Gov. Newsom Sends 120 CHP Officers to Oakland to Do Something About Crime

Maybe you’ve already seen this video circulating on X. It shows a brazen thief stealing dozens of iPhones from an Apple store in Oakland, CA in broad daylight. He walks out with is sweatpants overflowing with stolen goods, right past a police car which is parked out front.

Masked man brazenly steals dozens of iPhones in an Apple Store in crime ridden Oakland, California.

pic.twitter.com/kqZqyzPHwM

— Oli London (@OliLondonTV) February 7, 2024

This theft apparently happened at the Apple store in Emeryville which is just north of Oakland. But there have also been multiple thefts at the Berkley Apple store which is just three miles north of the one in Emeryville.

The Berkeley Apple Store, a recent hot spot for retail theft, was hit twice in separate robberies in the past 24 hours, officials said Friday.

The first of the two thefts occurred Thursday just before 6 p.m. at the store in the 1800 block of Fourth Street, according to Berkeley police Officer Jessica Perry.

Perry said a male suspect in his 20s grabbed nine phones on display and fled the scene in a vehicle.

And of course Apple isn’t the only target. Cybelle’s Pizza’s in Oakland has been robbed four times already this year.

Employees at the Cybelle’s Pizza along Fruitvale Avenue in Oakland’s Dimond District can be seen on surveillance from Friday night around 10:30 p.m., using a hammer and recycling bin to fight off suspects that entered the shop.

“They tried to steal the register…my employees were very, very brave…I told them don’t do that…but they had to defend themselves,” says owner Elizabeth Sanchez.

Because of the crime, the owner can’t retain employees or customers. She is considering closing the location permanently.

𝐎𝐚𝐤𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐄𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐨𝐲𝐞𝐞𝐬 𝐔𝐬𝐞 𝐇𝐚𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐫 & 𝐑𝐞𝐜𝐲𝐜𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐁𝐢𝐧 𝐓𝐨 𝐅𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐎𝐟𝐟 𝐑𝐨𝐛𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐒𝐮𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐬: Cybelle’s Pizza has been broken into 4 times this year. That’s almost once a week. They’re now considering closing down.… pic.twitter.com/aPACz8NNdO

— Dion Lim (@DionLimTV) February 4, 2024

CNN has a summary of the overall crime situation in Oakland and the businesses that are closing stores in response to it.

Robberies grew 38% last year in Oakland, according to police data. Burglaries increased 23%. Motor vehicle theft jumped 44%. Roughly one of every 30 Oakland residents had a car stolen last year, according to a San Francisco Chronicle analysis…

“I don’t want people to be fearful and stay home because businesses need you to come out and the more people on the street, the safer it will be,” said Shari Godinez, the executive director of Koreatown Northgate, which represents businesses in Oakland. “If nothing changes, it’ll just start becoming a ghost town.”

It’s not just small businesses. National companies are also pulling out of Oakland and taking extra measures to protect workers.

In-N-Out is permanently closing one of its restaurants for the first time ever, saying that its Oakland location will soon shutter because of car break-ins, property damage, theft, and armed robberies targeting employees and customers. Denny’s is shuttering its only location in Oakland after more than 54 years, citing public safety concerns.

The situation in Oakland is bad enough that Gov. Newsom is stepping in to do something about it, sending 120 CHP officers in a last ditch attempt to restore order.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Tuesday that he is sending 120 California Highway Patrol officers to Oakland to help address rising violent crime in the city.

The officers will conduct a targeted law enforcement surge operation in Oakland and surrounding Alameda County focused on vehicle theft, retail theft and violent crime. The deployment represents a nearly 900% increase in CHP personnel for the county…

“What’s happening in this beautiful city and surrounding area is alarming and unacceptable,” Newsom said in a statement. “I’m sending the California Highway Patrol to assist local efforts to restore a sense of safety.”

Newsome make news last week when he told a story about witnessing a theft at a Target where he was shopping and then having the cashier who was waiting on him blame “the governor.”

Of course Gov. Newsom’s takeaway was that he was being unfairly blamed for supporting Prop. 47 which raised the threshold to be charged with a felony theft to $950. Newsom still seems to think this has nothing to do with what he witnessed, but why would the store bother calling in a theft under that amount if the most likely outcome is that the thief gets the misdemeanor charges dropped or gets some kind of diversion program which does nothing to dissuade future theft. 

If property crime is high in Oakland and San Francisco compared to other parts of the country (and it is), maybe there’s a reason for that? Maybe being the 10th toughest in the country isn’t good enough? Or maybe it’s the fact that thieves rarely get caught and even when caught they tend to get a pass from progressive DAs has something to do with it. What we know for certain is that the current system isn’t working very well. Even Gov. Newsom can see that which is why he’s surging cops to Oakland.