals feel the sting of justice.
Police say to avoid a follow-home robbery, people should avoid flashing expensive items or cash in public, make sure no one trails them to their residence, and not keep large amounts of money in their home. “We advise people to give up their jewelry or watches,” said detective Daryn Dupree of the LAPD Robbery Homicide Special Section.
But it looks like the surest way to avoid this crime is to avoid living in Los Angeles.
Frank Holmes is a veteran journalist and an outspoken conservative that talks about the news that was in his weekly article, “On The Holmes Front.”