There are have been various accounts of criminals who were released due to the pandemic only to quickly commit serious criminal acts. However, few have gone as viral as Dijon Landrum, 24. Landrum succeeded in being arrested three times over the course of 12 hours but still walked each time with just a citation for three felonies due to California’s zero-bail policy during the outbreak.
The Glendora Police Department said the first crime occurred at 8:28 a.m. with an attempt to break into a vehicle. Landrum tried to drive away in a stolen vehicle. He also have stolen property and narcotics with him. Despite the serious crimes, he was allowed to walk away with a citation.
Just one hour later, the police responded to another call of a possible intruder. Landrum was allegedly walking around and stealing things that he placed in a box. The police found him with the stolen property and gave him another citation. Then sent him along his way.
Then around 8:50 p.m., officers received another report of a stolen car. They spotted the car on a freeway and Landrum fled. A police chase followed with the assistance from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office and California Highway Patrol. All three jurisdictions finally caught Landrum and, you guessed it, he was given a citation and released.
The virus may be destroying virtually every business in America but it is proving a bonanza for Dijon Landrum.
If there are no consequences for screwing up, then people will keep screwing up.
California deserves what it asked for.
At a certain point someone should be forced to post bail, as should have been the guy in this case.
The fact is though that many people who are forced to stay in jail (where paid bail is still required) are arrested for drug possession, even when the “evidence” comes from the result of a junk drug test.
Here is another true crime story from Takimag regarding the leftist paradise known as California. America is absolutely irredeemable and leftists deserve everything that happens to them for supporting politicians such as those who institute policies which result in the actions below.
On December 14th of last year, there was a theft of almost a dozen packages from the lobby of an apartment building at 2117 Haste Street in Berkeley, California. The thief, a young black woman, was making a food delivery for DoorDash. After being buzzed in and handing the food to her customer, the DoorDasher, now alone in the lobby, gathered the packages piled under the residents’ mailboxes and calmly walked out with them. Most of those packages were Christmas gifts.
The thief’s image was caught clear as day on the security cameras; she hadn’t even attempted to hide her face. More than that, her identity and her vehicle’s make and plates were on file with DoorDash. Apprehending this woman was a no-brainer; DoorDash knew exactly who she was.
Yet the police didn’t nab her.
In late February, my curiosity got the better of me and I decided to do a little digging. Why hadn’t this woman been arrested? I made a royal nuisance of myself to the Berkeley Police Department and DoorDash. Initially, Berkeley PD public information officer Byron White tried to pass the buck to DoorDash. The company, I was told, had refused to turn over the woman’s info. But a senior DoorDash communications manager informed me that the situation was a bit more nuanced than that. She explained that it’s company policy to only turn over employee information in response to a court order. Yes, DoorDash absolutely had the name and info of the thief, and the company had reached out repeatedly to Berkeley PD brass, letting them know that the info is theirs for the taking if a court order is presented. DoorDash assured Berkeley PD that the court order wouldn’t be fought; it would be complied with immediately.
“No Berkeley progressive can ever again claim that crimes go unpursued because of thin resources.”
Following my inquiries, DoorDash once again sent a reminder to Berkeley PD that the thief’s info is right there, waiting for them.
I cornered Officer White (a genuinely nice guy, but I was in full Columbo nuisance mode): Why has your department not responded to DoorDash’s repeated requests for a court order? Somewhat exasperatedly, White told me that the higher-ups in the department and the higher-ups in the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office don’t consider these kinds of crimes worthy of pursuit. Yes, they could get a court order; no, they will not. Remember: This is California, where property crimes have essentially been decriminalized. A dozen innocent people had their Christmas gifts stolen by a brazen thief whose identity could easily be discovered, but the state, and dozens of Democrat-controlled cities, simply do not care about you and your precious little “property.”
The Christmas thief got away clean. I nicknamed her Dystopia D’NaeNae because this kind of nonenforcement is our bleak future (plus, Rollo Tomasi was already taken). I asked Officer White if he thought his department’s refusal to easily close a media-covered open case would embolden other criminals in the community to act with impunity.
He didn’t reply.
Dystopia D’NaeNae’s case reveals the ugly truth behind the “progressive prosecution” movement. The goal of progressive prosecution (which I wrote about in greater detail here) is to decriminalize all but the most extreme offenses. Citations only—no arrests, no prosecutions. This dispatch by the Glendora (Southern California) police department tells us all we need to know about progressive prosecution. In the space of one day, a noble, oppressed nonwhite went on a one-man crime spree in the city, and each time he was caught, he had to be let go with only a citation. Literally, in one 24-hour period, this one man kept the department busy with re-offense after re-offense, as cops were powerless to do anything but write him a ticket and send him on his way to the next crime. Progressive prosecution (as I explained in the aforementioned column) is all about “racial justice,” not criminal justice. And it infects dozens of major U.S. cities (not just in California) like a disease.
However, even though the goal of progressive prosecution is to lower the number of incarcerated nonwhites by eliminating arrests for all but the most over-the-top heinous crimes, that’s not how the movement has been sold to voters. Whites, homeowners, and business owners have been told that “non-arrest” policing is necessary because police and prosecutors are stretched too thin. They don’t have the time, resources, or manpower to go after muggers, housebreakers, shoplifters, and street assaulters. Oh, they’d like to! But it’s just not possible with the meager and finite tools they have.
Dystopia D’NaeNae exposed that pathetic excuse for the lie that it is. It would have taken nothing more than a routine request for a court order to clear that case. No hours of investigative work, no manpower, no resources. No cops on overtime, no double duty. Yet still, the progressive prosecutors in Alameda County refused to lift a finger to make an arrest or recover the stolen items. D’NaeNae could not have made her crime easier to solve; she was literally saying, “Come get me.” And to that extent, we owe her a debt of gratitude, as no Berkeley progressive can ever again claim that crimes go unpursued because of thin resources. Dystopia D’NaeNae proved that crimes like hers go unpursued because progressive prosecutors don’t want to pursue them. It’s a conscious choice.
Three months ago, here’s where this column would have ended. But within days of wrapping up D’NaeNae’s story, the pandemic hit. And the progressive prosecution movement was exposed nationwide. Remember, the rationale for that movement is, police departments are stretched too thin to go after property crimes and simple assaults. The resources just don’t exist to pursue “small” incidents. But in the past six weeks, across the nation we’ve seen cops ordered by governors and mayors to arrest, fine, and threaten joggers, hikers, nature walkers, moms taking their kids to a park, and kids playing with other kids in private homes. We’ve seen cops form blockades around skate parks and drag swimmers and paddleboarders from the ocean. Cops have busted people for giving haircuts and manicures in their own home, for fishing, and for watching the sunset.
In Oxnard, it took two mounted policemen to tell a married couple in their 90s that they couldn’t sit in chairs (the “no chairs” policy is unofficially known as “Carlito’s Way”). In L.A., a chorus line of cops formed a gauntlet to keep residents from walking on the beach. At a park right up the street from me, three units responded to reports of kids playing catch. And when my friend’s local AA chapter tried to hold a meeting in another park, with each member sitting the required six feet apart, the LAPD descended as if Dillinger were back from the dead.
How can we ever pretend all this didn’t happen the next time progressive DAs (like the one running in November against incumbent Jackie Lacey here in L.A.) claim that there’s just not the time, manpower, or resources to go after thieves, muggers, and shoplifters? If you can go after beach-walkers and at-home barbers, you can go after burglars.
Now, I know what the progressive prosecution supporters (who also happen to be the most vocal proponents of inflexible lockdowns) will say in response. They’ll claim that “micromanagement policing” is necessary in the face of the pandemic, because such seemingly innocent activities as walking in a park and playing in a yard might (in theory) lead to illness or death.
Ah, but therein lies the hypocrisy. The guiding principle of the progressive prosecution movement is that cities must never engage in “preemptive” policing. Preemptive policing was the theory behind successful policies like “three strikes.” The thug with three felony convictions for violent (but nonfatal) muggings needs to be put away before he finally kills someone. The idea was, take the baddies off the street before they commit murder. Conversely, progressive prosecutors reject any focus on preventing future crimes. Judge criminals only on what they’ve done; never notice patterns or use foresight. Don’t look ahead. It’s not the state’s job to pass judgment on what you might do.
But progressive prosecution leftists are using the lockdowns to harass ordinary citizens based solely on unfounded concerns over what might happen if they take a walk or watch a sunset. This is an extreme, lunatic example of preemptive policing. Three strikes was scuttled by progressive prosecution activists because it’s “unfair” to criminals to judge them based on what might happen should they be allowed to roam free. Yet apparently it’s not unfair to law-abiding citizens to arrest or harass them based on fantastic notions of what might happen should they be allowed to roam free.
“You can’t sit outside and watch the sunset because you might breathe on a butterfly that will carry your germs to a tree with lemons that might be picked by a child to make lemonade for his grandma, and she’ll die!” The likelihood that walking along a beach will spread Covid is about a million times lower than the likelihood that a thrice-convicted felon’s crimes will escalate in severity each time he avoids imprisonment.
Pro-lockdown leftists bray about how they’re “protecting the old and weak.” These are the same “old and weak” who are most at risk from the felons who rob and assault with impunity because they know they’ll only face catch-and-release.
“That thug mugged three old ladies? Give him another chance, to hell with the risks to the elderly.” “That illegal alien has five DUIs? Let him stay! You don’t know for sure he’ll do it again.”
In a perfect world, lockdown enforcement would be the death knell for the progressive prosecution movement. But it won’t be. Voters have short memories, and by the time November rolls around, most will have forgotten how thousands of cops worked tirelessly to prevent nature walks and haircuts. And when the progressives once again talk about how police departments don’t have the resources to sweat the small stuff, mush-minded voters will nod and say, “Makes sense.”
Oblivious voters will be at the mercy of those who aren’t oblivious—the progressives, for whom the lockdowns have been one big, wonderful lesson in how average Americans don’t need coherent rationalizations for policies that negatively affect their lives, and the Dystopia D’NaeNaes, who can’t wait for stores to reopen so they can smile at the security cameras as they strip the shelves bare, secure in the knowledge that enforcement and arrest are reserved for the real criminals: kids having playdates and 93-year-old beachgoers sitting in chairs.
I FEEL ABSOLUTELY ZERO SYMPATHY FOR LEFTISTS. When the rest of the country resembles California demographically, you will not be able be able to escape the undertow and experience the joys of life as a hated minority.
antonio
Oakland police(city right next to Berkeley) several years ago announced they would only respond with alacrity to a burglary IN PROGRESS,otherrwise just go to your local precinct after you discover you’ve been burgled to tell your sorry ass tale of woe. They promise to take areport. Investigate?—in your dreams
Yep. It’s a mess. That was especially sad, stealing Christmas presents. And when crimes aren’t pursued, they don’t go into databases. Then politicians can say with a smile on their faces that their policies did not lead to any increase in crime.
Self-governance is governance exclusive of a monarchy and inclusive of people “entitled to vote” as established by criteria – homogeneity, congruity, conformity, capacity and vesting. One man, one vote democracy has come to its end. The inmates have taken over the asylum. Never did the American Founders intend this strategy or this consequence. They endeavored against it. California is an incompetent, hysterical, incoherent, one-party, communist dictatorship.
Tytler was right!
“Democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover they can vote themselves largesse out of the public treasure. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefit from the public treasury, with the result that democracy always collapses over a loose fiscal policy, always to be followed by a dictatorship, and then a monarchy.”
– Alexander Tytler
The American Founders respected the import of the vote. The American Founders severely restricted immigration, then they severely restricted the vote. Immigrants must have been “…free white person(s)…” and voters must have been Male, European, 21, Worth 50 lbs. Sterling/50 acres.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
“…free white person,…”
Naturalization Acts of 1790, 1795, 1798 and 1802
United States Congress, “An act to establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization,” March 26, 1790
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, That any Alien being a free white person, who shall have resided within the limits and under the jurisdiction of the United States for the term of two years, may be admitted to become a citizen thereof…
__________________________________________
“the people are nothing but a great beast…
I have learned to hold popular opinion of no value.”
-Alexander Hamilton
________________
“The true reason (says Blackstone) of requiring any qualification, with regard to property in voters, is to exclude such persons, as are in so mean a situation, that they are esteemed to have no will of their own.”
“If it were probable that every man would give his vote freely, and without influence of any kind, then, upon the true theory and genuine principles of liberty, every member of the community, however poor, should have a vote… But since that can hardly be expected, in persons of indigent fortunes, or such as are under the immediate dominion of others, all popular states have been obliged to establish certain qualifications, whereby, some who are suspected to have no will of their own, are excluded from voting; in order to set other individuals, whose wills may be supposed independent, more thoroughly upon a level with each other.”
– Alexander Hamilton – The Farmer Refuted, 1775
I live in CA. It’s a Deep Blue State. A Republican politician told me that Democrats have a super majority, and do not even bother negotiating with Republicans.
CA is what you get when Democrats are able to pass virtually everything they want. In my opinion, it appears as if they cater to the law breakers and non tax payers and want anyone paying taxes to just shut up and pay.
They favor the homeless, over the business owners who don’t want dirty needles and feces on the sidewalk in front of their businesses.
They favor convicted criminals, emptying jails over and over. Raising the felony theft limit to $950 means people steal with impunity. Cops can’t really do anything about it. Business owners get shoplifters with regularity.
They favor illegal immigrants over legal immigrants and citizens.
They favor cities over rural areas.
They favor extremely expensive regulations and permitting processes. It costs thousands of dollars to get a simple horse shelter permitted. A septic system now costs tens of thousand of dollars more than it used to due to the permitting process. It creates an incentive for otherwise law abiding people to ignore the permitting process, because they can’t afford it. An inflated and cumbersome permitting process doesn’t make anything safer. It is just another way to bleed taxpayers dry.
It appears as if CA is creating some sort of Purge Society. They keep helping criminals prey upon us, while making it harder for the law abiding to own firearms. CA welcomes unrestricted illegal immigration, which means they are not concerned if any who come here are criminals or cartel members. Why would they? They keep dumping convicted criminals out early.
Why would cops even bother to arrest this guy anymore? 3 times in the same day. They are clearly spinning their wheels and their efforts are pointless. At some point they will become so demoralized that they might just ignore him.
We are in the middle of a pandemic, and CA just made looting easier and more likely to occur.
If people vote in a Democrat President and ever get Congress blue, this is what the rest of the nation can expect.
Dijon need to Drake responsibility for his actions. This is not about a political party, this is about a individual who is taking the advantage of a system. Every individual who is being released are not committing crimes.
Child…learn english.
The Democrats created a system designed for criminals to take advantage of.
For example, they increased the felony threshold for theft to $950. Predictably, shoplifting became rampant. Some even bring calculators to ensure they don’t go over the limit. Cops sometimes don’t even respond because what’s the point? This harms businesses, and contributes to one of the reasons why CA consistently ranks as the worst climate for business in the country.
When businesses close or leave the state, they take their jobs with them. Then people complain that the only jobs left are entry level, minimum wage, menial jobs. Then Democrats clamor to jack up minimum wage so that unskilled jobs can support a family in a middle class lifestyle. Frankly, that would require $40/hour in places like San Francisco. Then when restaurants fold, they take their jobs with them. More menial jobs are either automated, or eliminated, with the work divvied up among remaining workers. It becomes too costly for businesses to create entry level jobs designed so beginners can get some experience and skills.
Then Democrats claim that they need to make labor even MORE expensive with MORE benefits, and give MORE money out…
See the trend and the consequences? It sounds kind, but it’s part of the problem.
@Karen S
You sound like a wonderful lady and am sorry to has happened. Have heard similar stories from others in your situation. Also heard that California was an amazing place to live pre-1980’s.
antonio
Thanks, Antonio. The state has gone downhill faster than a luge.
I live in a rural area. Homeless have moved in along the dry wash. I am afraid they will set a fire, and we’re all essentially living in a lake of gasoline. There have been a lot of thefts lately. One guy who is still working has had his house broken into repeatedly while he’s gone. A mother in the neighborhood posted about a man trying to break in when she and her kids were home, but he ran off. But it’s just catch and release. Nothing seems to be done about it.
There never used to be crime out here. If people broke in, it was outbuildings. The crime has slowly creeped up. A lot of people out here are packing, and they have become frustrated that the police cannot do anything about the crime. It takes a long time for them to arrive, for one, and often requires complicated directions for them to find their way along the dirt road. It took 45 minutes for them to respond to the alarm of a break in at a small business. This is inevitably going to lead to violence over property crime. People are on edge worrying criminals will break in knowing a family will be home during the shut down, intent to do harm. A mentally ill homeless man broke into a home and went after a family. There was another crazy woman who would run out from the bushes into the street and scream at people driving by. There’s trash everywhere in some places…all in the tinder dry brush.
People who are armed can handle a home break-in, with sufficient warning. But property theft is becoming rampant. Tools are stolen out of work trucks. Even gas is stolen.
Things are getting tense out here. Every few days, some car or truck will go up and down our dirt road, checking out the houses and property. Or there will be someone walking in the heat, but doesn’t look like he’s going for a hike. There was another strange truck in our driveway when I was out with my kid on our property. I walked down to see what he wanted and he quickly turned around and left. Hopefully he knows we’re home now, and won’t try to break in. We’ve been lucky so far but we’re a ways back.
Someone’s always trying to put in a pot farm out here, which makes no sense at all because there’s no water. This isn’t Tennessee. If they succeed, there will be more intruders. More crime.
Some of our friends live a ways from us on a mountain. A bunch of pot grows sprang up because there was a stream they diverted and irrigated for free. They set fire to the entire mountain. They also kept vicious dogs on the property to discourage the ever present poachers coming for their weed. The dogs kept getting out and getting on my friends’ property. They had livestock, including a pet lamb, and the dogs were aggressive to animals and people. Poor dogs. Who knows what was done to them to ruin their temperament like that.
Seems like CA Democrat politicians care more about the law breakers and those on benefits than they do about the law abiding, and tax payers. They are supposed to represent all of us. But they don’t.
Victor Davis Hanson says many of the same things. It is sad, really is.