Law enforcement officials have issued a message to anyone thinking of looting, engaging in price gouging, pursuing internet scams in the wildfire evacuation zones around Los Angeles or committing arson anywhere: Don’t.
Nathan Hochman, a former federal prosecutor who is the district attorney of Los Angeles, on Monday stood next to officials from the F.B.I., the Justice Department and local law enforcement agencies to make clear that punishment would be swift for anyone taking advantage of the crisis as flames still engulfed the region.
Promising to seek maximum sentences for anyone convicted, Mr. Hochman vowed that Los Angeles, as it did after the traumas of the 1990s — the Rodney King riots, the Northridge earthquake and other wildfires — would rise again.
And fighting crime would be an important part of the city’s comeback.
“We’re going to show Los Angeles to the world, that we have the grit and resilience to again build ourselves better than we were,” said Mr. Hochman, whose office so far had charged a dozen people with either looting or arson. “To the extent these criminals want to get in our way, please, let today be one example of the united front they are going to face.”
Los Angeles hasn’t heard this kind of tough talk from a district attorney in a while.
Mr. Hochman assumed the office in December after defeating the incumbent, George Gascón. Mr. Gascón had been elected in 2020, in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd by police officers in Minneapolis, and he pursued an agenda of seeking the lowest-possible sentences; reviewing old, lengthy sentences that in some cases allowed violent offenders to be released; and paying more attention to root causes of crime.
For Mr. Hochman, the disaster is personal. His sister lost her house in the Palisades fire, and he himself has had to evacuate his home.
Even before the wildfires and the fears of lawlessness that have grown in their wake, Mr. Hochman’s tough-on-crime approach matched a shifting public mood. California once led the nation in punitive measures, with policies like its three-strikes law and ready use of capital punishment, but in more recent times the mood had shifted, and prison populations had dropped.
Then the pandemic happened, and some crimes increased. Smash-and-grab robberies often captured in viral videos, an increase in shoplifting and open-air drug use all combined to shift the politics around criminal justice in California. Mr. Hochman’s election was one result, as was the overwhelming passage of a ballot initiative that imposed stricter punishments for shoplifting and drug crimes.
At the morning news conferences held daily by city and county officials, Mr. Hochman had stressed the same message, day in and day out. “We have sent this warning and I’ll say it again: The question is not if but when you will be arrested,” he said Wednesday. “You will then be prosecuted. And then, you will be punished to the full extent of the law.”
Among the suspects arrested and charged with looting — nine people so far — Mr. Hochman said, was a man who had two previous serious felonies on his record and who had been charged with stealing nearly $200,000 worth of property from a home that had been evacuated. Under California’s three-strikes law, Mr. Hochman said, the man would be seeking a life sentence. (Mr. Hochman has also announced that three people have been charged with arson, although those charges, he said, were not related to the major fires burning across the Los Angeles area.)
For those engaging in price gouging, Mr. Hochman made one offer of leniency, saying that if they backed down now and lowered their prices, that could be weighed in their favor when his office deliberated whether to bring charges.
But, he said, if they did not back down, he would make sure that they faced consequences: “Your name will get out there. Your company’s name will get out there. You will be publicly shamed.”
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