SAN FRANCISCO – When Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) went to San Francisco a couple of years ago, his luggage was stolen. Every bag. He wasn’t the only one.

At the time, smash-and-grab jobs were the preferred method of thieves looking for a quick score. Almost everyone who went to the airport and left their luggage in the car to grab a drink or get something to eat returned to find a lot of broken glass but little else. 

Schiff was in the House of Representatives at the time. He went to a Target in South San Francisco for toiletries, and he had to flag down a clerk to open a locked shelf. Inside was the usual: toothpaste, toothbrushes, razors, and deodorant. Stores in the area had been forced to lock up items because of progressive policies that were soft on crime. Anyone could walk into a store, steal less than $900 worth of items, and walk out scot-free. If they were arrested, which they rarely were, they were back on the street within hours or minutes in some cases. It was all part of a progressive push to decriminalize large swaths of criminal activity in the name of good governance. It was anything but and, in turn, forced retailers to start locking up items.