Looters rob LA convenience store (Where were the police?)

There was another street takeover in Compton over the weekend. It was actually one of several that took place in LA on Saturday night. This particular sideshow attracted a group of as many as 500 people. Sometime around 2 am Sunday morning the mob decided it was time for a snack. They made their way to a convenience store connected with an ARCO gas station and smashed through the locked door. Then it was just about 100 people looting everything inside.

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At least three street takeovers occurred overnight in the Compton area, including one at the intersection where the break-in occurred, said Sgt. Clarence Williams of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

Video footage shows a man in a black mask and hood using an object to smash through glass and open a door into the station. Then dozens of people — some wearing masks and others not — push into the store.

People can be seen grabbing snacks, drinks and other items in a chaotic frenzy. One person caught on video grabs multiple packs of condoms while smiling.

There was a clerk working at the store when the break-in happened. He locked himself in the bathroom and was unharmed. Here’s video of the looters. You can hear that the sideshow is still happening in the street.

So where are the police? Well, it sounds like they were present but as usual they acted only as bystanders.

Though Compton station deputies had been responding to various incidents through the night, LASD said they are “currently limited with their staffed personnel” and “couldn’t intervene with the giant takeover groups for safety concerns” and because they were “outnumbered.”

One person was detained, but no arrests have been made.

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So, to summarize, there were at least 3 separate street takeovers (also known as sideshows) Saturday night, two of which had around 500 people in attendance. Police get calls about the takeovers from motorists and neighbors but even when they do show up they can’t do anything because they are outnumbered. In this case, one person was detained out of the 100 or so who looted the convenience store. Police have video of the incident so maybe they’ll arrest a few looters but I wouldn’t count on it.

These aren’t the first sideshows in LA this month and they won’t be the last. These mobs have learned there are no consequences for anything so why would they stop? In fact, the bigger the mob, the less chance that anyone will be arrested.

It’s worth noting that these sideshows have been responsible for several deaths. A woman was killed last Christmas night at a sideshow in Inglewood:

According to authorities, 24-year-old Elyzza Guajaca was struck Sunday night by a black Chevrolet Camaro while standing with a group of people at the northeast corner of Crenshaw Boulevard and Florence Avenue. She died at a local hospital…

“These guys think it’s funny.. it’s a really sick culture,” Det. Ryan Moreno said of the “car culture mentality. “It’s really dangerous. They’re putting the whole public in danger.. they’re really hurting the community with this.”

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The driver in that incident was eventually arrested in Albuquerque, New Mexico. That’s in addition to at least four deadly shootings that have taken place at various sideshows. The cycle just keeps repeating. Even the looting has happened before.

A “flash mob” of looters were caught on camera ransacking a 7-Eleven in Los Angeles earlier this week — making off with handfuls of cigarettes, snacks and other goods, authorities said.

Video clips released by Los Angeles police show dozens of people, many of them not bothering to hide their faces, grabbing various items as they swarmed the chain store Monday shortly after midnight in the Harbor Gateway section of the city.

Part of the footage even shows the rowdy bunch going behind the counter that was apparently vacated by 7-Eleven employees and flinging items toward a pack of people on the other side.

Here’s video of the looting last August which was also near a sideshow/street takeover:

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Until the police decide to do something about these mobs it’s not going to stop. In fact it’s going to keep getting worse. My guess is police don’t want to bother both because the crowd could turn on them and also because DA George Gascon would never prosecute any of these people anyway. This is just how it is in Los Angeles County.

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