While Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) is ratcheting up language against federal law enforcement, a string of violent “smash-and-grab” robbery schemes in California are drawing renewed attention to the state’s crime issues.
California is seeing another spike in mob-style robberies, which become commonplace during the COVID lockdown. Just this month, three alarming mob robberies hit jewelry stores in the Bay Area, racking up more than a millions dollars in damages.
In fact, one expert says that there have been 30 violent mob-style robberies in the state since just March — and that’s only accounting for attacks on jewelry stores, specifically.
This past week, for example, an armed gang of up to 30 people raided a jewelry store outside of San Francisco. They smashed cases with crowbars and pickaxes and stole around $1 million dollars worth of goods. Due to new security measures that had to be taken after a 2023 robbery, the suspects were locked inside – but they used guns and shot their way out of the store.
So far, authorities have arrested seven suspects; they’re all from Oakland and range in age from 17 to 31. Law enforcement believes these are repeat offenders.
Two similar robberies took place in just the past couple of weeks. One of the targets was a Bay Area shop called Kim Hung Jewelry. In that case, a car crashed through the store and more than a dozen masked robbers smashed display cases and stole merchandise. The 88-year-old store owner was shoved to the ground, suffered a stroke, and was cut by broken glass.
“He is okay,” a family friend told ABC 7 News. “Business is not okay. Everyone knows that situation right now. Every business is in danger.”
Scott Guginsky, VP of the Jewelers Security Alliance, spoke to ABC7 about this trend and said he’s “never seen this level of violence.”
“Since March, we’ve had 30 violent robberies in California targeting jewelry stores,” he said. “This is something I haven’t seen in my 30-plus years of investigating jewelry crime with the NYPD.”
President Donald Trump has become determined to lower crime rates, particularly in some Democrat-run cities, specifically cited Los Angeles and Oakland, where crime is a major issue. Just last month, U.S. News & World Report ranked Oakland as the second most dangerous city in the nation – only second to Memphis, another city targeted by Trump. The rankings are based on FBI crime rates, specifically murder and property crime for every 100,000 people.
Gov. Newsom, though, has pushed back on this and claims California’s crime is under control and not an issue. Moreover, he’s focusing most of his attention on Trump’s efforts to battle crime and arrest people who are in the country illegally — including people from Newsom’s “sanctuary state.”
On Tuesday night, Newsom generated much criticism for how he described U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers during an appearance on Stephen Colbert’s left-wing late-night show.
“Masked men jumping out of unmarked cars, people disappearing,” Newsom claimed. “No due process. No oversight, zero accountability happening in the United States of America today.”
“People ask, well, is ‘authoritarianism’ you being hyperbolic? Bulls*** we’re being hyperbolic. If you’re a black and brown community, it’s here in this country,” the Democrat continued. “I mean, if some guy jumped out of an unmarked car in a van with a mask on, tried to grab me, I mean, by definition, you’re gonna push back. … These are authoritarian actions by an authoritarian government.”
Newsom also, unsurprisingly, took aim at Trump, too. “We have 41 lawsuits against this son of a b****,” he said. “We’re pushing back, and we’re winning.”
Over the weekend, Newsom signed a law banning ICE agents from wearing masks while making arrests. Some agents currently mask to protect their identities, considering all the threats and violence against them. Assaults on ICE agents, for instance, have jumped 830% compared to a year ago.
Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin called the new law “despicable” and “a flagrant attempt to endanger” federal officers.
Agency sources have told The Daily Wire that the new law isn’t going to stop them from masking. “Nice try by Newsom, but he knows it doesn’t apply to federal agents,” one source said. “He loves stirring the pot so that people find more ways to bring conflict to ICE.”
