Getting what he paid for

14 California Looters Arrested by Police Have Been Released Due to the State's Zero Bail Policy

Los Angeles Police Chief Michael Moore says that “All the suspects taken into custody” following the smash-and-grab robbery of a Nordstrom store during Thanksgiving weekend “are out of custody.” Moore said the looters were freed “as a result of one juvenile, or the others as a result of bailing out or zero-bail criteria.”

Thieves hit 11 Los Angeles area stores that weekend, stealing $338,000 in merchandise. But several of the looters pled poverty and got out, thanks to a California Supreme Court decision that ordered judges in the state to consider a suspect’s ability to pay when setting bail. If you can show you are “indigent” — no visible income or means of support — you get to walk.

Although not the root of all evil (not all), George Soros has contributed literally tens of millions of dollars to the election campaigns of far-left district attorneys. These campaigns historically attract tiny amounts of cash, so $2 million influx of funds, for instance, can easily determine the outcome.

The crime wave sweeping across the country is the direct result of a years-long campaign by George Soros to bankroll the election of far-left district attorneys committed to undermining law and order.

Over the past six years or so, Soros has poured tens of millions of dollars into the campaigns of DA candidates from coast to coast, achieving a remarkable degree of success by simply overwhelming all the other candidates. Whereas normal DA candidates typically run on five-figure budgets, Soros-backed DA candidates routinely enjoy seven-figure war chests.

Soros is able to do this because federal campaign-finance limitations do not apply to local races. Many states have adopted their own laws capping the amounts that individuals and/or political action committees can contribute to candidates, but those laws are often riddled with loopholes. In some cases, the limits only apply to statewide races. In other cases, Soros can circumvent individual contribution limits by funneling money through the PACs he has set up for this purpose, which generally go by the ironic name of “Safety and Justice.”

The reason Soros has spent so much money on races that used to be relatively obscure, local affairs is straightforward. Just as President Barack Obama seized upon the notion of “prosecutorial discretion” to grant de facto amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants after failing to get amnesty passed by Congress, Soros recognizes that local prosecutors can exercise the same discretion to selectively enforce laws. Rather than spending tens of millions of dollars per state on numerous higher-profile races for state lawmakers, he can spend comparatively smaller amounts on DA races knowing that the outcome will determine how — and even whether — laws are enforced.

As early as 2006, Soros founded and funded “SOS”, or the “Secretaries of State Project”, again with the goal of putting far-left candidates in charge of election rules and procedures. And, even more than is the case with District Attorney races, no one else puts much money into these campaigns. That should be reconsidered,.