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"The legal terrain has changed dramatically," criminal defense attorney David Wohl said. The prosecutors are now pooling together the total value of the stolen goods among co-defendants following the installment of a new conservative district attorney in Los Angeles. If the total pilferers' take is more than $950, each participant is charged with a felony. The change, which was approved last year with Proposition 36, was aimed at allowing for a felony charge in all but the smallest repeat offenses and at toughening the penalties for organized theft.
From Progressive to Prosecutor: The End of Lax Crime Laws
Passed in 2014, Proposition 47 was an attempt to reduce crowding in California's prisons by reclassifying a number of nonviolent felonies as misdemeanors. But critics say it led to a wave of retail crime and emboldened looters during bouts of civil unrest. Voters expressed their frustration in 2024 by passing Proposition 36, which would restore harsher penalties overall and try to prevent the kind of wholesale looting my groups has gone unpunished.
Former District Attorney George Gascon came under fire for giving offenders second, third and fourth opportunities. David Wohl said he was "more liberal than a lot of public defenders," and said he was responsible for causing the delays and reductions in prosecutions that Mr. Wohl was attributing to today's surge in crime.
William Jacobson, a law professor, pointed out how years of weak enforcement had fostered a "culture of criminality" that was only ramping up during the current anti-ICE protests. He added that while looting has always been illegal, California's past rules have allowed the practice to flourish with few consequences.
Arrests and Backup for City's Response to Chaos
In downtown Los Angeles, numerous stores were looted overnight during continuing protests, including several national chains (Apple, Adidas) along with small, local shops. In one widely shared video, looters were shown streaming into an Apple store while graffiti that read "F--- ICE" defaced the glass storefront. In Compton, there were also smash-and-grab incidents, which left shop owners devastated.
Some of the looters seemed to be taking advantage of the disorder, not part of the protests. Karen Bass, the mayor, denounced the business destroyers as not supporters of immigrant communities and pledged accountability.
Businesses are preparing, and storefronts like those for T-Mobile, and CVS were boarded up, with some also hiring additional security. At the same time, Attorney General Bondi cautioned burglars will be prosecuted under the Hobbs Act and, warned, violence against law enforcement will also be fully prosecuted. "If you hit a police officer, either a state police officer, or a police officer period, or a federal one, we are coming after you," she said.
