Even Pelosi has seen enough
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi blasted an “attitude of lawlessness” across the country Wednesday, decrying a recent surge in smash-andgrab crimes — particularly in her hometown of San Francisco — but refusing to say it stems from police funding cuts and bail-reform measures pushed by left-wing lawmakers.
“It’s absolutely outrageous,” Pelosi (D-Calif.) said when asked about the crime spike. “Obviously, it cannot continue. But the fact that there is an attitude of lawlessness in our country that springs from, I don’t know where . . . and we cannot have that lawlessness become the norm.”
“It must be stopped, and it’s not just San Francisco,” Pelosi (below) added. “It’s in our entire country.”
Brazen group robberies have made national headlines for weeks, including a notorious incident last month in which about 80 people raided a San Francisco-area Nordstrom department store and drove off in two dozen cars with up to $200,000 in goods, police said.
Similar thefts have been reported across California, as well as in Chicago. On Tuesday, a visibly frustrated San Francisco Mayor London Breed announced plans to crack down on retail thefts, home break-ins and other criminal behavior that has flourished during the tenure of progressive District Attorney Chesa Boudin.
Over the summer, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-Queens-Bronx) posited that the looting wave was caused by people who “need to feed their child and they don’t have money” — an argument Pelosi directly disputed Wednesday.
“These people coordinate with each other and they plan traffic patterns and the rest so they can reach their goal and depart very quickly,” the House speaker said. “This isn’t like somebody stealing something to go home because they don’t have money to buy. This is about stealing for profit.”
In Chicago, by contrast, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said earlier this month that she was “disappointed” retailers “are not doing more to take safety and make it a priority,” suggesting the robberies were the fault of business owners.