I ran into an old California buddy online Sunday. He asked me why I moved to Texas.
We didn't have a lot of time, so I gave him the shortest explanation I could: "It's not California."
For the ten or so friends, all former Californians, who have moved near us in Texas in the last year or so, no further explanation is needed. In Texas, 80 looters don't pull their cars up to the swankiest department stores and loot the place in broad daylight with impunity.
San Francisco is different, and has been for a long time, nearly as long as it has allowed urinating and defecating and sleeping and shooting up heroin on public sidewalks.
That town's mayor said this week they are finally going to "crack down." Will police arrest the thieves? Well, we will have to see about that. It's still a misdemeanor in California to steal anything under $950 in value.
But they are not going to allow people to park cars near the stores. That should work — as well as anything else in California works. It also should discourage paying customers and maybe clear the aisles for the looters.
We've been in Texas nearly nine years. We've yet to see a human turd on a public sidewalk, let alone a human depositing one. We've yet to see a mob of thieves swarm a store to take away as much as they can carry while police look the other way.
San Francisco Police chief William Scott told NBC Nightly News stores must be willing to hire security guards to make a private persons arrest. How's that working out?
Consequently, criminals, some wielding weapons and crowbars, load up, leave, then return for more.
"We get broken windows every few minutes. We got like 30 cars now that's with broken windows here because people have experienced the smash-and-grab thing," a car rental employee told Fox News, adding that he sees 10 car break-ins daily. "It goes on from morning to night every single day, over and over and over again. Nobody is doing anything about it."
Rampant crimes in San Francisco are "not new," and "chaos reigns supreme" in the city, Lt. Tracy McCray told Fox News after a Neiman Marcus in San Francisco's Union Square was hit by a mob of shoplifters who fled with merchandise.
It's not just high-end targets, and it's not just lately. Last month, a video on social media showed a man on a bicycle fill up a garbage bag with items inside a San Francisco Walgreens and leave without paying or being stopped. The San Francisco Chronicle reported at the time that Walgreens has closed 17 stores in the city in the last five years.
How did California become so bad so fast?
Maybe it's just a coincidence that the governor's office and both houses of state Legislature and every statewide office are controlled by Democrats. And it's the most feverish element of that party, which not so incidentally has as its national platform unwavering support for the sins of same-sex "marriage" and baby-killing in the womb.
When the central ideological principles embraced by those in control are behaviors that the Bible declares sinful, is it surprising that "shoplifting" of anything that costs less than $950 is tolerated?
Is there any clearer sign that civilization is collapsing in California? How bad is it when people living there appear to be oblivious?
My bride and I saw it coming and came to Texas precisely because it is the place most unlike California. It amazes us that so many Californians still tolerate so much, while watching everything degenerate before their eyes.
Mark Landsbaum is a Christian retired journalist, former investigative reporter, editorial writer, and columnist. He also is a husband, father, grandfather, and Dodgers fan. He can be reached at mark.landsbaum@gmail.com.
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