Law enforcement has caught several dozen alleged looters in the areas affected by the Altadena and Palisades Fires, but new Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan Hochman says that looting has likely been underestimated.
Hochman spoke to Breitbart News on Monday as he met with firefighters at the Malibu incident base camp at Zuma beach, where thousands of firefighters battling the remnants of the Palisades Fire have been based, including a team from Israel.
Most of the suspected looters who had been caught had been arrested in Altadena, Hochman said. Yet there was still a serious looting threat in the Pacific Palisades, mostly because wealthy homes that had survived the blaze would be likelier to attract thieves.
Hochman explained that reports of looting were likely to increase as residents were allowed to return to their homes, since with the electricity down, people had been unable to monitor security cameras remotely. They would only discover that they had been victims of looting once they returned.
Since the start of the fires, Hochman has been one of the few public officials to enjoy the confidence of the public, as he warned looters that they would be arrested, and pushed to make looting a felony in Los Angeles County. Several Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers told Breitbart News that they felt more confident arresting looters, knowing that Hochman would jail them — unlike his predecessor, the George Soros-backed, left-wing D.A. George Gascón.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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