The Walnut Creek City Council will hold a special meeting Wednesday to discuss hiring five new police officers to patrol downtown in response to the Nov. 20 looting of Nordstrom by 90 masked bandits rushing the store just before closing, making off with about $125,000 in merchandise.
The city would spend $2 million of its remaining $4 million of federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding on new Broadway Plaza security measures. In addition to the five police officers — costing $1.6 million if funded through the end of June 2023, as recommended by staff — the city would also spend $215,000 for additional security cameras and $35,000 for a tether drone 100 feet over the area.
The council would also allocate $130,000 for immediate overtime pay for additional officers three days a week through June 30, 2022.
The staff recommendations would leave the city with $2 million in ARPA funds to spend in the future.
The council will also likely formally approve sending letters to the district attorney, state legislators and Gov. Gavin Newsom, expressing concern and asking for additional resources.
The Nov. 20 theft made national headlines for its scale and boldness. Suspects arrived in up to 25 vehicles just before 9 p.m., blocking the street in front of Nordstrom as they raced inside. Two employees were injured, one was pepper-sprayed and another with threatened with a knife, according to a staff report for Wednesday’s meeting.
Police arrested three people. The attack was one of many similar attacks in the Bay Area that weekend by dozens of armed suspects at stores in Oakland, San Francisco, Hayward, Pleasanton, and San Jose. Authorities have said it’s not clear whether the cases are related.
The street running through Broadway Plaza is closed until the end of the year at least, Mayor Kevin Wilk has said.
The Walnut Creek City Council will meet at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday at the council chamber, at 1666 N. Main St.. The meeting can be accessed on the city’s YouTube channel or at www.zoom.us (webinar ID: 83663187906, passcode 015005).
46 comments
Support and allow the police to do their job.
Prosecute those arrested.
This county needs a tough-on-crime DA, not whatever it is that holds that title now.
The people elected to represent us have failed again.
Replace them with real and honest people, not politicians.
Our current DA was elected by just a few hundred votes lead, and that’s after the 200,000 did George Soros topped her campaign off with. When she won by such a narrow margin, I gave hell to my moderate, conservative and traditional friends who stayed home and did not vote.
+1
I agree, Cellophane. Give police the weapons they need. Don’t make rules about using force (news flash- bad guys don’t play by the rules). Back the Blue.
Please stop sanitizing it and calling them ‘looters’. They are knocking over employees and spraying them with bear spray. THEY ARE ROBBERS. This is not just a property crime but a violent felony.
@Leo
Right on……these thugs are armed robbers and should be treated that way
Agree with @Leo – this is not looting. Looting is when stores are closed due to a natural disaster or another emergency and there is a lockdown for the residents, then people take advance of this situation and start “looting” the stores. Call the mass robberies what it really is- the politicians need to stop sugar coating the words they use and get back to brass tax.
Dictionary sez…… Looting:
To take by force or without right; steal:
@Jellyfinger
This may come as a shock, but in California we do not define crimes based on definitions in Webster’s dictionary. We actually use a little thing called the California Penal Code.
California Penal Code 211 PC defines the crime of robbery as “the felonious taking of personal property in the possession of another, from his person or immediate presence, and against his will, accomplished by means of force or fear.” Robbery is a felony punishable by up to 9 years in state prison.
Are they gonna form a committee? A special task force?
By the way, throwing money at stuff doesn’t magically fix it. Walnut Creek has a reputation problem right now. Even with diligence a tarnished reputation takes a long, long time to fix assuming there is no set backs.
What Walnut Creek and the rest of the area needs right now is people. The right people doing the right things at all levels starting from the top. Only then will things change for the better.
+1
Typical knee jerk reaction. Make sure to invite the D.A. and your State Rep. Demand they enforce the laws and tell the State Rep. to repeal Prop 47. If they claim those that want Prop 47 repealed as right-wingers, tell them to shovevit
No amount of overtime or funding will solve this. Soft judges make hardened criminals. All this woke b.s. feel good measures have done nothing but emboldened the thieves.
They’ve already released two of them! Catch and release is aiding and abetting.
+1
The politicians that are currently in office are the same people that brought us this mess in the first place. They all need to be replaced asap, or this will continue and worsen.
All i can picture from this council is Knights Who Say “Ni!”
“Bring us a shrubbery!”
“one that looks nice. And not too expensive.”
Hey Walnut Creek City Council let the police do their job. When the BLM terrorist go unchallenged in your town this is what happens.
Look at democrat run city crime rates. If you want positive change do not vote democrat.
LETS GO BRANDON!!!!
Can I bring my legal, semiautomatic firearm to offer assistance to a police force that seems incapable of protecting property tights?
Yes. Your 2nd amendment right ensures your ability to defend yourself.
Remember, all California gun laws are unconstitutional. All laws repugnant to the constitution are null and void.
I hope the “looters” get shot in the a$$ and/or the knees. The scumbags need to face severe consequences, non-lethal of course.
Sam,
It seems as thought California (Kommifornia) law makers, who write the ridiculous gun laws want the good people, trying to defend themselves, to be at an engineered disadvantage.
Did you read the latest from the 9th Circus Court, upholding the ban on high capacity magazines? It’s “only a little infringement on one’s Constitutional right.” So, our rights are not absolute? I can worship in whatever manner I want, but only if the courts say so because it’s just a little infringement? Give me a freaking break!
9th circuit is a leftist clown show. The constitution is the law of the land.
My, how things have changed from July 2020,
“Also taking a major hit — about $913,000 — in the 2020-2021 budget is the city’s Police Department. Nevertheless, many of the public comments to the council Tuesday night implored further cuts, “defunding” the police and spending that money for other services.”
https://tinyurl.com/2yukztpe
Aside from possible hit to home values, wonder how much shopping without dollars attacks will permanently reduce sales tax revenue ? ?
Alright then, time to let them have it
WC City Council, Um 5 police officers? Not even close to warding off criminals if there are 90 or more of them again with crow bars, hammers, pepper spray etc. cops don’t have a chance, unless they shoot some of them and then they will sure learn. Having more cameras installed to capture people masked up and hoodies to cover their faces, covered or removed license plates especially at night time, ok good luck with seeing anything (unless they have a distinctive gait or recognizable clothing or distinctive emblems on their cars, maybe someone will rat them out, then there might be success.
Look WC Council it’s a start in the right direction, but you need to do better than this. For the retailers- Suggest the stores to put trackers in all the merchandise, just like LuLu did and it lead them to the thieves and recover the goods. For the patrons- you need to put more police and have them use excessive force when deemed necessary and Do Not penalize them for doing there jobs, we need them now more than ever to make it safe for all.
Is Sheriff Joe Arpaio still available?
A simple solution to the looting problem, but will not be popular with store’s profit managers.
Move the high profit, easy to carry, luxury stuff to the second floor, and put heavy, large, hard to carry stuff near the doors. Looters need and want fast in and out routes. Imagine a bunch of looters taking the escalators down from the second floor, carrying a load of purses all the way through the store. By the time they got to the exits, the cops would have been called and had the exits barricaded.
@masked – excellent idea! Easy for the stores to do and won’t cost much. Plus, it gets the shoppers to go to all of the floors; thus, possibly buying an item they normally wouldn’t buy.
I work at Macy’s, often in handbags. I worked at the Stanford Shopping Mall Macy’s for 5 years in handbags. Handbags are not that heavy, 2 people could easily carry 5 or more handbags each. All our expensive name brand handbags are chained, or otherwise locked up, however they still get stolen. Just a few weeks ago a single male walked in from the mall and cut the wire to 4 Coach handbags and walked out, I was alerted by a customer and just saw the back of him. by the time security got there he was gone. We have theft in Palo Alto, but not like that, mostly it was one person stealing clothing, or smaller items. Often security catches those, because they walk from department to department, and a sales asscociate can often spot them, there are some tell tale signs, refuses any help from sales personal, in fact go out of their way to avoid engaging with sales personal, often carry big shopping bags. We can alerted security and they follow them on video, when they have enough evidence they detain the person and call police. Our security have handcuffs, but not guns.
The first looting of DTWC was 5/31/2020. This is now 11/30/2021. 18 months. What took so long? Time for a new city council.
Any crackdown on retail theft disproportionately effects people of color, and is therefore racist. People of color are in need of things that Nordstroms has and if they need it, it is not a crime to steal it.
From Becton’s own office:
“Theft Offenses Committed During State of Emergency (PC 463)
In order to promote consistent and equitable filing practices the follow analysis is to be applied when giving consideration to filing of PC 463 (Looting):
1. Was this theft offense substantially motivated by the state of emergency, or simply a theft offense which occurred contemporaneous to the declared state of emergency?
a. Factors to consider in making this determination:
i. Was the target business open or closed to the public during the
state of emergency?
ii. What was the manner and means by which the suspect gained
entry to the target business?
iii. What was the nature/quantity/value of the goods targeted?
iv. Was the theft was committed for financial gain or personal need?
v. Is there an articulable reason why another statute wouldn’t
adequately address the particular incident?”
Might as well add these stupid questions to the list:
Was this driven by climate change and/or Covid?
Was it a mostly peaceful act of violence?
Is there a cultural reason for their looting?
Is it some sort of hobby for like-minded people?
Perhaps this is simply how they socialize?
Is this a positive contribution to diversity?
Now a serious question:
How in the heck can anyone keep a straight face when our elected officials lay this crap on us?
What Walnut Creek needs to do is to raise the parking meter fees. That will fix this. Raising taxes always works.
LGB
When are Americans going to stand against concentration camps in Australia?
Sam, the adults are talking here…….
Good. For the record, Russ is all about the concentration camps in Australia. Just because you’re out of meth and hormone blockers don’t make concentration camps ok
Apparently some people didn’t get the memo that calling it “looting” is….wait for it….RACIST. And oh good, more cops on unsustainable taxpayer-funded pensions who can maybe, MAYBE make some arrests of these “underserved and oppressed populations” who will then either be charged with much lesser offenses or not charged at all. And why is that? Because a vast majority of voters in CA, particularly the Bay Area, and ESPECIALLY in upper middle-class/wealthy white enclaves are pathetic, virtue-signaling morons who love to pat themselves on the back and high-five each other for electing progressive “restorative justice” DA’s.
Too little, too late.
Walnut Creek, like so many other cities, wanted to cut funding. Let them wallow in their own “expertise” and their utopia.
And as long as Becton is in office, charges will not be filed. See anon’s comment above if Nov 30.
Soft on crime. You made your bed, now sleep in it.
Nope.
Per this article, Nordstrom’s loses $125k of goods, presumably retail value at that. City steps in to spend $2 million to “protect” retailers. A little disproportionate?
Clearly there are plenty of other indirect costs of from these stupid criminals actions, but do they add up to $2 million in taxpayer $? Seems like a hysterical media induced knee jerk reaction.
Let’s do what Piedmont has done and put license plate readers at every single entrance and exit into the city
You voted for this California. Enjoy
You do know that Trump also let out several prisoners, he was advice by Kim Kardasian. I remember conservative host Mark Levin screaming about it, and it is on record. Not sure it he can be blamed for California’s problem. This is no longer a left or right issue. Very liberal hosts on KGO Mark Thompson and Pat Thurston have both supporter tough laws for anyone caught in those smash, grab and run, Pat has been very critical of the SF DA Bodin. I’m for recalling Bodin, don’t live in SF so I don’t get to vote. As a side note Copenhagen has been voted on of the safest cities to visit. In fact many big cities in Europe are quite safe and also very liberal.
…anybody know the outcome of the WC city council meeting this morning on the approval of more LE , etc?
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