A string of prominent California Democrats has been the victim or alleged victim of crime over the past few years raising fresh concerns about law and order in the Golden State.
On Thursday, thieves broke into the car of longtime Rep. Adam Schiff—a House Democrat who is currently running for the open Senate seat in California—and stole several bags, including one with his business clothes inside, according to The San Francisco Chronicle.
Two days earlier, a fight broke out between San Jose Democratic Mayor Matt Mahan's security guard and a member of the public during a live interview with local network KRON4.
On Sunday morning, a man broke into Democratic Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass' official home, Getty House, while she was there with her daughter and grandchild at around 6:40 a.m. according to the Los Angeles Police Department.
Police arrested 29-year-old Ephraim Matthew Hunter, who was previously convicted of carrying out a violent assault in Massachusetts, and he has been charged in connection with the incident.
This rash of incidents comes amid other crimes or attempted crimes targeting Democrats in the state happened in the past few years.
In October 2023, Oakland's progressive District Attorney Pamela Price had her laptop stolen in a smash-and-grab while she attended an event for victims of domestic violence. According to The Daily Mail, she was told to report the crime online rather than wait for a police officer at the scene.
On October 28, 2022, Paul Pelosi, the husband of then-Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, was attacked by a man with a hammer who had broken into the couple's San Francisco residence. Paul Pelosi was seriously injured in the incident that was viewed by many through police bodycam footage later released.
The attack was deemed to be politically motivated, and the video showed 42-year-old David DePape, the suspected assailant, asking Paul Pelosi, "Where's Nancy?"
Former Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer was robbed of her cellphone near her Oakland apartment in July 2021.
Speaking to ABC7 News about the incident she said, "I noticed, out of the corner of my eye, it looked like someone was following me. I didn't think that much about it.
"A gentleman got out of the driver's seat and then came after me from the car. At that point I knew I was in big trouble. I started to kinda run.
"I was hit from behind very hard. I was target, walking alone on the phone, distracted on the phone. As he was running away, I said ... how could you do this to a grandmother?"
In June 2021, a man was arrested on suspicion of assaulting Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has high visibility nationally, during a visit to Oakland. According to the East Bay Times, Newsom was not injured in the incident and a 54-year-old man was booked into Alameda County jail on suspicion of assaulting a public official.
The incidents targeting Democrats in California come as the state was badly hit by a sharp increase in certain types of crime during the coronavirus pandemic with homicides using firearms going up 40.6 percent and assaults with firearms increasing by 29 percent from 2019-2020 according to a Los Angeles Times analysis of Department of Justice data.
According to the Public Policy Institute of California, in 2022, the state saw a 28.7 percent increase in commercial shoplifting from 2020-2021. This sparked a public debate with Cynthia Adams, president of the Oakland NAACP, telling Newsweek, "We need more police" in July 2023.
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James Bickerton is a Newsweek U.S. News reporter based in London, U.K. His focus is covering U.S. politics and world ... Read more
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