So-called 'experts' warn against calling mass burglary events 'looting'

Following mass theft in the Bay Area over the weekend, "crime experts" are warning the public and police not to call mass burglary events "looting."

"Looting" has been deemed a racially-charged term by progressive voices as opponents of the label are pushing to call the criminal act "organized robbery."

ABC7 News "race and social justice reporter" Julian Glover said that "policing and journalism analysts are cautioning against the use of the term looting" after a wave of smash-and-grab robberies devastated the San Francisco community.

San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott in a press conference to reporters Saturday said that the the Louis Vuitton store and The Burberry in Westfield Mall were among the upscale retail chains that were burglarized and looted. The thieves netted $1 million in stolen luxury goods in San Francisco's Union Square.

"We are talking about two incidents. We're not going to call this looting. This is organized robbery. That's what it is," Sgt. Christian Camarillo, the public information officer for the San Jose Police Department, stated as the police spokesperson updated the media on incidents of theft occurring in the South Bay.

Camarillo referred to the $40,000 in merchandise stolen from Lululemon in Santana Row on Saturday. Similar crimes hit Hayward and Walnut Creek.

Dozens of cars blocked a street in front of the local Nordstrom's location, before about 80 armed, masked thieves rushed out, ran into the store to steal merchandise, and then sped away in the getaway vehicles outside Saturday.

Glover argued that according to the California Penal Code, what the businesses endured was not looting. The penal code defines looting as theft or burglary committed "within an affected county in a 'state of emergency' or a 'local emergency,' or under an 'evacuation order,' resulting from an earthquake, fire, flood, riot, or other natural or manmade disaster."

University of New Haven professor of criminal justice and community policing Dr. Lorenzo Boyd, a retired veteran police officer, emphasized to ABC7 News that words matter even if the distinction appears miniscule.

"Looting is a term that we typically use when people of color or urban dwellers are doing something. We tend not to use that term for other people when they do the exact same thing," Boyd said. However, the identities and races of the majority of the thieves involved in the crime wave have not yet been revealed.

Hundreds of Black Lives Matter protesters took to the streets after 18-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse was found not guilty on all charges Friday over the Aug. 25, 2020, fatal shootings of white Jacob Blake rioters in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

While a majority of the protests remained peaceful, an anti-Rittenhouse riot was declared Friday night in Portland, Oregon, where far-left militants tried to burn down the Multnomah County Detention Center, which houses detained inmates, the Portland Police Bureau's central station, and the sheriff's office.

Antifa rioters damaged property in downtown Portland as vengeance for the jury's verdict, hurled "urine, alcoholic beverages, water bottles, and batteries" at deputies, and windows and damaging doors of city facilities.

Boyd noted that the "types of massive, organized smash and grabs" were happening before the Rittenhouse acquittal, "because it happens cyclically."

"It's a false equivalency. It's people trying to politicize crime," Boyd said.

Robert C. Maynard Institute of Journalism Education co-executive director Martin Reynolds said: "This seems like it's an organized smash and grab robbery. This doesn't seem like looting. We're thinking of scenarios where first responders are completely overwhelmed. And folks, often may be on their own."

Both experts "expressed the importance of media literacy for viewers to critically think about the language used by public officials and the media as we all try to make sense of these complex issues our society is facing," Glover wrote.

"People draw their own conclusions, if the terminologies that you use are tethered to people's understanding of how they have been used in the past," said Reynolds.

While there was no local emergency declared over the weekend, the critical issues of crime and law enforcement have been consuming the surrounding communities, trapped in a persisting state of lawlessness since the start of the pandemic.

Oakland slashed $14.3 million from the city's police budget and charged an internal task force with cutting the remaining budget in half over two years, even as homicides have surged citywide. San Francisco officers have fled the police force "in record numbers" all while the city's Mayor London Breed pushed for a monstrous $120 million cut to the police and sheriff's department.

Instead of maintaining law and order, San Francisco and Santa Clara County district attorneys have worked to weaken prosecution, ending cash bail while waiving gang and "three strikes" enhancements to sentencing. As a result, the moves have afforded criminals greater freedom to offend and re-offend.

San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin, who has supported the defund the police movement, is now "outraged" by the rampant crime and promising felony charges. The city's chief prosecutor announced on Twitter that he condemns organized crime, touting "safety" as one of San Francisco's "core values."

District 11 Supervisor Ahsha Safai told ABC7 News that one of the looting suspects taken into custody had also been arrested back in March for gun possession.

Boudin is facing a recall election in June 2022 as he faces criticism from residents who are outraged that crime continues to plague the city. Frustrated citizens say that he is soft on crimes like shoplifting and does not hold perpetrators accountable.

"Working together, we can stop the injustice," the recall campaign's website states. The necessary amount of signatures required to qualify a recall have been validated by the San Francisco Department of Elections. City officials have announced that the recall election date is set on Tuesday, June 7, 2022.