It was once a common part of life in many places for teenagers to flock to and hang out at malls. But criminals, and their enablers, just so happen to ruin things for everyone else.
The Del Amo Fashion Center, a mall in Torrance, California, is now banning minors from the facility on certain days unless they are accompanied by adult chaperones. The mall has been the site of smash-and-grab robberies, several brawls, and shootings because the mall is in Los Angeles County. Infamously pro-criminal District Attorney George Gascon does not believe in prosecuting juvenile offenders for misdemeanors, which would include robberies and brawls.
As a result, everyone else must suffer. Teenagers lose a hangout spot for Friday and Saturday evenings, their only two nonschool nights. The mall and its vendors miss out on revenue from a large chunk of prospective customers, especially at the food court. The mall is still spending extra money on extra security, which likely won’t change.
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The only people who benefit? The people who are the reason the policy was changed: juvenile criminals who know Gascon will leave them alone even if they regularly rob stores or start brawls in public places. They can just do all the things they have been doing at other venues. Or at the same mall. After all, what happens if they violate the policy? Another misdemeanor that Gascon lets slide?
This is what “equity” and “criminal justice reform” costs. It costs businesses money, and it costs people basic conveniences that they take for granted because they never assume someone is just going to let criminals run rampant. Yet that is what Gascon has done, leading to the further decay of whatever culture is still alive in Los Angeles that isn’t affiliated with drugs or gangs or homelessness.
