SACROMENTO – California lawmakers cite stricter penalties for looting and other opportunistic crimes during disasters after more than two dozen individuals were arrested in evacuation zones following the recent fatal wildfires in Los Angeles County. I’m proposing it.
Three lawmakers proposed a strict criminal approach that classifies robbery in emergency areas as a felony offence. One of these bills would crack down on people pretending to be their first responders during a wildfire.
The LA County Sheriff’s Office last month established a looting team to provide closer surveillance and faster response times for the evacuated Altadena area.
Lawmakers who created the law see it as another way to alleviate residents’ fears that the evacuated homes have been robbed. Some robbers reportedly stolen more than $200,000 in valuables from their Mandeville Canyon home, while another group allegedly stole an Emmy Award from their Altadena home.
“This wildfire crisis has brought us the best and worst of all of us,” said the Los Angeles Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman is the co-sponsor of the reactionary bill introduced Monday. “The point is not to fill the prison with lots of looters. The idea is to stop these looters in the first place.”
Hochman’s Office has considered 27 criminal cases related to wildfires, but he said the current laws to crack down on these crimes are “overwhelming.”
Hochmann’s bill was supported by the California State Police Chief of Police to firefighters. And the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office gives law enforcement the ability to offer “better tools” to prosecute looters and people who are pretending to be law enforcement officials. . The bill will also close loopholes to ensure protection from looters through the reconstruction process to protect damaged structures and vehicles.
Congress member Jesse Gabriel (D-Encino), who co-authored the laws between Jackie Irwin and Blanca Pacheco (D-Downney), said Gabriel “against the looters he said he created with Chaos and Chaos.” He said the bill is responding directly. Confusing. “
“When my community was under forced evacuation orders, many residents were deeply concerned about their homes and their property.
Republican Sen. Suzette Martinez Valadales also introduced measures last month, Acton’s Congressman Josh Hoover, Folsom’s MP. Hoover’s plan proposed that committing robbery or grand theft in an area where an emergency, local emergency is declared, or under an evacuation order should be a felony. Valladares’ bill classifies robbers committed during an emergency as a felony.
Hoover said the fact that there are three bills is “a good thing.”
“At the end of the day, we all need to work together to figure out which bill is the best,” he said. “But the fact that we all introduced the law is a really good sign and I think we can understand something.”
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said the suspects are already facing the biggest penalties for the crime. This includes those accused of illegally using badges to impersonate a firefighter and enter the evacuation zone in Malibu. The other two could face up to 180 days in the county jail, impersonating a misdemeanor firefighter. Others face felony charges, including a group of seven people charged with first-degree felony felony home robbery. If convicted, they could be sentenced to a maximum of six years.
Advocates and public advocates, including Brooke Longuvan, chairman of Los Angeles County’s public advocacy group, said there are existing penalties that prohibit looting and other crimes and “punish them adequately.”
“We are concerned that this type of law will only burden large-scale incarceration, selective police and the already overwhelming criminal law system,” Longuevan said in an email. .
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