Pete Buttigieg Silent on Looting from Cargo Trains in Los Angeles

Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg has not appeared to take any action or issue a formal reaction to reports of looting from cargo trains near Los Angeles, even though he has taken credit for incremental progress on the supply chain crisis.

As Breitbart News reported last week, viral video showed thousands of packages littered across the train tracks along a stretch of Union Pacific rail near downtown Los Angeles, the result of thieves looting from the trains as they slow down.

I’m told by law enforcement these @UPS bags are especially sought after by thieves opening cargo containers… they are often full of boxes with merchandise bound for residential addresses. More valuable than say, a cargo container full of low value bulky items like toilet paper. pic.twitter.com/Tj5bQNIeby

— John Schreiber (@johnschreiber) January 13, 2022

Over the weekend, a train derailed near the area where looting has been taking place, though it was not certain that the derailment was related to the cargo debris littered across the tracks.

Los Angeles. No other developed nation looks like this. pic.twitter.com/PUkyVGTIFI

— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) January 16, 2022

Bloomberg News reported Monday that Union Pacific is now considering avoiding Los Angeles County altogether in its efforts to ship goods across the country, and wrote a letter to left-wing, George Soros-backed District Attorney George Gascéon demanding better law enforcement.

Last week, Secretary Buttigieg appeared in Los Angeles to claim credit for what he claimed were improvements to the supply chain crisis at the ports. He did not mention the rail looting.

US Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg speaks after a tour of the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach during a press conference at the Port of Long Beach on January 11, 2022 in Long Beach, California. (Photo by Patrick T. FALLON / AFP) (Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images)

Outgoing L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti praised Buttigieg, claiming that he “saved Christmas,” though the crisis continues.

No other mentions of the looting appear on the Department of Transportation website, nor on Buttigieg’s Twitter feed.

Buttigieg was criticized last year for taking two months’ parental leave without notice as cargo traffic piled up at the nation’s ports.

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 recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.

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