Wildfire Looters Show LA’s Law & Order DA Faces ‘Uphill Battle’

Here’s Left Coast crime and punishment in a nutshell: Two men were detained at Vice President Kamala Harris’ posh Brentwood neighborhood home very early last Saturday morning as wildfires ravaged the Los Angeles area. They reportedly broke curfew. Will they face a lengthy grounding? 

LA police first responded to the 3,500-square-foot property Harris shares with Second Gentleman Doug Emhofff for a report of a burglary. They ultimately found no evidence of a property crime. The men were, however, briefly taken into custody for violating Los Angeles County’s 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew aimed in large part at stopping looting. Why they were out and at the second couple’s home at around 4:40 a.m. remains unclear. Whether Harris will donate to a bail fund for looters taking advantage of victims of the Los Angeles-area wildfires remains unknown. 

What we do know is that, as of Tuesday evening, the conflagrations had killed at least 25 people and devoured some 12,000 structures and more than 35,000 acres. 

It’s a sad commentary on society, particularly leftist-led jungles like Los Angeles. As the area in and around the nation’s second-largest city faces a nightmare of fire, police are being forced to respond to a growing list of looting and other property crimes. 

‘A Direct Attack on Our Community’

Earlier this week, Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman charged nine suspects with looting, and another with arson (reportedly not related to the wildfires). These discount seekers definitely know where to shop. Not counting the two reported curfew breakers at Harris’ smartly appointed four-bedroom, 4 1/2 bath Brentwood estate, the accused looters picked some swanky places to burgle, according to police — including LA’s mansion-packed Mandeville Canyon area. In one of the arrests, police reportedly recovered an Emmy award. 

But as Julio Rosas, national correspondent for Blaze Media, told me Tuesday on “The Vicki McKenna Show,” the looting — like the wildfires — knows no socio-economic boundary. 

“It’s not only celebrities. The evacuation orders have gone out to middle-class and even the lower-income neighborhoods,” Rosas, who has covered the Eaton Fire’s destruction in places like Altadena, Calif., where large swaths of the unincorporated Los Angeles suburb have been reduced to ashes. 

So the looters have been out in full force like the vultures they are. Hochman described the crimes as most Americans would, “appalling,” and that they represent “a direct attack on our community during a time of unprecedented loss and vulnerability.” And then the new DA issued a stern warning:

“Let me be clear: If you exploit this tragedy to prey on victims of these deadly fires, we will find you and we will prosecute you to the fullest extent of the law,” Hochman said. 

If his office indeed prosecutes these maggots “to the fullest extent of the law,” it would be a real change in course from the soft-on-crime DA Los Angeles County voters had been used to. Holding criminals accountable is what voters signaled they wanted after four years of rising violent crime and disorder. Let’s see how committed this deep blue metropolitan area that cried for unquestioned “social justice” four years ago in the wake of the violent Black Lives Matter movement is to public safety now. 

‘Pro-Criminal Extreme Policies’

Hochman, a former federal prosecutor who unsuccessfully ran for California attorney general as a Republican in 2022, bludgeoned leftist LA District Attorney George Gascón at the polls in November by 20 percentage points (60% to 40%). It’s funny how rampant crime and zero accountability changes even the hardest leftist’s perspective on the basic need for law and order. 

Voters also resoundingly rejected the “restorative justice” reforms of Gascon, a George Soros-backed DA known as the “godfather of progressive prosecutors.” Gascon wrote the language for Proposition 47, the 2014 citizen-backed crime reform law that, among other things, gave thieves a pass by downgrading thefts under $950 from felonies to misdemeanors. More than 10.3 million California voters (68%) voted for Prop 36 in November, rolling back provisions in the bedlam-releasing Prop 47. Far-left Gov. Gavin Newsom opposed Prop 36, so that tells you just about everything you need to know about the public safety measure. 

As CalMatters reported the day after the election, “Property crime spiked in California after the pandemic while the state, counties and local governments have struggled to contain and control sidewalk encampments of homeless people.” 

Retailers understandably have grown fatigued by criminals constantly smashing up their stores and grabbing their goods — no matter how committed they were to equity and the rest of that leftist nonsense. 

Upon losing, Gascon said “the rightward shift across America” on Election Day was “heartbreaking.” He was “deeply proud” of the “criminal justice reform” he pushed over his time in office. 

Hochman said he won because LA County voters had had quite enough of “D.A. Gascón’s pro-criminal extreme policies; they look forward to a safer future.”

‘Culture of Lawlessness’

Hochman is making a good start, putting criminals on notice that they will actually be prosecuted for the crimes they commit. But the former federal prosecutor must know that it will take some heavy lifting to straighten out the mess the leftist DA left behind. Just look at some of the repeat violent offenders Hochman’s office has charged in connection with the rash of looting. They’ve been through the revolving door of what constitutes criminal justice in Democrat-led California, on parole or probation while burglarizing and looting properties in the evacuation zones. 

If that weren’t enough, as of Tuesday, police had arrested four people on arson-related charges for allegedly attempting to start new fires. One arson suspect was arrested on an outstanding felony warrant for arson, according to the New York Post. 

“The four arrests come after a homeless man, a Mexican national [Juan Manuel Sierra-Leyva] who entered the US illegally, was tackled by brave onlookers after they saw him using a “flamethrower” to start new fires in Woodland Hills,” the Post reported. 

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement “placed a detainer request on him three days ago, but the federal agency does not expect it to be honored due to California’s sanctuary state law,” sources told the publication. 

Sure. Criminals are opportunists. One of the most destructive wildfires in California history presents plenty of opportunity for would-be looters, burglars, and curfew violators. But California criminals have long been emboldened in soft prosecution cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Oakland. While leftists leaders in these cities are beginning to pay a price for treating criminals like victims and victimizing law-abiding citizens, making the American cities safe again will take a long-term commitment. 

“It’s no surprise that the culture of lawlessness that was overseen and encouraged, in my opinion, by the previous [LA County] district attorney, Gascon, obviously that’s still an issue today,” Rosas said. “It just shows the uphill battle that the new DA is going to have to deal with in the years to come to combat this entrenched culture of lawlessness.”

Matt Kittle is a senior elections correspondent for The Federalist. An award-winning investigative reporter and 30-year veteran of print, broadcast, and online journalism, Kittle previously served as the executive director of Empower Wisconsin.