“Get my portion! Get my portion!” one man shouted as looters hammered and kicked an ATM at Ye Olde King’s Head Gift Shoppe. Some paused on the street to distribute the goods among themselves or stuff them in backpacks, suitcases or boxes. Others returned again and again throughout the afternoon to the same stores for more. Those tactics were on display on Sunday in Santa Monica, where teams of young people ransacked some stores completely clean within minutes as protesters marched nearby. Many looters appear to be working in caravans that methodically block off certain streets with their vehicles, which serve as getaway cars for those running off with merchandise. Some looters have often been strategic, hitting high-end spots such as Nordstrom and the Apple Store at the Grove and the trendy retail strips of Melrose and Fairfax. “People who have been invisible and whose situation has been ignored all their lives suddenly become visible.”Ī man smashes the window of a business in downtown Los Angeles on Friday. Riots nearly always have a carnival aspect because people who for nearly all their lives have felt under the thumb of other groups suddenly have a sense of power,” said Stephen Reicher, who studies crowd psychology at the University of St. “Part of it is simply an assertion of power. Some have argued that too much attention is paid to the looting, which they say distracts from the powerful political movement fueled by Floyd’s killing. They and others expressed alarm at how the stealing was able to go on so long before police arrived. Merchants - already reeling from coronavirus closures - were left with battered stores and even more losses. The stealing was largely limited to a few business districts including Fairfax, Santa Monica’s shopping district, parts of Long Beach, downtown Los Angeles, Van Nuys and Hollywood. Hundreds of stores were hit over a three-day period, in many cases broadcast on live television. The looters, unwilling to risk prosecution, declined to provide their names. Times reporters interviewed people of different races and backgrounds who stole from stores over the last few days. If that’s giving permission for the police to shoot children, innocent teenagers, things like that, that’s not right.” “If Donald Trump is saying shoot us tonight, that is not giving us no leeway,” said a teenager holding the stolen Skechers backpack Monday in Van Nuys. For others, it was an outgrowth over the deep anger and frustration about the way blacks and others are mistreated, and they cited a host of other issues: President Trump, the privilege exposed in the college admissions scandal, and widening inequality. Some of the looting appears to be organized, with groups driving around hitting multiple stores.

Authorities believe most of the thefts and vandalism came from people not directly connected to the protests who used the teeming crowds as cover to steal merchandise. In the unprecedented reaction to the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers, peaceful protest marches across Southern California in the last week have already dramatically changed the debate about police brutality and race relations.īut the massive demonstrations have been accompanied by looting in some cities around the Southland.

The looter problem