California Governor Gavin Newsom apologized for describing the organized looting of cargo trains in his state as being carried out by gangs, clarifying that he never meant to technically blame gang activity for the crimes. Newsom apparently was told that his use of “gangs” was a “pejorative” so he has instead chosen to shift the blame to “organized groups of folks” who have assembled to commit large-scale crimes. In other words, gangs.
“Gangs” not politically correct?
This seems like an especially insane example of political correctness being taken beyond all possible bounds of logic and reason, but the California governor chose to say it very deliberately.
One would think that a political leader would be very happy to blame a crime wave on organized gangs, rather than being forced to address larger social problems.
Cracking down on a few gangs should be much easier for California than admitting that random people are taking advantage of Democrat leniency to steal everything they can get their hands on.
We can only assume that Governor Newsom was told by someone that blaming “gangs” is racist and would hurt his political career. Sadly, they’re probably right about that in 2022.
Brazen cargo train lootings in Los Angeles have skyrocketed in the last year and they will only increase in popularity as successful crimes gain more media attention and the criminals are not aggressively pursued.
It’s worth noting that leftists cannot even cope with these crimes by saying that they only harm large corporations; these trains are carrying mail and packages to normal people who now will now either never receive their deliveries or will have to wait much longer to get them.
Newsom compares his own state to a third world country
This isn’t a mere inconvenience for the intended recipients, given that medical necessities such as EpiPens and Covid testing kits have been seen discarded amongst the fields of debris left behind by the looters.
Newsom visited the scene of one of the robberies and claimed to be shocked by what he saw, describing it as a scene out of a “third world country.”
As National Review’s Dominic Pino has pointed out, this is an insult to third world countries. Impoverished third world nations actually want to enforce the rule of law and suppress criminal gangs.
Newsom’s California could end all of these train lootings with a word if the government wanted to. Most happen in well known locations where trains slow down and the thieves themselves are making no effort to cover their tracks.
If the next train looting gang finds a suitable number of armed police officers waiting for them , the robberies would be over in an instant and the gangs would have to find some other crime to pursue.
Newsom is completely capable of stopping these crimes, but doing so would involve a real effort to enforce law and order in California. If he can’t even call a gang what it is, there’s not much hope for that any time soon.
