A <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/california" target="_blank" rel="noopener">California</a> bill that would make purchasing child sex a felony up from a misdemeanor moved forward on Tuesday, but not before Democrats made significant changes.
The bipartisan <a href="https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240SB1414" target="_blank" rel="noopener">bill</a> would raise solicitation of a minor from a misdemeanor to a felony punishable by up to four years in prison, and a fine of up to $25,000. The bill would also require a person convicted of soliciting a minor to register as a sex offender for 10 years.
However, the new version of the bill would only allow prosecutors to level felony charges if the minor was under 16, meaning those who attempted to buy sex with a 16-year-old or 17-year-old could still only be charged with a misdemeanor.
On Tuesday, Democrats on the Senate Public Safety Committee <a href="https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billVotesClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240SB1414" target="_blank" rel="noopener">passed</a> the bill after making this and several other changes.
The bill&#8217;s author, Republican State Senator Shannon Grove, reacted with dismay to the new amendments, her voice <a href="https://www.kcra.com/article/california-sb-1414-passes-changes-made-groves/60515287" target="_blank" rel="noopener">shaking</a> as she responded.
&#8220;To force these amendments on me in front of survivors, to water this down to avoid 16 and 17-year-olds,&#8221; Grove said.
In a statement after the committee hearing, Grove criticized the &#8220;hostile amendments&#8221; to her bill.
Under the new version, buyers would still be &#8220;ineligible for prison&#8221; even if the child they solicited was 15 or younger, she <a href="https://sr12.senate.ca.gov/content/sen-groves-measure-make-purchasing-child-sex-felony-rejected-senate-public-safety-committee" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>.
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“I’m incredibly disappointed that not only did my colleagues reject my proposal to make the buying of children for sex a prison felony, but that I was blindsided when they amended my bill without my consent,&#8221; Grove said.
“Unfortunately, the members of the public safety committee continue their soft on crime approach at the expense of California’s most vulnerable, our children,&#8221; she added.
Last week, Grove explained that she spoke to sex trafficking survivors last year who told her, “You’ve got to go after the buyers” in order to really crack down on the child sex trade.
“I want to make the solicitation, the person who’s going out there going, ‘Hey little 13-year-old, 14-year-old, 15-year-old, I want to get that person. I want that person to face felony charges. That’s what the bill does,” Grove said during a phone interview with The Daily Wire.
The Democrat who moved to amend the bill was State Senator Nancy Skinner, who represents the Berkeley area. Two other Democrats, Scott Wiener and committee chairwoman Aisha Wahab voted to move forward with the amendments against Grove&#8217;s will.
Wiener, who represents the San Francisco area, previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/newsom-signs-bill-making-california-sanctuary-for-child-gender-surgery" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sponsored</a> a law in 2020 that says adults who have oral or anal sex with a child ten years younger than them may not have to register as sex offenders, leaving that decision to a judge. The law supposedly addressed discrimination against LGBT people.
In 2022, Wiener sponsored another law that made California a sanctuary state for child transgender surgery, prohibiting doctors and officials from cooperating with out-of-state attempts to stop a child from getting puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, or gender surgery.

Lonely boy and his shadow

California Dems Water Down Bill To Make Buying Child Sex A Felony

California

Child Abuse

Child Sex Abuse

Crime

Scott Wiener

Sex Trafficking

U.S.

A California bill working its way through the legislature would make the crime of buying child sex a serious felony, replacing current statute in the far-left state that treats soliciting a minor for sex as a misdemeanor.
A bipartisan <a href="https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240SB1414" target="_blank" rel="noopener">bill</a> would raise solicitation of a minor from a misdemeanor to a felony punishable by up to four years in prison, and a fine of up to $25,000. The bill would also require a person convicted of soliciting a minor to register as a sex offender for 10 years.
The <a href="https://sr12.senate.ca.gov/content/sen-grove-introduces-bi-partisan-measure-continue-fight-against-human-trafficking-0#:~:text=%E2%80%9CIt%20takes%20two%20criminals%20to,are%20purchasing%20sex%20from%20children.">measure</a>, introduced by Republican State Senator Shannon Grove in February and co-sponsored by two Democrats, is scheduled for a committee vote on Tuesday, but it faces an uphill battle for passage.
As of Thursday, the new bill did not have the votes to make it out of committee. Critics are concerned it could target minorities, she explained, but criticized that point of view.
&#8220;Red, yellow, black, or white, you should be in prison,&#8221; Grove said during a phone interview with The Daily Wire on Thursday, arguing that putting child sex buyers behind bars for two years will keep them off the streets and prevent them from soliciting more children, at least during that period.
She said she is working on negotiating with her colleagues without giving up the meat of the bill. Last year, Grove was able to convince a skeptical Democrat-controlled legislature to pass a similar bill that reclassified child sex trafficking from a misdemeanor to a major felony, establishing harsher criminal penalties for traffickers. That bill went into effect on January 1.
Democrats in the legislature were forced to reconsider and support the sex trafficking bill after scathing social media backlash criticizing their initial reluctance.
California&#8217;s Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom voiced support for last year&#8217;s bill, saying he personally called Grove about it and was &#8220;surprised&#8221; when it initially failed to pass the committee vote.
Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas (D) also said at the time that the issue was “something that we are addressing and it’s something we are going to get right.”
Neither Newsom nor Rivas responded to a request for comment on whether they would support Grove&#8217;s new bill targeting buyers.
Before Grove&#8217;s successful bill last year, lawmakers had <a href="https://calmatters.org/justice/2023/07/child-trafficking-bill-california-legislature/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">tried</a> at least nine times since 2007 to reclassify child sex trafficking as a more serious crime.
This year, her focus is the purchasers of child sex, Grove said.
&#8220;I want to make the solicitation, the person who&#8217;s going out there going, &#8216;hey little 13-year-old, fourteen-year-old, fifteen-year-old, I want to get that person. I want that person to face felony charges. That&#8217;s what the bill does,&#8221; Grove said during her interview with The Daily Wire.
Grove said she spoke to sex trafficking survivors last year who told her, &#8220;You&#8217;ve got to go after the buyers&#8221; in order to really crack down on the child sex trade.
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A group called Exodus Cry, a nonprofit that works to abolish illegal sex trafficking <a href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/C5jukB9sN-Y/?igsh=MWQ1ZGUxMzBkMA%3D%3D" target="_blank" rel="noopener">posted</a> a viral video to Instagram last week that featured people reacting with shock and disgust to hearing that buying child sex is only a misdemeanor in California.
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Helen Taylor, vice president of impact at Exodus Cry argued that eliminating sex trafficking requires going after the demand and implementing proper deterrents.
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&#8220;For this to currently be a misdemeanor, and frequently prosecuted as such, reveals an inadequate understanding of how serious of a crime sex trafficking is,&#8221; Taylor told The Daily Wire.
&#8220;We want every child in California to be better protected and receive the justice they deserve should they ever be trafficked and exploited at the hands of a sex buyer,&#8221; she said.
Taylor urged committee members to vote in favor of the bill on Tuesday.
&#8220;Our laws send a message about what behaviors we are willing to tolerate. Paying money to abuse a child is something we will not tolerate,&#8221; Taylor said. &#8220;It is surely a &#8216;no brainer&#8217; to make buying a child for sex a felony in California and if not, we have a serious problem.&#8221;

Boy Behind Glass Door

Buying Child Sex Is Only A Misdemeanor In California. This Bill Would Change That.

Soliciting Children For Sex Is Only A Misdemeanor In California. This Bill Would Change That.

Democrats

Gavin Newsom

Republican

A far-Left protester was arrested last week in California for allegedly threatening Bakersfield City Council members and Republican Mayor Karen Goh for not backing a Gaza ceasefire resolution.
Riddhi Patel, 28, who <a href="https://nypost.com/2024/04/13/us-news/anti-israel-protester-threatens-to-murder-lawmakers-at-ca-city-council-meeting/">reportedly</a> claims to be non-binary, was charged with 18 felony counts of making terrorist threats and threatening city council staffers.
&#8220;You guys are all horrible human beings, and Jesus probably would have killed you himself,&#8221; she told the council members at a public hearing. &#8220;And I hope one day somebody brings the guillotine and kills all of you motherf***ers.&#8221;
&#8220;In the last five years I&#8217;ve attended city council meetings, there&#8217;s never been metal detectors, there&#8217;s never been more cops,&#8221; she later added. &#8220;The only reason you&#8217;re doing it is because people actually don&#8217;t care if you guys don&#8217;t like them, and they&#8217;re actually resisting. So you want to criminalize them.&#8221;
&#8220;And for that reason, you guys want to criminalize us with metal detectors,&#8221; she concluded. &#8220;We&#8217;ll see you at your house, we&#8217;ll murder you.&#8221;
Moments later, Mayor Goh signaled to law enforcement, “That was a threat, what you said at the end, so officers are going to escort you out and take care of that.”
Police quickly escorted her out of the room and arrested her.
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Patel was charged with eight counts of threatening state officials and 10 counts of making threats with intent to terrorize.
She was <a href="https://nypost.com/2024/04/14/world-news/anti-israel-protester-riddhi-patel-sobs-during-arraignment/">reportedly</a> ordered to be held on $1 million bail and stay at least 500 yards from city hall.
Video of her from her arraignment on Friday went viral online as she sobbed in court.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
In case you missed it, far-left activist Riddhi Patel is now facing 18 felony counts for allegedly threatening the Bakersfield City Council. We need more of this accountability. The before and after is glorious. <a href="https://t.co/cHcqSs1g0u">pic.twitter.com/cHcqSs1g0u</a>
— Jonathan Choe (@choeshow) <a href="https://twitter.com/choeshow/status/1779407412308672827?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 14, 2024</a></blockquote>

Riddhi Patel

Far-Left Protester Quickly Goes From Rage To Tears After Threatening City Council

Bakersfield

Death Threats

As crime runs rampant in the Bay Area, an Oakland, California, jewelry store that has been in business for 40 years was <a href="https://abc7news.com/exclusive-armed-suspects-clear-out-phuong-jewelry-in-oakland-chinatown/14649607/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">robbed</a> of 85-90% of its inventory when eight thieves brandishing weapons and accompanied by two getaway cars hit the store Wednesday afternoon.
The Trinh family, which owns Phuong Jewelry in Oakland&#8217;s Chinatown Wednesday, had let their business insurance lapse because premiums had risen. Video showed the eight thieves shattering every case as they ravaged the store.
Diane Trinh, 69, hid and yelled for help as no security guard was on duty; her 76-year-old husband burst in with a firearm, prompting the thieves to flee.
&#8220;If he hadn&#8217;t done that they would have kept going,” the Trinhs&#8217; son Tony, the executive director of the Oakland Chinatown Improvement Council, said. “We&#8217;ve been robbed a few times before but not at this level of brazen magnitude. Eight individuals and two getaway cars and guns drawn. I thought, did my mother get shot? Did my father get shot? Did any of our staff of community members?”
“My mom was devastated and my dad was broken,” Tony said. “It&#8217;s rough, my mom is the leader of the pack — when she suffers I suffer the same thing from her.”
Yet Tony steadfastly believes the neighborhood can improve. “I&#8217;ve seen tremendous progress even though it doesn&#8217;t feel like that. In terms of cleaning and safety, there are a lot more out there ambassadors &#8211; we have walking officers &#8211; during the pandemic we didn&#8217;t,” he said. “We can&#8217;t let our fear overcome! The only way to reduce crime is to have more traffic, events, people to get more resources. A strong Oakland Chinatown is strong for every community in Oakland.”
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8 armed suspects ransacked the legacy Oakland Chinatown business Phuong Jewelry yesterday at around 12:30. 
The family tells me, in less than one minute 85-90% of their inventory was taken. 
Watch as owner Diane runs to the back &amp; gets her year old husband. He storms out with a… <a href="https://t.co/pvsiiUeoiz">pic.twitter.com/pvsiiUeoiz</a>
&mdash; Dion Lim (@DionLimTV) <a href="https://twitter.com/DionLimTV/status/1778654769827258489?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 12, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The Oakland Chinatown Improvement Council initiated a <a href="https://www.gofundme.com/f/please-help-phuong-jewelry-rebuild?utm_campaign=p_lico+share-sheet-tip&amp;utm_content=share_ai_integrated&amp;utm_medium=copy_link&amp;utm_source=customer" target="_blank" rel="noopener">GoFundMe site</a> to help the Trinh family.
Violent crime and other felonies <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/06/business/oakland-crime-business/index.html#:~:text=Robberies%20grew%2038%25%20last%20year,a%20San%20Francisco%20Chronicle%20analysis." target="_blank" rel="noopener">rose</a> in Oakland last year; robberies increased 38%; burglaries increased 23%. “15,000 cars were reported stolen last year — the highest number in the city in at least 15 years,” the San Francisco Chronicle <a href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/oakland-police-car-break-ins-19362026.php">reported</a>. In San Francisco, robberies and motor vehicle theft <a href="https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/crime-2023-trends-san-francisco-18585737.php" target="_blank" rel="noopener">increased</a> in 2023.

Elegant jewelry set. Jewellery set with gemstones. Jewelry accessories collage. Product still life concept. Ring, necklace and earrings.

8 Armed Robbers Smash Family-Owned Oakland Jewelry Store, Loot 90% Of Inventory, Owners Say

Oakland

Robbery

California spent $24 billion on the state&#8217;s homeless crisis over the past five years, but it did not consistently track whether the enormous amount of spending was making a dent in the problem, a state audit has found.
The <a href="https://www.auditor.ca.gov/reports/2023-102.1/index.html#section1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">audit</a> released Tuesday found California “lacks current information on the ongoing costs and outcomes of its homelessness programs.”
The state agency responsible for the issue “has not consistently tracked and evaluated the State’s efforts to prevent and end homelessness,” the audit discovered.
California has about 30% of the country&#8217;s homeless people, and the number continues to rise.
A total of 181,399 people were homeless in California at some point in 2023, up from 151,278 people in 2019. Last year&#8217;s homeless population was a 53% jump from the 118,552 people who were homeless in 2013, according to the audit.
Billions of taxpayer dollars were spent on more than 30 homeless and housing programs between 2018 and 2023, yet California could not explain why homelessness did not improve in some cities. In some areas, homelessness has become visibly worse, notably in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Sacramento.
San Francisco&#8217;s downtown has emptied out as drug addicts shoot up in broad daylight and tents line the streets. The city is restricted from removing tents from the streets unless it can prove it is providing shelter for each person.
In September, Sacramento’s top prosecutor <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/sacramentos-top-prosecutor-sues-city-over-homeless-encampments" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sued</a> the city over its homeless encampments, accusing city officials of allowing the homeless population to become a public nuisance.
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“This report concludes that the state must do more to assess the cost-effectiveness of its homelessness programs,” State Auditor Grant Parks wrote in a letter to Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom and state lawmakers.
The audit examined five state homeless programs to assess their cost-effectiveness and found that two housing-related programs were likely cost-effective. However, the audit was unable to assess the other three programs because the state failed to collect enough data.
The audit recommended that the legislature take action to require the state&#8217;s main homelessness agency to compile and publicly report the costs and results of taxpayer-funded homelessness programs.
The California Interagency Council on Homelessness, the state agency responsible for homelessness programs, responded to the state auditor&#8217;s report, saying it &#8220;generally agrees&#8221; with the recommendations and will take &#8220;appropriate measures to implement where possible.&#8221;
In the wake of the audit, California Republican leaders blasted the state&#8217;s Democratic leadership.
&#8220;This is standard Gavin Newsom – make a splashy announcement, waste a bunch of taxpayer money, and completely fail to deliver,&#8221; California Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/california-gop-leaders-call-accountability-state-cant-account-24b-spent-homeless-crisis" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>.
&#8220;Californians are tired of the homeless crisis, and they’re even more tired of Gavin’s excuses. We need results – period, full stop,&#8221; Gallagher added.
Republican state Sen. Roger Niello called the audit &#8220;troubling&#8221; but criticized the audit itself for focusing heavily on shelter.
&#8220;The one issue I had with the audit was that the focus was mostly on housing and shelter issues, which is certainly important, but really very little about actual results, getting people out of homelessness, not just into shelter,&#8221; Niello <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/california-gop-leaders-call-accountability-state-cant-account-24b-spent-homeless-crisis" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>. &#8220;That&#8217;s sort of half the job, maybe not even quite half the job. And, so that was a little bit of a disappointment.&#8221;

TOPSHOT-US-HEALTH-VIRUS

California Can’t Account For All $24 Billion Spent On Homeless Crisis, Audit Finds

California Can't Account For All $24 Billion Spent On Homeless Crisis, Audit Finds

Drugs

Homeless

Homelessness

Republicans

The California Highway Patrol recovered around $300,000 in stolen Lego merchandise this week after busting a retail theft ring.
CHP officials served search warrants on Tuesday and arrested four people involved in the ring, who would steal Legos from Target and other retailers in Southern California and sell them to fences – people or groups that buy stolen products and resell them, NBC Los Angeles <a href="https://www.nbclosangeles.com/local-2/300000-in-stolen-lego-merchandise-recovered-by-chp/3384730/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>. Often these fences sell the stolen merchandise to legitimate businesses or online and at swap meets. Fences may not even know the products they purchased are stolen, the outlet noted.
Jeremy Johnson, 44, of Orange, California; Marta Hardt, 39, of Huntington Beach; Chung-Pei Yu, 47, of Studio City; and Shen Li, 35, of Brea, were arrested as part of the bust, ABC 7 <a href="https://abc7.com/lego-theft-bust-chp-retail-crime-task-force/14643660/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>. The four were booked on charges of theft and conspiracy.
CHP officers made the bust as part of a retail crime task force that has been working to reduce the increasing number of retail thefts in California.
Retailers who were the victims of this ring estimate their total losses somewhere around $300,000.
Photos of the bust show numerous Lego sets, ABC News <a href="https://www.facebook.com/100059306690876/photos/822340856419463/?paipv=0&amp;eav=Afb9q_mX5qoJJz_SV3LurDzGCQaW01K2Vu7pBaxMUHBcdsR5W5rpxUExl0FP3fhedmE&amp;_rdr" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>.
Many Star Wars Lego sets, such as the Millennium Falcon, can retail for around $900, NBC reported, adding that photos it received of the bust showed dozens of that particular set and other rare Lego products.
Late last year, a top Home Depot executive <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/home-depot-exec-describes-soaring-violent-threats-from-shoplifters-in-congressional-testimony" target="_blank" rel="noopener">testified</a> before a congressional panel about the increasing threat of shoplifting. Scott Glenn, head of loss prevention at Home Depot, said the company had seen a “significant uptick” in situations where employees come into “violent contact with bad actors.”
In April 2023, a woman fatally shot a Home Depot security guard while stealing a phone charger. She fled the scene in a vehicle driven by her boyfriend while her two-year-old child was in the backseat. In 2022, an elderly Home Depot worker was killed after a shoplifter shoved him to the ground.
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California, in particular, is struggling with retail theft, with some stores taking extreme measures to combat the crimes. Supermarket chain Safeway, for example, has installed exit gates at the self-checkout lanes in some of its San Francisco stores, while one Walgreens went so far as to put chains across its freezers.
California has become known for smash-and-grabs, where thieves enter a store, smash display cases to steal items, and leave quickly. At one Pasadena jewelry store, thieves made off with nearly $500,000 in merchandise in <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/another-california-smash-and-grab-sees-thieves-make-off-with-half-a-million-dollars-in-jewelry" target="_blank" rel="noopener">one incident</a>.
Many attribute the increase in retail theft in California to a statewide ballot measure approved by voters almost ten years ago that reduced thefts of property valued under $950 from felonies to misdemeanors.

Lego

California Police Arrest 4, Recover $300,000 In Stolen Legos After Busting Retail Theft Ring

shoplifting

A California sheriff who is championing an effort to roll back the state’s 2014 proposition that reduced the penalties for certain crimes slammed Governor Gavin Newsom (D-CA), saying that voters had been “lied to and misled by our state.”
In 2014, California passed Proposition 47, which altered some low-level crimes from felonies to misdemeanors. “According to state data obtained by KQED, about 15% of theft cases resulted in an arrest in 2013, the year before Proposition 47 passed. In 2022, that number had dropped to 6.6%. That means in more than 90% of reported cases of theft, no one is ever arrested,” KQED <a href="https://www.kqed.org/news/11975692/prop-47s-impact-on-californias-criminal-justice-system" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.kqed.org/news/11975692/prop-47s-impact-on-californias-criminal-justice-system&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1712758521114000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3c4G47XUkjQnOL6zVdP0Rb">reported</a>.
Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco spoke of his efforts to support the Homelessness, Drug Addiction, and Theft Reduction Act, telling <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/ca-sheriff-blasts-newsoms-failed-leadership-on-crime-proposes-solution-fix-disaster" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Fox News</a>, “California, we&#8217;re in a very trying time right now when it comes to public safety and for the most part, from a law enforcement perspective, we can say that, we can attribute the majority of our issues that we are having, or at least, there&#8217;s some type of a correlation to them, to the passage of Prop 47.”
“Quite frankly, we were lied to and misled by our state, in that the name and the description on the ballot was not something that we were getting,” Bianco continued. “We voted for a proposition that was named the Safe Schools and the Safe Streets Initiative and it contained absolutely nothing to do with safe streets or safe schools, and it was everything that is bad about public safety right now, directly contributing to the increase in homelessness, mental health and drug addiction. Directly resulted in what we see now in our serial theft cases, in our retail theft cases and issues in crime of residential burglaries and those types of things.”
The Homelessness, Drug Addiction, and Theft Reduction Act, which is currently gathering signatures in order to be eligible for the November 2024 ballot, <a href="https://casafecommunities.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/CA-Safe-Communities-Fact-Sheet-March-2024.pdf" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://casafecommunities.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/CA-Safe-Communities-Fact-Sheet-March-2024.pdf&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1712758521114000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2rLW0HBXosnWfsCA2PSM4Q">states</a> that it will classify “repeated theft as a felony for individuals who steal less than $950 if they have two or more prior theft-related convictions,” allow “stolen property values from multiple thefts to be combined so repeat offenders can be charged with a felony if the total exceeds $950, countering tactics by career criminals to avoid harsher penalties,” and authorize “judges to impose an enhanced penalty when an offender steals, damages, or destroys property by participating in organized theft with two or more offenders or by causing losses of $50,000 or more.”
&#8220;If you need help to get fixed, then we should be able to help you. If you just flat out refuse, and you&#8217;re going to continue to use drugs and cause us all to be victimized by your drug addiction and your theft and everything else, then you&#8217;re going to suffer the consequences of jail time,” Bianco stated. &#8220;It&#8217;s just plain and simple. But the reality is, without consequences, there is no reason for anyone to change behavior, and we need to get past this feel good way of what our legislators are doing now in this, this notion that it&#8217;s somebody else&#8217;s fault and you&#8217;re not responsible for your own actions. We need to move past that, and we need to get back to a time of common sense that would tell us if we can put you in rehab and help you, then great. We&#8217;ve helped you. We’ve helped society. But otherwise, then you&#8217;re going to have to do jail time, so we stop you from victimizing the rest of us.”
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“The governor is going to have no choice but to get on board because this is 100% complete common sense,” Bianco said. “We have a complete failed political agenda in this state. It&#8217;s been a social experiment that has been led by the governor, from his time as mayor of San Francisco, into lieutenant governor and now governor, which has been made worse by our attorney general, who has absolutely no desire to fix any of these issues with crime and protect Californians.”
“Right now, they are against it because, in elementary terms, I guess they&#8217;re going to have to admit that Prop 47 was a disaster that they have tried to defend for years since its passing and the reality of a leader, a true leader, is someone that can say, &#8216;Look, we had good intentions of something, but, we had some unintended consequences that now we have to fix.&#8217; That would have been a leadership way for our government to come out of this ahead. But instead, for the past 10 years, they have completely defended Prop 47. They have lied to the public,” he concluded.

Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks a Homekey site

California Sheriff Torches Newsom, Says State’s Soft-On-Crime Ballot Measure ‘Lied To’ Voters

Local police in California arrested a group of Pomona College students on Friday after they stormed an administration building and refused to leave the president’s office.
Eighteen students were charged with misdemeanor trespassing and another with obstruction of justice after an anti-Israel demonstration devolved into chaos Friday afternoon, according to the <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-04-06/pomona-college-protesters-arrested" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Los Angeles Times</a>. The students charged, as well as dozens of others who took part in the protest, could face suspension, according to a Friday campus <a href="https://www.pomona.edu/administration/president/statements/posts/campus-harassment-and-disruption-4524" target="_blank" rel="noopener">letter</a> from college president Gabrielle Starr.
“Campus Safety reported that approximately 100-150 protesters were outside the President&#8217;s Office and another 30-40 protesters had stormed inside the building and taken over the President&#8217;s Office,” the Pomona Police Department said in a statement on Saturday after the arrests, according to <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/news/protesters-gather-outside-claremont-police-department/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CBS News</a>. “Communication was immediately established by School Administration with the protesters, but they refused to leave the building.”
The Claremont chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine on Saturday called for Starr’s ouster over the arrests.
“As a supposed representative of your institution, your conduct has been fascistic in nature and absolutely reprehensible. Should you have any shame for your conduct, you will resign, drop the charges made on students, and revoke their suspensions immediately. Following these acts in this order, students and the public demand for your immediate resignation as president of this institution,” the email template says, according to <a href="https://www.claremontindependent.com/post/update-students-call-for-pomona-college-president-s-resignation-after-20-arrests" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Claremont Independent</a>.
The protesters gathered to voice dissent over the removal of a 32-foot-long “apartheid wall” meant to represent “illegal Israeli Occupation.” College officials had told students Friday that the wall was to be moved from where it had stood outside the Smith Campus Center since it was erected in late March.
Officials had offered to move the wall to an area of campus set aside for such displays of protests, but the students resisted. The students retaliated by harassing the college officials, including using racist language, according to Starr’s letter.
The students “proceeded to verbally harass staff, even using a sickening, anti-black racial slur in addressing an administrator. This is part of an escalating series of incidents on our campus, which has included persistent harassment of visitors for admission tours,” Starr wrote.
After the protest began, dozens of demonstrators stormed Alexander Hall and entered the president’s office. The protesters then occupied the space, refusing Starr’s demands to leave. Police were eventually called, and arrests were made. 
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Video from the incident showed Starr confronting some of the students who took over her office and threatening to suspend them.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
When Pomona College students (and possibly others) rushed into an administrative building last night, President Gabi Starr told them they had 10 minutes to leave.
Then she suspended them and had them arrested.
(Warning: language) <a href="https://t.co/aCaSSIsRAA">pic.twitter.com/aCaSSIsRAA</a>
&mdash; Steve McGuire (@sfmcguire79) <a href="https://twitter.com/sfmcguire79/status/1776605559858356612?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 6, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&nbsp;
“Any participants in today’s events on the SCC lawn or in Alexander Hall, who turn out to be Pomona students, are subject to immediate suspension. Students from the other Claremont Colleges will be banned from Pomona’s campus and subject to discipline on their own campuses. All individual participants not part of The Claremont Colleges community are hereby banned from campus immediately,” the president wrote.

Handcuffs

Anti-Israel Protesters Arrested After Storming College President’s Office

Education

Gaza

Hamas

Israel

Pomona College

<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/california" target="_blank" rel="noopener">California</a>-based retail chain 99 Cents Only Stores will shutter all of its 371 stores in the coming months, citing <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/inflation" target="_blank" rel="noopener">inflationary</a> pressures and economic headwinds.
The store, which was founded in 1982, made the <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/99-cents-only-stores-announces-wind-down-of-business-operations-302108746.html?tc=eml_cleartime" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announcement</a> on Thursday that all of its stores across  Arizona, California, Nevada, and Texas would be closed down. Mike Simoncic, the Interim Chief Executive Officer of 99 Cents, pinned the blame for the closures on a variety of factors, including the COVID pandemic and a struggling economy.
“This was an extremely difficult decision and is not the outcome we expected or hoped to achieve,&#8221; Simoncic said. &#8220;Unfortunately, the last several years have presented significant and lasting challenges in the retail environment, including the unprecedented impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, shifting consumer demand, rising levels of shrink, persistent inflationary pressures and other macroeconomic headwinds, all of which have greatly hindered the Company&#8217;s ability to operate.”
The company said in a press release that it would be entering an agreement with Hilco Global to liquidate all of its merchandise and other equipment and furnishings from the store.
“99 Cents Only Stores, together with its financial and legal advisors, engaged in an extensive analysis of all available and credible alternatives to identify a solution that would allow the business to continue,” the company said. “Following months of actively pursuing these alternatives, the company ultimately determined that an orderly wind-down was necessary and the best way to maximize the value of 99 Cents Only Stores&#8217; assets.”
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The store, <a href="https://99only.com/about" target="_blank" rel="noopener">once</a> one of the top extreme value retail stores in the Western United States, sold inexpensive produce, household items, seasonal and party merchandise, office supplies, and other products. Currently, the company has <a href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/99-cents-only-stores/?sh=25b6b1bb4c33" target="_blank" rel="noopener">about</a> 17,000 employees, meaning they all could be out of a job as the company closes up.
“We deeply appreciate the dedicated employees, customers, partners, and communities who have collectively supported 99 Cents Only Stores for decades,&#8221; Simoncic added.
California retailers have struggled in recent years due to the impacts of COVID lockdowns, widespread shoplifting at many stores in urban areas, and inflation that has plagued the economy under President Joe Biden.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-pac-launches-interactive-website-to-show-how-food-prices-have-skyrocketed-under-biden" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Trump PAC Launches Interactive Website To Show How Food Prices Have Skyrocketed Under Biden</a>

US-ECONOMY-RETAIL-99CENTS-CLOSING

California Retail Chain Closing All 370 Stores After ‘Persistent’ Inflation And Economic ‘Headwinds’

Economy

Inflation

Joe Biden

Burglars broke into a Los Angeles money storage facility on Easter Sunday, avoiding the alarm system before making out with as much as $30 million in cash, a law enforcement official said on Wednesday.
The heist marks one of the largest in the city’s history and has left authorities baffled by how it was pulled off, The Los Angeles Times <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-04-03/sylmar-burglary-money-storage-facility-30-million" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>. LAPD Cmdr. Elaine Morales said the burglary occurred at night at an unnamed facility in the suburb of Sylmar. The burglars appeared to have broken into the facility through the roof and breached a safe in the building where money from businesses in the area is stored.
The massive theft wasn’t discovered until the facility’s operators went in on Monday and opened the safe. It was unclear how the burglars avoided the alarm system, and the safe showed no signs of a break-in, according to the Times. Law enforcement sources also told the outlet that very few people knew that the safe was holding a huge amount of cash.
&#8220;It&#8217;s just mind blowing that you would never suspect it,&#8221; a man who works at the facility told <a href="https://abc7.com/la-heist-millions-stolen-from-money-storage-facility-sylmar-easter-sunday/14614219/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ABC 7</a>. &#8220;$30 million in the Valley, gone. How? Why? I&#8217;m still trying to process it. Was it an inside job? Was it just one person? Was it a group? You know, there&#8217;s a lot of questions.&#8221;
The LAPD, along with the FBI, is investigating the heist.
&#8220;The LAPD and the FBI have a joint investigation into an alleged burglary that occurred on Sunday evening, March 31, 2024. No additional information related to the incident is being released,&#8221; the agencies <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/news/massive-heist-nets-lost-estimated-at-tens-of-millions-of-dollars/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> in a joint statement.
Previously, the largest cash heist in L.A.’s history took place in 1997 when burglars stole nearly $19 million from an armored truck facility, the Times reported. Two people were later caught by police and <a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-feb-28-me-31376-story.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">convicted</a> for the robbery.
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Nearly two years ago, thieves took as much as <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/millions-stolen-from-armored-truck-in-california" target="_blank" rel="noopener">$100 million in jewelry</a> from an armored truck. The heist began and ended in 27 minutes while one of the truck’s drivers was asleep in the vehicle and the other driver was eating inside a Flying J truck stop. Authorities have yet to solve the L.A. jewelry heist.

Black bag full of money

Burglars Take Millions In Cash From Money Storage Facility In One Of L.A.’s Largest Heists Ever

Burglars Take Millions In Cash From Money Storage Facility In One Of L.A.'s Largest Heists Ever

burglary

Los Angeles

Police

For several years now, Democrats in the state of California have enjoyed all the perks of one-party rule. With supermajorities in the state assembly, they don&#8217;t have to deal with an opposition party. They certainly don&#8217;t need to provide any kind of transparency to the public. They&#8217;re completely free to enact the Democratic Party&#8217;s grand vision — just like the leaders of notorious utopias like Baltimore, Selma, Detroit, or Oakland. If states are the laboratories of democracy, then California is the laboratory of the Democratic Party. Whatever Democrats want, they get.
That&#8217;s why hundreds of thousands of people flee California every year and it&#8217;s why a lot more are about to leave the state. California, without much discussion or debate, just raised its minimum wage for certain fast-food workers to $20 an hour. This is a 25% wage hike, up from $16 an hour. The law applies to chains with 60 or more locations in California, including franchises — many of which are family-owned.
The totally foreseeable and inevitable followed, and a bunch of fast-food chains announced mass layoffs. Others started raising prices, and at least one restaurant so far has closed down completely. Watch:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="005 Lemoore Foster&#039;s Freeze" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Mgi_Z-cmNyU?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Those employees at Foster&#8217;s Freeze went from $16 an hour to zero dollars an hour, thanks to the minimum wage hike which California declared a &#8220;win for workers.&#8221; And they&#8217;re not alone.
When this law was signed, two large Pizza Hut franchisees <a href="https://www.nrn.com/top-500-restaurants/two-california-pizza-hut-franchisees-lay-delivery-workers-ahead-minimum-wage" target="_blank" rel="noopener">laid off</a> more than 1,200 delivery drivers. In San Jose, The Wall Street Journal reports that two small Vitality Bowls restaurants have <a href="https://www.wsj.com/business/hospitality/california-restaurants-cut-jobs-as-fast-food-wages-set-to-rise-eb5ddaaa" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cut their workforce</a> in half. Restaurants like Jack in the Box are &#8220;testing fryer robots and automated drink dispensers&#8221; so they can fire more employees soon. Hours are being cut and of course, prices are going up too, across the board. 
The New York Post <a href="https://nypost.com/2024/04/02/us-news/californias-20-fast-food-wage-raises-prices-by-up-to-1-80/#" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>, at one Los Angeles-area Burger King, prices for a Texas Double Whopper went from $15.09 on March 29 to $16.89 on April 1, once the law went into effect. That&#8217;s an increase of nearly $2 for the same exact — already horrifically overpriced — food in just two days. The Big Fish meal went up by $4, from $7.49 to $11.49. That&#8217;s the precise increase in hourly wage, passed directly onto customers. Several other menu items went up &#8220;anywhere from 25 cents to a dollar,&#8221; the Post found. 
From what I’ve seen, some of the advocates of the minimum wage hike on social media have tried to dismiss the concerns over the price hikes by saying that 25 cents to a dollar isn’t a very steep increase. But what they’re ignoring is that, first of all, as a percentage of the overall price of the item, these hikes are already significant. And second, this law has been in effect for less than two days and this is what has happened only in that time frame. We can assume that prices will continue to go up.
<h4><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-1339-the-matt-walsh-show" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Matt Walsh Show</a></h4>
One of the many fast-food companies raising prices is the fried chicken restaurant Raising Cane&#8217;s. The CEO of the company went on CNBC recently to talk about the impact of this legislation on his business.
Now, based on everything you&#8217;ve just read, you might assume that the CNBC anchor conducting the interview would have a dim view of this new legislation. After all, you&#8217;d expect someone at a business-oriented network to understand that higher prices and fewer jobs are generally a bad thing. But here&#8217;s how she frames her question:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="006 Raisin Canes" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/OpDLVLZAE8w?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
The CEO doesn&#8217;t really answer the question, probably because he&#8217;s there for a nice PR opportunity and he doesn&#8217;t get adversarial or maybe he wasn&#8217;t paying attention. But it&#8217;s an incredible question to ask in earnest, which she appears to be doing. If you give minimum wage workers a raise, but in the process make it more expensive for them to live and eat, you have not really given them a raise. You haven&#8217;t made it easier for them to purchase more chicken fingers.
This is especially the case for the many workers who have already lost their jobs because of it, and the many more who will in the near future.
The fact that this is apparently difficult to say out loud — even for the CEO of Raising Cane&#8217;s — tells us a lot about how California got in this position. Very few people in the state seem to understand basic principles of economics — or at least, they don&#8217;t want to talk about them. But the fast food workers themselves understand what&#8217;s going on here. They realize that they didn&#8217;t actually get a raise.
Here’s an employee from Jack in the Box explaining a basic economic reality that the governor of her state doesn’t seem to comprehend:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="001 Minimum Wage Increase" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hjafi_exbb4?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
How does a fast-food worker understand the economics of this situation better than the CNBC anchors? Why is she raising issues that California politicians don&#8217;t seem to understand? Whatever the answer is, this is getting to be a running theme in California.
A couple of years ago, California sent out millions of &#8220;inflation relief checks,&#8221; which accomplished <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/30/politics/inflation-relief-checks/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">nothing</a> except making inflation even worse. But there was no opposition party that could block those checks, just like there&#8217;s no opposition party to block this minimum wage increase.
In fact, in California, the labor unions <a href="https://www.kcra.com/article/california-fast-food-law-panera-newsom-nda/60117858" target="_blank" rel="noopener">obtained</a> nondisclosure agreements during the negotiations for the minimum wage bill. So no one can talk about how exactly this bill came about. There&#8217;s never going to be a full explanation for why Gavin Newsom&#8217;s friend and donor at Panera Bread managed to secure an exemption for fast-food restaurants that make bread, for example. (Not that we really need an explanation for that. It&#8217;s the kind of naked corruption that one-party states are well known for).
But you don&#8217;t need an insider&#8217;s look into the legislative process to know how poorly conceived this law is. That&#8217;s because, after the bill was passed, legislators went back and <a href="https://news.bloomberglaw.com/in-house-counsel/california-airports-stadiums-now-exempted-under-fast-food-law" target="_blank" rel="noopener">added</a> a bunch of other exemptions, including fast-food locations in airports and stadiums. That&#8217;s how you know you&#8217;re dealing with a very well-thought-out law — the legislators just go back and redo it a few weeks later. These are the people manipulating the economy in the most populated state in the country. They&#8217;re doing it as haphazardly as you&#8217;d expect.
The truth is that raising the minimum wage (by 25%, which is obviously a very sizable hike) in the midst of inflation and a struggling economy is incredibly stupid. There&#8217;s really no other word for it. It attempts an end-run around the actual problems facing Californians. Except, really, it&#8217;s worse than that. They aren&#8217;t just avoiding the problems, but actively making everything worse. They’re trying to solve problems by creating more of the problems they’re allegedly trying to solve. And they aren’t done. 
In fact, some leaders in California think that $20 an hour is still too low. It’s not even half of what they think the minimum should be. Here’s Rep. Barbara Lee:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="004 CA Senate Race Debate" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UZswdhUXkB4?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Just do the math. Do the math, says the woman who apparently can’t add two plus two. She wants to mandate six-figure incomes for the people who run the cash register at McDonald’s. You notice that she was asked about the economic sustainability of such a plan and did not pretend to even address that concern. That’s because it is, of course, not sustainable at all. $20 an hour isn’t even sustainable. $20 an hour has already caused a bloodbath of layoffs and price hikes. $50 an hour would simply be the end of commerce in California, which means the end of California itself. So, on second thought, maybe her plan has some benefits.
But you notice what Lee said in that clip. She said that a family of four needs a six-figure income just to get by. That’s not really true — you can get by on less, my family did at one time — but think about how that applies here. She’s saying that minimum wage workers need a massive, mandatory raise because that’s what’s necessary for families of four to survive. This obviously implies that there are a lot of single-income households of four where the breadwinner makes minimum wage. But that’s not generally the case, and this is really, perhaps, the most important point here. Minimum wage jobs are not meant to be careers. These are supposed to be jobs for teenagers working part-time while they finish high school. These aren’t jobs that grown adults with kids and mortgages are supposed to be doing for years on end. So if you’ve been working at a job for five or ten years and you still make minimum wage, there’s obviously a serious problem — and it’s not one a minimum wage hike can solve.
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Personally, I want every minimum wage worker to get a hefty raise. But that can be achieved, and should be achieved, by earning a raise. It can also be achieved by getting some work experience under your belt and then finding a better job somewhere else. Minimum wage is supposed to be a stepping stone. Not a foundation to build your life on.
It’s a bit like if lawmakers passed a law declaring that all tent manufacturers must make their tents big enough and sturdy enough that they can be lived in for six months at a time. But that’s not what tents are supposed to be used for. That’s not what a tent is. A tent is something you stay in for a few days at a time. Now, lawmakers in California might respond, “No that’s not true. In our state lots of people live in tents for years. They set them up right on the sidewalk!” Yes, but the problem there is not that the tents are insufficient homes. The problem is that those people are trying to turn tents into homes. The problem is with how the tent is being used. Minimum wage is like the tent of salaries. It’s meant to be very temporary.
The advantage of working a minimum wage job is that the bar is pretty low. Show up on time, look presentable, put in the effort, be reliable, be moderately competent, cover all the basics, and you’ll be on the fast track to a better job — either at your current place of work or somewhere else. You don’t need to wait around for the government to force your employer to give you a raise.
As I’ve said plenty of times before, the best way for a minimum wage worker to make more money is to not be a minimum wage worker anymore. That’s a basic truth that you won’t hear from politicians like Barbara Lee. Instead they’ll promise you the pie in the sky. The bad news is that they probably won’t deliver on that promise.
The worse news is that they might. And then everyone’s problems will get much worse.

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On Tuesday, as the Berkeley, California City Council held a meeting at which a Holocaust Remembrance Day proclamation was being considered, anti-Israel demonstrators bullied an 89-year-old Holocaust survivor who was sent to Dachau Concentration Camp in Nazi Germany when she was four years old.
Susanne DeWitt spoke before the council, saying, &#8220;Over six million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust and many more were left with scarred lives. I urge the Berkeley City Council to pass the Holocaust Remembrance Day proclamation because we are currently witnessing a horrendous surge in anti-Semitism. Jews are now under existential threat; the invasion by Hamas, which broke a ceasefire –&#8221;
She was interrupted by demonstrators yelling, “Time! Time!”
The moderator interceded as Dewitt stepped away from the microphone, “Okay, Ma’am. Ms. Dewitt, ladies and gentlemen, if you can, please let me facilitate the meeting.”
Permitted to continue, DeWitt stated, “ — led to the murder of 1,200 Israelis, and the brutal torture and rape of women.&#8221;
Despite the fact that Hamas’ rape and torture of women during the October 7 massacre has been well-documented, demonstrators screamed, “Lies! Lies! Lies!”
At the meeting, the demonstrators referred to “Zionist pigs,” chanted “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” called the council “cowards” and “traitors,” “spies for Israel,” “Racist Zionists who are upholding violence, apartheid, occupation,” told someone, “Get the f*** out of here, you Zionist pig,” and were warned by the moderator, “Do not circle other speakers. Back away.”
One demonstrator, face covered by a mask, declared, “This is a Zionist stronghold. The people of Berkeley love Palestine.” Another demonstrator snapped, “Being around Zionists really like gets your blood going.”
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WATCH: Yesterday, the Berkeley City Council held its final meeting before a one-month recess. The agenda of the meeting included an item on marking Holocaust Remembrance Day and funding educational programs around this commemoration. There was nothing on the meeting agenda about… <a href="https://t.co/dQdmmuI2Ad">pic.twitter.com/dQdmmuI2Ad</a>
&mdash; JCRC Bay Area (@SFJCRC) <a href="https://twitter.com/SFJCRC/status/1773124947008995524?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 27, 2024</a></blockquote>
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WATCH: Susanne DeWitt, an 89 year-old Holocaust survivor who was arrested and sent to Dachau Concentration Camp at age 4, was repeatedly heckled by demonstrators as she spoke in favor of the City of Berkeley&#39;s Holocaust Remembrance Day proclamation. <a href="https://t.co/B3mx5mjjSo">pic.twitter.com/B3mx5mjjSo</a>
&mdash; JCRC Bay Area (@SFJCRC) <a href="https://twitter.com/SFJCRC/status/1773191105149833554?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 28, 2024</a></blockquote>
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DeWitt authored a book titled, “I Was Born in an Old Age Home: A Memoir.” She tells the story of growing up in Munich, Germany, being arrested at the age of four during Kristallnacht, and later being incarcerated in Dachau. Having survived, she then lived in various countries before she settled in the U.S.
“The number of prisoners incarcerated in Dachau between 1933 and 1945 exceeded 200,000. Scholars believe that at least 40,000 prisoners died there,” the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum <a href="https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/dachau" target="_blank" rel="noopener">states</a>.

Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial

89-Year-Old Holocaust Survivor, Imprisoned In Dachau At Age 4, Heckled By Anti-Israel Protesters

Berkeley, California

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