Antioch Mayor Sean Wright came out Tuesday against a policy introduced by Contra Costa County District Attorney Diane Becton that will let looters go.
“When I read the policy, it was disturbing,” said Mayor Wright. “I understand the difference between protesting and looting. Peaceful protesting is okay, looting is not. For the District Attorney to put out that kind of plan is irresponsible and where do you exactly draw the line on need because these are people’s businesses that are being impacted and livelihoods that are being destroyed.”
He continued by stating this type of position on crime doesn’t help a community and only makes the job of the already stretched thin Antioch Police Department that much more difficult.
Steve Aiello, president of the Antioch Police Officers Association, agreed with Wright saying the policy on looting was not good guidelines.
“It’s reckless for the District Attorney’s Office to have this type of policy because it hurts the community, local business and business owners. It shows the District Attorney’s Office is picking and choosing the types of crimes it will prosecute versus just following the laws on the books,” said Aiello. “At what point, does our District Attorney’s Office advocate for the victims. If its not the District Attorney’s Office, who then becomes the advocate and safety net for the victims and ensuring restitution is made.”
Contra Costa County District Attorney’s Office Spokesperson Scott Alonso released a copy of the guidelines at our request.
Theft Offenses Committed During State of Emergency (PC 463)
In order to promote consistent and equitable filing practices the follow analysis is to be
applied when giving consideration to filing of PC 463 (Looting):
1. Was this theft offense substantially motivated by the state of emergency, or simply a theft offense which occurred contemporaneous to the declared state of emergency?
a. Factors to consider in making this determination:
i. Was the target business open or closed to the public during the
state of emergency?
ii. What was the manner and means by which the suspect gained
entry to the target business?
iii. What was the nature/quantity/value of the goods targeted?
iv. Was the theft was committed for financial gain or personal need?
v. Is there an articulable reason why another statute wouldn’t
adequately address the particular incident?
Alonso called the document Office’s guidelines.
“The guidelines were put in place by DA Becton and her senior leadership team because of the pandemic. It is really important to underscore these guidelines are because of the COVID-19 shelter in place. We look at if the theft is because there is a state of emergency – or is this simply an offense contemporaneous to the state of emergency. We wanted to ensure consistency across the Office in considering any criminal charges for alleged violations of PC 463. Historically, prior to COVID-19 – we could find no recent evidence that our Office had filed looting charges during a state of emergency,” stated Alonso. “As you know, when evaluating any criminal case our prosecutors look at the circumstances surrounding the incident. These guidelines are consistent with how we evaluate criminal cases. The policy does not say we won’t file these types of cases. The Red State article is incredibly misleading and frankly written from a slanted point of view. The author of the piece did not reach out to us prior to publication.”
When asked if the District Attorney’s office was becoming racially biased, Alonso dismissed the accusations.
“No, there are no racial filing guidelines or standards for our Office,” stated Alonso. “The question is frankly shocking and I am not sure where that is coming from. I can’t imagine any prosecutor in the country answering yes to that question. All of our prosecutors follow strict ethical standards in handling criminal cases, including the fair and just prosecution of any individual regardless of personal attributes such as gender, race, age or where the person lives.”
Under California State Law, 463 PC states that:
Every person who violates Section 459, punishable as a second-degree burglary…during and within an affected county in a “state of emergency” or a “local emergency” resulting from an earthquake, fire, flood, riot, or other natural or manmade disaster shall be guilty of the crime of looting, punishable by imprisonment in a county jail for one year.”
The crime of “looting” in California consists of committing any of the following crimes during a state of emergency which includes burglary, grand theft or petty theft. State of Emergency can be declared by the Governor, State of California or a local government body which is a result of flood, earthquakes, riots, wildfires or storms/weather.
53 comments
LOOTERS should be shot on sight! Same with vandals! In San Francisco, the bar owned by a former immigrant who spent every penny he earned on making it a great place to congregate, was looted and destroyed for 5 long hours. He just stood there and watched what those asphalt apes did! That is now how it would have ended if I owned that establishment
I concur! Looters should pay the ultimate price! No pussy-footing around! Nothing like shotgun in their faces! They back off quickly!
Agree!
So….you want to KILL a human being for a PROPERTY crime. ThisISAmerica.wtf
No only apes
I’m not aware we had an influx of mountain gorillas and chimpanzees ransacking any local retail establishments…
Yes, I do, Phillip! A lot of that property came from my great-grandparents who inherited it from their relatives. It is irreplaceable. I worked long and hard for my property. Got into several car crashes while heading for work through no fault of my own. Got hurt in one where I was hospitalized. I didn’t just sit around and have that property come flying on it’s own to me. I took life-threatening chances when an 18 wheeler was bearing down on me. .. but I swerved just in time away from it and luckily, there was no one in the next lane.
So, YES! I would protect the property. The looters are nothing but trash!
Oh wow, we have some Internet badasses here! Yeah, shooting people will totally get everyone to just chill, amiright? That’s how it ususally works…oh wait, nevermind.
Democrat irresponsibility is getting a little to close to home
Vote like you’ve never voted before
Send the America Haters packing
Hopefully the DA will be PERSONALLY affected
I bet she was a looter herself! This is why she has so much sympathy for those ghetto sewer rats
who care what the pin head mayor of antioch think.. he need to take care of Antioch .. the street are dirty , homeless people needing housing .. need more job for local that what he need to pay attention to and let the DA handle her business .. As to the police they alway think looter need to be lock up so who care what they think.. Not all Looter are the same and shouldn’t be treated the same.. If you to stupid to not know that ,then nothing can help you..
The homeless people need to be sent back to the states from which they were sent here. We should not use OUR tax money to take care of them. Put them back on the Greyhound buses with a one way ticked to the state of their choice ……. way east of here
Damn you need an English class, this is what happens when an uneducated person tries to speak on a matter, and has zero common sense.
Or…is just uneducated.you don’t know the level of their common sense. Gladly trade San Ramon Valley high for Richmond high…why are the schools funded so differently…shouldn’t we be trying to upgrade all??
Look who attends the schools in Richmond! Why squander money to upgrade material they just don’t understand and will find frustrating. Things were different before WWII. Then an influx of asphalt apes took over and Oakland and Richmond went way down hill. Those cities need to be reclaimed and gentrified which will clear out the ghetto sewer rats!
This is satire right?
This is a bad attempt at satire right?!
Your a joke with zero morals and clearly no self accountability.
He’s only stepping up to the plate because it’s close to election. Otherwise he wouldn’t be given a crap. Our mayor and City council Members right now are corrupt to the hills. So I’m with you on the get out and vote. Vote like we’ve never voted before time for a change get these guys out of here and did things back right.
If you are stupid enough to not to know that all looters are criminals then you should be locked up for your stupidity. What’s your address? We can have all the looters who are not the same come by and pillage your house.
Well said! There are too many ignorant idiots thinking this is acceptable behavior and that’s because they are the ones doing the despicable acts of looting and destroying hard working peoples lives!
Clearly the DA has an agenda to let any crime involving a black person go. When a white person commits the same crime she will make an example stating white privilege is not allowed. Tell me, who has segregated schools? Who has scholarships based on their color? Who doesn’t want to be held accountable for their actions? Look at your self DA. Teach your community to live to a higher standard.
Jeez, racist much? This has nothing to do with the DA’s race! I don’t see any comments from you accusing every white person of being preferential to members of their own race, right?
And are your questions rhetorical or just ludicrous because of your bias? To answer one, yes, of course there are segregated schools in America. I’m going out on a limb and guessing you haven’t visited an educational institution in quite some time…
we should loot her house… time to take Antioch back….
Looting is wrong regardless of whether it happened during a ‘State of Emergency’ or not. Stop excusing bad behavior; this DA should know better. Such ‘feel good’ policies only help the woke crowd sleep better at night.
Looting is Looting destroying or stealing from local businesses should not be tolerated prosecute to the full extent of the law.Get tough right away may deter further looting.The law is the law enforce it.
Hey dummy, every looter is the same and should be treated like the thugs they are. Stand up for law and order. Alonso is an idiot and should be voted out. He certainly is no friend to business and the police. BLM
Please list the address of Contra Costa County District Attorney Diane Becton so that the looters can loot her home. I bet she will suddenly be responsible as opposed to playing politics.
Remember who funded her campaign…Mr Soros himself.
Contra Costa county is a joke. Sacramento County I don’t know if any of you watch the video by the Sacramento County sheriff’s department but they are on point with rioting and looting and all this other s***. Contra Costa county is stupid we need to step up to the plate and see what’s going on around them they’re the ones dragging all of us in the BS with them but they stand behind the line and everyone else is the ones that get destroyed. Sad to even live in this County.
Bye
Be on alert!
There is an orchestrated Marxist take over of the Antioch governance.
Marxist are about as stealthy as an overweight elephant on rollerskates. The last minute game of musical chairs by candidates was a clue. Thorpe, Householder, Gardners and a few others are all Bernie Sanders “Burner” card carrying members.
Their cohort Shagoofa Khan was the ring leader of the now infintile infamous AUSD District office BLM attack (called a protest).
They dont even bother to use their own campaign designers for the election placards that are poping out as they all look the same and use the same layout.
So to recap. If you want Portland and Seatle to be played out here in Antioch with devastating Antifa/BLM rioters working hand in hand with city hall and the AUSD school board, THEN PAY ATTENTION!
BE SHEEPLE
OR
BE PATRIOTIC AND DEFIANT
(you cant be both!)
“YOU CAN LOOSE YOUR RIGHTS FOR A STICK OF GUM, BUT IT TAKES A BLOODY NOSE TO WRESTLE IT BACK”……..FCN.
What a crazy comment. Full of nothing.
Ill chalk you down as one.
?????
Hilarious…
The CCC OUR REVOLUTION is a Marxist Bernie Sanders/ Antifa(aka proFacista) BLM communist movement. Made to infiltrate every facet of local governance from School Boards to City councils to various planning boards to facilitate violent revoutionary change by stealth. see PORTLAND and SEATLE as well as other dumpster fire revolts going on now in our country.
The mayor and Steve Aiello sounds stupid and makes the rest of us in LE look as such- Since when does the folks at APD take non-violent, property crimes seriously or any department for that matter? It’s just another thing to cry about. We get it Becton was not any of the POA’s choice for DA, but still won. Save your breath buddy…..
So here’s the plan: Each police force confronted with the rigors of this new legal requirement should lock up all looters and place them in one cell to preserve jail space. Then they should interview each subject after they have obtained counsel, to determine compliance or non-compliance with each of the new outlined rules. They should also interview all victims of the looting to find out what they may have done to leave themselves vulnerable to looting etc. They should then do whatever research is necessary to determine the truth of the alleged looters’ claims. After all of this is complete, they should send a report to the DA and other officials concerned along with the alleged looters’ attorney. This should not take more than a month or so to build a complete file and at that point the DA can advise said CC police how to proceed.
Divide and Conquer….
It’s working better than anyone could have imagined, and you all fell for it. Deserve nothing less than the guillotine.
What I have learned this year is how much power a DA and a mayor have. Both working together can completely eliminate all law. The DA does not prosecute any crimes, or maybe only crimes committed by a certain race. And the mayor just calls police to stand down and takes their tools away. Pay attention at all elections, DAs and mayors must be pro-law.
Becton gives us a clue as to how she will handle looters. She states: “The policy does not say we won’t file these types of cases.” So she and her team get to pick and choose who they will prosecute. Then she states: “The Red State article is incredibly misleading and frankly written from a slanted point of view.” I can fairly conclude that those she finds looting and having “Red State” views will be the only ones to be prosecuted. Perhaps this is why she says Contra Costa County has no history of prosecutions for looting.
As a liberal, the comments section here provides an extremely interesting view of the average Republican voter’s thinking. I don’t want to discount other issues, but it seems like fear of looting and rioting is going to be the main issue that drives an otherwise apathetic Republican to the polls.
A looter is someone taking advantage of a situation and taking what they did not work for and did not pay for. A thief. Should be consequences it IS AGAINST THE LAW. Stealing and taking what is not yours is AGAINST THE LAW.
You White people got life fucked up. You’ve been looting every country ,continent, city you step foot on. Fucking colonizers. You forget how america was built oh did I strike a nerve. You don’t work hard for shit . You work off other people’s backs. You take take take. All my life I tried to be calm and not be portrayed as the Angry Moorish Man. But you fuckers take the cake, people would not loot if they had the same chances as you. People would not rob, steal, hustle if the race was even. You bitch ass mankind’s only evolved from what was granted to you. If money had black faces don’t you think the printers would have more of it. You people teach racism then avoid turmoil because your community is gated . Get the fuck out of here ,live my life for a week a year. I bet you’ll grow to love one another . Because at the point right there you’ll be lead into the truth of our existence. I am your father theres no white in darkness and no light within the Black hole. Only KINGS DESEASE
Most looters should be immediately shot. The circumstances are irrelevant. in times of mass chaos, there will always be those who take advantage of that situation. This is the way it was done in the past and there should be no difference as of now. When the looting does begin, Antioch will be at target rich environment. It is sad when a government seeks to disarm and basically neuter its own people. While at the same time encouraging and tolerating violent crime and other criminal behavior.
When someone shoots a “Looter” will the DA give the law abiding citizen protecting there property the same criteria she gave the “Looter”? I agree someone should loot her house and then see if she takes the same approach. Thank you Mayor for stepping up and saying what needs to be said. You just go my vote !
This is an example of why you need to be careful who you vote for! Barring a recall, once they’re in you’re stuck with them for the whole term.
Antioch is dead,has been for decades and you poor fools think everything is fine.
So basically, the DA’s office responded without answering any questions about whether or not they will, or will not arrest looters. Their evaluation system is ridiculous, and should be thrown out the window.
a. Factors to consider in making this determination:
i. Was the target business open or closed to the public during the
state of emergency?
What difference does it make whether or not the business was open or closed? If the business was looted then the people responsible should be prosecuted. Why would the DA take this into consideration when deciding if they will prosecute the perpetrators? It makes no sense!
ii. What was the manner and means by which the suspect gained
entry to the target business?
How could this possibly make a difference on whether the offender was prosecuted? What are they trying to determine here? Maybe if another looter broke the door down first he would be charged with breaking and entering, and the person who walked in after the door was broken down and then looted the business would be charged with some other offense. In any case, both offenders looted the business and would be in violation of looting.
iii. What was the nature/quantity/value of the goods targeted?
How would evaluating this have any impact on the charge of looting? If they entered the business and stole merchandise in the process of looting they should still be prosecuted with looting, regardless of the nature, quantity, or value of the goods.
iv. Was the theft was committed for financial gain or personal need?
This one is just absurd! Is it okay to loot and steal someone else’s property if you happen to have a personal need for it? So if you steal a 50 inch smart TV because you plan on selling it then you will be prosecuted, but if you steal that same TV because you just have to watch your favorite tv show it’s okay! What about the business owner who needs to sell that TV to pay his bills and feed his family?
v. Is there an articulable reason why another statute wouldn’t
adequately address the particular incident?
I don’t even know what to say about this one because it is so ridiculous! Looting during a riot, or State emergency is looting. Why would another charge even be considered?
It sounds like the DA’s office is just making a whole lot of excuses for not doing their job. Anyone who is breaking the law by looting during a riot should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, and COVID-19 should have no impact on the decision to prosecute. If it does, than Contra Costa County should compensate the victims of the crimes that they refuse to prosecute.
Antioch is in big trouble. Now, a convicted arsonist is running for City Council. Isn’t that just terrific? With this DA, the entire county is in trouble!
There is no legal or moral justification for looting. Democrats have already let shoplifters get away, now looters? Yes. You better vote GOP before you become Democrats next victim.
Welcome to Contra Costa County District Attorney Diane Bectons Idea of justice. Her office does not prosecute drug charges, looting charges, auto theft charges, any vandalism or burglary charges and will not prosecute any resisting arrest charges even if there is injury to the officer, paramedic of firefighter, or any other charge that impacts the minority community. She is a card caring member of BLM and Antifa and is proud of it. Remember when it comes time to vote and don’t let her very rich supporters from out of state buy her another election. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH
I read that there is some kind of melee in the DA’s office. Something about her having to “face the music” over irregularities. Also, a lot of the lawyers working there have quit when she came on board. They knew what she’d be up to.
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