Published 2023-08-15 23:36
At a given signal, upwards of 50 people stormed into the department store.
They knocked out guards with bear spray and disappeared with luxury goods worth millions of kroner.
A controversial law change is being singled out as behind the spate of mob attacks.
Staff at the Nordstrom department store in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, had no chance to calm down when the mob rushed in around 4pm on Saturday afternoon.
According to the police, upwards of 50 people participated in the mass attack against the Westfield Topanga Mall, writes NBC News.
Both of the department store’s security guards were knocked out with bear spray, a strong variant of pepper spray used to repel bears in the woods.
Stole the mannequins
The men then ransacked the store in an attack that was over in minutes.
The Los Angeles police state that luxury bags, clothes and other goods worth close to three million kroner were stolen during the crackdown, writes CBS News.
Surveillance images from the department store show the chaos in the premises. Masked people are seen there grabbing everything they come across. Some even dragged clothed mannequins out of the department store.
After the raid, the intruders disappeared in a row of cars before the police could arrive at the scene.
The attack came just days after a similar incident at an Yves Saint Laurent store in nearby Glendale. There, too, a mob disappeared with goods worth around three million kroner, writes NBC News.
Raging against law change
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass called the attack on Nordstrom “completely unacceptable” in a statement.
– Those who carried out these actions and similar actions in nearby areas must be held accountable, she says.
– The police in Los Angeles will continue the work of identifying those responsible and to prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future.
But the anger towards the politicians is great. According to CBS News many residents in the area point to a controversial law change as a factor behind the mass attacks.
People who are arrested for less serious crimes, including theft, are now released immediately without bail.
Line of attacks
– The reason behind this is that people without any money otherwise risk ending up in prison while awaiting trial. The downside, however, is that it provides incentives for people to commit thefts like this, says prosecutor Scott Tenley to CBS News.
The US has been plagued by similar mass attacks for years. The Nordstrom department store in Woodland Hills was also mobbed in 2021.
In the same year, there was a series of attacks on stores around San Francisco that received a lot of attention.
During a chaotic weekend at the end of November, a number of luxury stores in downtown San Francisco were first stormed. The people ransacked the stores for goods worth an estimated ten million kroner.
A day later, about 80 people in hoods in 25 cars arrived at the Nordstrom department store in suburban Walnut Creek just before closing time at 8:45 p.m. and poured into the store.
Over in a minute
Armed with sticks and pepper spray, they terrorized customers and employees.
Video clips of the incident filmed by witnesses showed the chaos as the robbers poured out of the department store with bags and items before getting into cars and driving away.
The robbery was over in a minute.
Even then, strong criticism was directed at the judiciary. Many believed that San Francisco is too lax in the fight against shoplifting and shoplifting.
District Attorney George Gascon in Los Angeles stated at a press conference on Monday that everything is being done to stop the robbery trend, which so far has only continued.
– Our task force against organized crime has been working on this for a year and a half. We see it as organized crime and we use every tool we have when we make arrests to make sure people are held accountable. This is unacceptable behavior in a civilized society, he says according to CBS News.