Every new story about crime in Los Angeles seems more outrageous than the last, given that they are allowed to pile up without city leaders trying to fix them. The latest is a warning from the Los Angeles Police Department: Don’t wear jewelry in public.
The LAPD is warning residents about wearing jewelry in public because they may become a target for criminals. “Over the last year there has been a marked increase of armed robberies involving victims wearing expensive jewelry while in public,” an LAPD statement reads. “If it is visible, it can be a target.”
Robberies in Los Angeles are up 18% compared to the same time in 2021, while robberies with a firearm are up 44%. The Beverly Hills Police Department is also warning residents against wearing jewelry in public after a smash-and-grab robbery at a Beverly Hills jewelry store on Tuesday resulted in thieves taking $5 million worth of merchandise.
The LAPD has already advised residents to travel in groups and take different routes home, citing an increase in robberies in which victims were followed home from public spaces by criminals. Los Angeles, the second-most populous city in the United States, is giving the same advice to its residents that Brazilian police gave to tourists before the 2014 World Cup to avoid being robbed in Rio de Janeiro.
Cracking down on crime isn’t an answer, though. Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon doesn’t believe in keeping criminals behind bars. Criminals, he thinks, are the real victims of crime in the U.S., so Gascon spends all of his time focused on how to keep them out of jail and out on the streets. Who is to say whether that feather-soft touch is emboldening Los Angeles criminals to become more brazen and more violent? Other than a 44% increase in armed robberies.
There is no reason this should be normalized in Los Angeles or any other American city. People should not need to worry about wearing jewelry in public or changing their route home because Los Angeles is unable and unwilling to treat criminals like criminals. The stories of Los Angeles’s failures will continue to roll in as long as Gascon remains in charge. How long that is will be up to the city’s residents.
