White House: 'Smash-and-grab' crime due to pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic is “a root cause” of the organized “smash-and-grab” robberies plaguing retailers in San Francisco, Los Angeles and other cities, contends White House press secretary Jen Psaki.

She was responding to a question Thursday from Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy.

“When a huge group of criminals organizes themselves and they want to go loot a store — a CVS, Nordstrom, a Home Depot — until the shelves are clean, you think that’s because of the pandemic?” Doocy asked.

“I think a root cause in a lot of communities is the pandemic, yes,” she replied.

Psaki said another “root reason” for the increase in crime is “guns and gun violence.”

However, some police and retailers in California, amid the nationwide push to defund police, have blamed the state’s Proposition 47, which reduced shoplifting charges for theft of $950 or less from felonies to misdemeanors.

Doocy began by asking Psaki what President Biden is doing about “all this lawlessness,” including the rise in such robberies and the record number of police officers who have been shot and killed.

Psaki said Biden has proposed additional funding in his budget to support local police departments and communities.

Last week in Oakland, retired police officer Kevin Nishita, a father of two and grandfather of three, was shot and killed while protecting a TV crew covering the surge of smash-and-grab crimes in the Bay Area.

See Psaki’s remarks Thursday:

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