Police say at least 20 people have been arrested for thefts in the Los Angeles area in recent days.
“Shame on those who attack our residents during this time of crisis.” During a speech held before journalists Thursday, January 9 on the sidelines of the violent fires affecting Los Angeles, Kathryn Barger, member of the city’s county supervisory board, expressed her indignation after several cases of looting were identified.
“In the midst of an emergency, we have all seen individuals prey on vulnerable communities by burglarizing and looting homes. This is simply unacceptable,” she said, in comments echoed by NBCNews.
Police say at least 20 people have been arrested for thefts in the Los Angeles area since the first fires broke out Tuesday.
“I went to get my gun.”
And the testimonies are multiplying. To AFP, Nicholas Norman, who managed to save his house himself using buckets of water against 3 meter high flames, said he encountered two men around three o’clock in the morning on Wednesday night in THURSDAY.
“They were testing the doors and looking through the windows” of homes spared by the fire, this resident of Altadena told AFP. “People are just stupid.”
This literature professor had been warned by a police officer friend that looters had been arrested a few hours earlier, a few streets away. Immediately, he took on the costume of neighborhood vigilante.
“I did the classic American thing: I went to get my rifle, I sat outside and I turned on a light so they knew there were people there,” says this frail forty-year-old, hiding behind his mask.
“There is no way”
His case is far from isolated. One of his neighbors, Chris, spent the day barricading his house with wooden planks to prevent any intrusion.
-“It’s quite sad,” sighs this architect, who does not wish to give his full name. “We are setting up surveillance in the neighborhood, all because some goons are preying on victims already subjected to all this madness.”
When he returned to his orange house Thursday morning, which he had just spent a year renovating, the padlock on his gate had been forced. In the coming days, he also plans to take his share of the night rounds. With a weapon? “No comment,” he smiled.
“It really sucks, I would rather spend my time helping my neighbors,” he says, pointing to the ruins on the other side of the street, where some gas supplies are still burning and pose a risk of resumption of electricity. fire.
“There is theft, but it is made even worse by cowardice,” grumbles Nicholas Norman. “I didn’t save this damn house so that some idiot would come and steal from me. There’s no way,” adds the man who admits to not having that many valuables, and never locks his car .
The army as reinforcement
Faced with opportunists, the authorities promise the greatest severity. National Guard soldiers will be deployed, California Governor Gavin Newsom announced Thursday evening. “Let’s be clear: looting will not be tolerated,” he insisted.
“These acts are despicable, and we will prosecute them with the maximum sentence,” assured Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman. The sheriff also promised to strengthen patrols.
But for Chris and his neighbors, the good will of the police is not enough. His simple return home, which forced him to sneak past security lines, demonstrates the limits of men in uniform.
“If I managed to get past the roadblocks, professional thieves will have no trouble doing so too.”
