XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, alt.war.civil.usa, talk.politics.guns   
   XPost: sac.politics, talk.politics.misc   
   From: democrats@caused.it   
      
   The California governor signed a bipartisan package of 10 bills on Friday   
   creating stricter penalties for repeat offenders and people running   
   professional reselling schemes   
      
   Just hours after Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a sweeping   
   package of bills into law to combat smash-and-grab robberies in the   
   crime-ridden state, a large group of thieves stormed three separate 7-Eleven   
   stores in Los Angeles, swiping    
   food and drink items before fleeing on bicycles, according to NBC.   
      
   The group of up to 30 "kids and teenagers" began their rampage at the 7-Eleven   
   located at 7040 West Sunset Boulevard just after 8 p.m. where they smashed a   
   window and stole items.   
      
   They then moved onto a store near Hollywood Blvd and Highland Ave. about 15   
   minutes later where a worker there was allegedly assaulted, the outlet   
   reported.   
      
   A third store on Santa Monica Boulevard was hit at around 8:22 p.m., the   
   outlet reports, where they broke a front window and took more than $2,000   
   worth of items including a box of chargers, the outlet reports, citing a store   
   manager.   
      
   One store manager told the outlet that the teens caught on video surveillance   
   cameras on Friday, appear to be the same group that struck two other 7-Eleven   
   locations in the area last week. Footage from one of the robberies shows the   
   teens ransacking a    
   store with their faces left uncovered and clearly visible.   
      
   Fox News Digital reached out to the Los Angeles Police Department for comment   
   but did not immediately receive a response.   
      
   Friday’s string of smash and grabs come after Newsom hailed his new bills as   
   a turning point in the Golden State’s bid to tackle the lawless behavior   
   which has plagued California and other states in recent years. The incidents   
   in many cases have been    
   captured on video and posted online, bringing national attention to the rise   
   of retail theft in the Golden State.   
      
   The bipartisan package of 10 bills creates stricter penalties for repeat   
   offenders and people running professional reselling schemes.   
      
   The legislation allows prosecutors to combine the value of items stolen from   
   different victims across various counties to help meet the threshold for   
   felony grand theft and enforce harsher penalties for smash-and-grabs and   
   large-scale reselling    
   operations.   
      
   "This goes to the heart of the issue, and it does it in a thoughtful and   
   judicious way," Newsom said of the package. "This is the real deal."   
      
   While the package received bipartisan support from the California Legislature,   
   some progressive Democrats did not vote for it over concerns that some of it   
   was too punitive.   
      
   The legislation also aims to address cargo thefts and to close a legal   
   loophole to make it easier to prosecute auto thefts regardless of whether the   
   vehicle was locked and requires marketplaces like eBay to begin gathering bank   
   account and tax    
   identification numbers from high-volume sellers.   
      
   This comes as Democratic leadership works to show they are tough on crime   
   while at the same time urging voters to reject Proposition 36, a ballot   
   measure that would impose felony charges for repeat shoplifters and some drug   
   charges and create harsher    
   sentences for these crimes.   
      
   Newsom and fellow state Democrats worked for months on an unsuccessful effort   
   to keep Proposition 36 off the ballot for November's election. Democrats   
   feared the measure would disproportionately criminalize low-income people and   
   those with substance    
   issues instead of targeting ringleaders who hire large groups of people to   
   steal goods for them to resell online.   
      
   Fox News’ Landon Mion and the Associated Press contributed to this report.   
      
   https://www.foxnews.com/us/thieves-hit-3-7-eleven-stores-20-mins   
   hours-after-newsom-signed-smash-and-grab-tackling-bills   
      
   --- SoupGate-DOS v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)