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LA train robberies result in stolen guns

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As we currently live in the 21st Century, I didn’t really expect train robberies to become a thing again. After all, that’s a thing we associate with the Old West, right? People don’t rob trains these days, except maybe in Hollywood, right?

Well, train robberies happen in Los Angeles, and not just in the movie industry. It’s kind of become a thing.

And, unfortunately, some of what’s taken is the kind of stuff no one wants to see stolen.

Thieves breaking into freight trains in Los Angeles have stolen guns from cargo containers, police Chief Michel Moore said.

Moore told the city’s board of civilian police commissioners on Monday that “tens of firearms” have been stolen, the Los Angeles Times reported.

“That gave us the great concern as a source again of further violence in the city as people were capitalizing on the transport of these containers with having little or no policing or security services there.”

Now, let’s be fair. In a city the size of Los Angeles, I doubt “tens of firearms” are going to make much of a difference one way or another.

However, that’s what we’re looking at now.

Unless the LAPD and the district attorney’s office actually start cracking down on these train robberies, we’re likely to see even more stolen guns in criminal hands. That’s just how it’s going to go because, so far, there’s been no disincentive to not rob these trains.

And to make it worse, the thieves didn’t even get a background check!

Of course, thieves never do. However, they put guns in bad guys’ hands. Those bad guys then commit crimes, crimes which are then used to justify still more gun control. It’s infuriating, to say the least.

And these are train robberies. Union Pacific is already threatening to bypass Los Angeles completely because of this stuff, and I can’t say that I blame them.

Look, I get that there are miles and miles of track in Los Angeles, but there’s only so much track where trains sit for any period of time. I mean, these aren’t brazen Old West bandits chasing down the trains on horses. They’re essentially targeting parked trains, so maybe it’s worth keeping an eye on them?

Or, and here’s a crazy thought, District Attorney George Gascon can actually do his job and prosecute thieves in general. I’m pretty sure many of these train robberies are either conducted or instigated by people who steal from other places.

Arrest and prosecute them and guess what? No more train robberies.

Alright, fewer train robberies. Either way, that’s an overall win. Especially if you’re complaining about there being too many guns on the streets already.

Seriously, I don’t want to hear Gascon say a damn thing about legally purchased firearms so long as he’s doing nothing to stop the lawlessness plaguing the city. Especially since, among other things, they’re stealing guns right off the trains.

This didn’t have to happen, but soft on crime policies made something like this inevitable.

Los Angeles Parents Sue Charter School for Abhorrent Treatment of Students

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California schools have been engaging in extreme measures to pressure parents to have their children vaccinated against COVID-19. They have tried coercion and even pizza bribery to push kids to roll up their sleeves and take the needle. But now, a new lawsuit alleges a Los Angeles charter school “discriminated against” and “segregated” unvaccinated students.

Sharon McKeeman, founder of Let Them Breathe, a nonprofit group representing the parents and students in the legal action told Fox News Digital:

“Female students were segregated, harassed, and threatened with suspension just for trying to participate in their classes, and we will prove in court that this is unjust and unlawful.”

Fox News Digital reported:

Let Them Breathe shared videos of the students protesting after New West Charter School allegedly refused to let them in when school reopened on Jan. 18, 2022. The organization claimed that the students were segregated “behind barriers.”

“We’re being refused of the right to attend school,” one student claims in a video. “We feel segregated and discriminated against,” adds another.

The school told Fox its side of the story, claiming that it imposed a vaccine mandate after winter break and reached 96% compliance. However, “six students who did not follow the new policy still attempted to participate in classes,” the school claimed. The students refused to leave the class when asked.

“The students proceeded to stage a sit-in directly behind designated areas for student PCR screenings on campus which was cordoned off with tape,” the school continued. “New West Charter School administration notified local authorities who came to campus and helped alleviate the disruption.”

The school also said it informed parents last October that students would be required to have taken the jab in order to attend classes. It also offered an “independent study option” for the unwashed unvaccinated. “Parents who chose not to vaccinate their children knew what options they had available other than returning to campus,” the school said.

However, Let Them Breathe told Fox that the lawsuit the group has filed against New West Charter is similar to the successful legal action it filed against San Diego Unified School District for their mandate in December.

RedState’s Jennifer Van Laar reported:

A California state judge struck down San Diego Unified School District’s student COVID-19 vaccine mandate Monday, ruling that it was “inconsistent with state law.” This means that all SDUSD students can continue in-person instruction regardless of COVID-19 vaccine status.

McKeeman noted that New West Charter’s mandate “is even more egregious than San Diego Unified’s” because the school is “mandating for ages 12 and up, which is not even FDA approved.”

She added:

“We have filed a lawsuit against New West arguing that they are violating state law by mandating this new vaccine, not allowing personal belief exemptions, and segregating and denying unvaccinated students their education.”

The suit alleges that the school discriminates against unvaccinated students, which is a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the California Constitution. The state’s mandate allows for a medical exemption but not a religious or personal belief exemption, according to Fox News.

Let Them Breathe’s lawsuit also takes the school to task for treating some unvaccinated children “more favorably than other unvaccinated children,” and for letting unvaxxed kids from other schools participate in sporting events on the campus while barring the plaintiffs from doing the same.

From Fox:

The lawsuit says the vaccine mandate is preempted by state law, meaning that the school has no authority to issue such a mandate because the state of California has taken up authority on this issue. Let Them Breathe won the legal challenge against San Diego Unified School District on this very issue.

“The sole function of this Court is to determine whether the Roadmap is preempted by state law,” Judge John Meyer wrote in his ruling. He ruled that “the field of school vaccine mandates has been fully occupied by the State, and the [SDUSD policy] directly conflicts with state law.”

As many, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, have pointed out, children are at far less of a risk of being hospitalized with COVID-19. While the Omicron variant has resulted in a higher rate of infection, children are far less likely to deal with serious symptoms.

Nevertheless, the left has been pushing vaccine and mask mandates in blue states like crazy. The hysteria over COVID has placed an undue strain on America’s students in states like California, New York, Michigan, and others. However, more parents are starting to speak out against these unreasonable restrictions, and even people who vote Democrat are reaching the end of their ropes. The question is: How much longer can the Democrats sustain their COVID regime?

A Win for the Second Amendment in California as a Federal Appeals Court Rules Pandemic Gun Store Closures Unconstitutional

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The wheels of justice sometimes turn slowly, but when it is a just outcome, it’s often more satisfying.

From Fox11:

An order closing gun stores in Los Angeles County in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic two years ago was unconstitutional, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday.

In its ruling, a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals determined that both Los Angeles and Ventura counties had violated the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms when they shut down gun and ammunition shops in March 2020 as nonessential businesses during the beginnings of the coronavirus pandemic.

At that time, the National Rifle Association and other pro-gun groups filed suit in Los Angeles federal court against Gov. Gavin Newsom, Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva and other officials, alleging both state and local policies and enforcement practices violated citizens’ rights.

The original lawsuit was filed in late March of 2020, soon after Governor Hair Gel decided to be first in shutting down businesses and imposing the COVID lockdowns. Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva was attempting to use his deputies to enforce the closure of these gun stores. We now know for a fact that part of the elitists, unelected bureaucrats, and corrupt politicians intent was to use the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns to instill fear in people, and it worked. What they didn’t bargain for was people’s response to that fear would be to go out and buy guns.

As Shakespeare’s Puck opined, “Lord, what fools these mortals be!”

It was basically an attempt by His Hairfulness and Villanueva to shut the barn door when the horses had already bolted. The gun owners were having none of that, so with the help of The Second Amendment Foundation (SAF), the California Gun Rights Foundation (CGF), the Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC), and the California National Rifle Association (CA-NRA), they challenged Newsom’s diktats and Sheriff Villanueva’s actions. The lower courts ruled in favor of Newsom and Villanueva, even though by that time Villanueva had suspended enforcement of gun store closures under much criticism and pressure.

Imagine if we had done this earlier for every other business deemed “non-essential” in the midst of the pandemic. Hindsight is 20-20.

Our sister site Townhall and our Managing Editor Jennifer Van Laar reported on Sheriff Villanueva’s actions during the early days of the pandemic, and his quick reversal. It was a stupid move on Villanueva’s part, and cost him much trust and credibility at that time. The Sheriff has since regained that trust and credibility in spades with his stance against mask and vaccine mandates, the homelessness crisis, and the rampant crime that now plagues Los Angeles County and the state.

This federal appeals court ruling is a huge win for Second Amendment rights in California, and frankly for the rest of the nation. The Second Amendment Foundation and many of the other gun rights advocacy organizations have numerous challenges going in Wisconsin, Illinois, Maryland, and other gun restrictive states, to overturn unconstitutional pandemic actions, as well as unconstitutional and draconian gun laws.

Fox 11 referenced some of the language in the court’s decision in support of Second Amendment rights.

In rejecting those decisions, Judge Lawrence Van Dyke wrote for the appellate panel — meeting in Pasadena — that the Second Amendment “means nothing if the government can prohibit all persons from acquiring any firearm or ammunition. But that’s what happened in this case.”

We will see if Newsom tries to take this to the United States Supreme Court. Since his track record has been abysmal with the highest court in the land over the challenges to his pandemic overreach, that might not be the best move.

Newsom thinks California governance should be a model for the nation. If that’s the case, then this ruling would do much to blow more holes in the Biden administration’s already Swiss Cheese agenda.

Sacramento Woman Who Bilked $2.75 Mil in CA Employment Fraud Faces More Charges, and That's Not the Half of It

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The devil is busy.

On April 9, 2021, 35-year old Jamie Williams-Major was arrested over alleged California Employment Development Department (CA EDD) fraud that involved six other individuals with gang-related ties, and two who faced murder charges. This arrest was a coordinated effort with agents from the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office, the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office, the Employment Development Department, and the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

What does the good book say? Bad company corrupts good morals.

From the Sacramento District Attorney’s Office website:

Williams-Major was arrested at her place of employment. Investigators later served a search warrant at her residence on Laramie Lane in Sacramento County and discovered a significant amount of EDD paperwork belonging to fraudulent accounts and other fraudulent credit card evidence. The suspects fraudulently obtained more than $250,000. The two suspects currently housed by the California Department of Corrections will be transported to Sacramento to face charges along with Williams-Major and the four individuals in local custody.

“The circumstances of this investigation and arrest are unfortunately another example of what has become one of the most lucrative criminal enterprises in California’s history, EDD fraud,” said District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert.

Apparently so. As of October 2021, the bill on CA EDD fraud has reached $20 billion, and as more perpetrators are discovered, that number could well rise. So, who is going to foot this bill? At the end of October 2021, after a long-delayed California Legislature hearing with the California Employment Development Department produced more questions than answers, it is looking like California businesses, who had to close during the 2020 pandemic through no fault of their own, are going to be saddled with it.

California leads the way… in killing business and robbing taxpayers blind.

Since the Williams-Major gang’s arrest, fraud perpetrators continue to be discovered.

In December 2021, Abdul-Malik McClain, a 22-year old former University of Southern California football player, was arrested and charged with 10 counts of mail fraud and two counts of aggravated identity theft. On January 14, just five days ago, the disability benefits department of the CA EDD decided it needed to freeze 345,000 applications in order to battle suspected organized fraud rings and fake applications.

But remember all that EDD paperwork discovered at the raid of Williams-Major’s home? It gets better.

From the California Globe:

Tuesday, Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert issued a follow up press statement about Williams-Major, announcing the charges were now up to 166 in a fraud scheme totaling more than $2.75 million dollars.

Nicholas Johnson of the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office filed a lengthy, 87-page felony complaint:

JAMIE WILLIAMS-MAJOR, did commit a felony, namely: a violation of Section 2101 of the Unemployment Insurance Code of the State of California, in that said defendant did willfully make a false statement and representation and knowingly fail to disclose a material fact and use a false name, false social security number, and other false identification, to wit, ALAY SINGH, to obtain, increase, reduce, and defeat any benefit and payment for the maker or for any other person, under the provisions of Division One of the California Unemployment Insurance Code and the provisions of any unemployment insurance law of the federal government.

The complaint goes on to list the other 165 counts and identities stolen. So far there is no indication of whether this involved the federal pandemic unemployment assistance funds, but the odds trend in that direction.

Had this been Los Angeles, instead of Sacramento, Williams-Major would probably be sitting on a beach sipping an umbrella drink while awaiting a trial that might never come, while Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón would be mounting her defense instead of prosecuting her for the crimes. Sacramento County is fortunate to have a district attorney that believes in the actual work of rooting out crime and prosecuting criminals. As Californians live through the rampant crime that plagues Los Angeles and San Francisco, and has spread like a pestilence through other cities and municipalities in the once-Golden State, it is apparent that a lion’s share of prosecutorial law enforcement does not.

Brianna Kupfer's Councilman Mike Bonin Opposes 'Criminalizing Homelessness,' But Asked to Have a 'Trespasser' Removed From in Front of His Office

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Since the recent rash of murders in Los Angeles committed by homeless people (two in five days), the issue and the response of the city and county’s elected leaders over the last many years has finally come under harsh scrutiny, and while a few of the city’s politicians are still too shell-shocked to say much, LAPD Chief Michel Moore has blamed at least one murder on a lack of mental health treatment, LA City Councilman Mike Bonin has pledged to move forward with his non-solutions to homelessness, and LA City Councilman Kevin de Leon is claiming that he’s trying to get people housed but homeless activists want to keep them on the street. (Spoiler alert: He’s absolutely lying about his own actions.)

But as to the murder of Brianna Kupfer, the 24-year-old woman who was stabbed to death as she worked inside a furniture store on Friday afternoon, there was a noticeable and cruel silence over the weekend and through Monday from the Democrat politicians whose policies and rhetoric led to her death, from her Congressman, Ted Lieu, from her County Supervisor, Sheila Kuehl, from Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, from the man who’s supposed to prosecute her killer, George Gascon, and from her City Councilman, Mike Bonin.

Once the LAPD held a press conference Tuesday – pretty darn quickly after Kupfer’s father, who’s well known in the Pacific Palisades for his volunteerism, blasted Los Angeles politicians in an interview on Fox & Friends – and announced a reward, Bonin finally broke his silence.

That’s it. As if he’s passing along someone’s lost cat poster. But for Bonin to say more would be for him to possibly have to entertain the possibility that his policies advocating for the “rights” of homeless people over everyone else set the stage for Brianna’s death. That might be why, as of the time of this writing, Bonin has not tweeted the updated wanted/reward poster, which gives the suspect’s name and pretty much says he was homeless.

Utilizing surveillance footage, LAPD announced the suspect as 31-year-old Shawn Laval Smith, but does not specify a city of residence.

“Smith has been in Pasadena, Santa Monica, West Hollywood, Covina, San Diego, San Francisco, and several other locations around Southern California.”

The public is also warned that he’s “highly likely to be using public transportation” and that “special attention should be given to bus stops and train platforms.” Yep. Sounds homeless.

Bonin, who used to be “unhoused,” says his “lived experience” informs his thoughts regarding how to solve homelessness, which include issuing a directive to – or coming to an agreement with, whichever you prefer – LAPD Chief Michel Moore, instructing LAPD officers to ignore those breaking the “no camping” law on Venice Beach and creating dangerous encampments, and standing in solidarity with the hundreds of trespassers who took over Echo Lake Park for more than a year when the LAPD drove them out.

His policies made Venice Beach so dangerous and heinously polluted with human waste, trash, and used drug paraphernalia that LA Sheriff Alex Villanueva stepped in and cleaned things up during the summer of 2021. But since LA County DA Gascon will not prosecute misdemeanors or enforce loitering or trespassing citations, LAPD will not issue them, and the problem has returned with a vengeance.

Bonin and his fellow travelers wholeheartedly believe that if you are “anti-homeless” you are a “fascist” and your beliefs are “rooted in hierarchy and elitism and…advocate for authoritarianism. As reported by our Jerry Wilson, Bonin’s Chief of Staff, David Graham-Caso tweeted that Saturday evening:

Anti-homeless language resembles fascistic rhetoric because they are both rooted in hierarchy and elitism and because they both advocate for authoritarianism.

Don’t complain about being called a fascist. Stop acting like one instead.

He was so ratioed that he followed it up Sunday morning with this:

His entire timeline on Saturday and Sunday was dedicated to hitting back against the “fascists” pointing out that it’s not just a homeless crisis anymore; one is in mortal danger simply waiting for a bus outside a major train station or working at a high-end furniture store in what was once a nice neighborhood.

Graham-Caso did not utter a single word about Brianna Kupfer’s brutal slaying until Tuesday evening, when he dutifully retweeted his boss’s tweet with the wanted/reward poster. That’s it. This is a constituent, not some random person, and he can’t be bothered to acknowledge her humanity.

He had a lot to say, though, about the attempted recall of his boss, which the LA City Clerk announced late Tuesday had failed to qualify for the ballot. Graham-Caso posted an 18-tweet thread pontificating and blaming “right wing gossip blogs” for being “obstructionists” and preventing them from (finally) solving the problem. He had the gall to invoke the people “suffering & dying on our streets,” meaning the “unhoused,” ignoring the fact that at least two people were viciously murdered by “unhoused” individuals in the past four days.

People are suffering & dying on our streets & we must get past the poisonous politics exemplified by the recall and amplified by RW gossip blogs if we are going to have a shot at ending homelessness in Los Angeles.

The frustration about homelessness that was manipulated by the recall proponents on the Westside is very real & felt across LA. But solutions are harder to achieve when lies told by obstructionists get all of the attention.

He then goes back to the important work of “letting trolls know the good news.”*

However, when it comes to his own office and staffers, Bonin’s apparently got a different point of view. Back in June, 2021, Bonin staffer Hannah Levien sent a memo to various city officials, including LAPD, complaining of one – as in one, single, solitary – homeless man who’d set up shelter outside of his district office in Westchester (near Los Angeles International Airport), asking if his presence would be an “interference with business trespass.” In other words, whether he could be arrested and made to leave.

Levien wrote:

Our staff is coming back to the office and we need to have full access to the entrance. Additionally, my office looks directly at the entrance and can hear everything through the wall. We have a person permanently staying in front of our office who is both disruptive to our ability to work and blocks the entrance. Claudia – is this considered interference with business trespass?

Please let me know as soon as possible.

Fox 11 Los Angeles reported on the letter, and one of their reporters attempted to ask Levien about it. Here’s what happened:

Fox 11 also went to the office and found the man, who identified himself as Jack Gold. He said he was unaware that Bonin’s staffers had a problem with him camping out there (who could blame him, given Bonin’s public stance) and moved his belongings away from the door. Levien, though, told the Los Angeles Times that the reason she was disturbed was that Gold “often slept without clothes, within view of her office, where she often worked late by herself.”

That’s definitely disturbing, as is the fact that Bonin allows female staffers to work late, alone, in an office in an area where there’s a serious homelessness problem.

But, it’s nothing compared to what other constituents face. One woman wrote an open letter to Levien after watching the Fox 11 report, asking:

Did he push an unhoused woman up against the wall of the office and beat her mercilessly? Because that is something I witnessed right outside my home.

Did he go on record during an NBC Streets of Shame segment, claiming he was a struggling addict with violent anger issues, only to later kill an elderly man in broad daylight while stealing his bicycle? Because that was someone who hung out in my alley for years on end.

Did he remove his pants and have explosive diarrhea all over the walls of your office? Because that happens all over my home and alley on a regular basis. There is actually a giant black dessicated log of feces right outside of my home as I type this.

Did you get a used heroin needle stuck in the side of your shoe as you walked to or from the office? Because that happened to my husband just last month.

Graham-Caso, our old friend, threw his colleague under the bus and disavowed the memo:

“Councilmember Bonin didn’t know about this and it isn’t how he personally would have handled it. He believes our response to homelessness and encampments on public property needs to lead with housing and services, not enforcement.”

Sorry, David. We don’t believe you or Bonin. Any time you’re called out you turn around and blame it on “right wingers,” including this memo incident, which your office described as (paraphrasing) a weaponized, toxic response. Progressive wingnuts like you are all about your virtue signaling and ineffective and deadly policies but you don’t want to live anywhere near the consequences. You believe that we don’t need protection from homeless people…

…unless they’re sleeping outside of your office.

(NOTE: Judging from news reports about the recall’s failure to qualify, Graham-Caso and Bonin might be celebrating too soon. Proponents needed 27,317 signatures for the measure to qualify and submitted 39,188. The LA City Clerk ruled 13,223 signatures, or nearly 34% invalid, meaning that the measure failed to qualify by only 1,352 signatures, and the clerk’s office took the entire 30 business days they were allotted to “validate” those 39,188 signatures. Something doesn’t add up.)