Crime Enters Previously Safe Communities
The billboard is succinct in its message: “Crime doesn’t pay in Orange County.” Also posted on bumper stickers and advertised on public buses across Los Angeles, paid for by federal assets forfeited by criminals, the intended message is clear: don’t come, don’t even think about it, just turn back.
Unfortunately, not every criminal has heeded the call. On the afternoon of July 2nd, at the upscale outdoor mall in Newport Beach — Fashion Island — three men from the Los Angeles area, who had drove down the 405 to the 73 through the local streets to their destination, committed attempted armed robbery that quickly escalated to homicide. They killed a tourist from New Zealand, with her bags of shopping still in hand, running her over 65 feet, in cold blood.
Violent crimes in this coastal community are rare. Sensational stories occur from time to time, more recently in the cities adjacent to Newport Beach than in the city itself. Just south late last year, there was the local murder of a female restaurant worker leaving late night from work, in Laguna Beach, killed with a fire extinguisher, an alarming homicide in an equally lawfully protected community. Then, not two days after the murder at Fashion Island, just north in Huntington Beach, there was the killing of two innocent festive participants of the annual July 4th celebration by a knife-wielding deranged madman. The incidents, among others, had Orange County residents on reddit asking: what’s in the water these days?
“Crime in America is out of control,” said former President Donald J Trump at a stump speech adorned by police cruisers and officers in Howell, Michigan. “I am going to make it, along with the economy, inflation, strong borders, and energy dominance, my top priority.”
The numbers are in; crime, especially violent crime, is down in America. Trump suggested, in a separate speech, that those statistics are lies because the FBI who runs one version of the numbers doesn’t count the big cities into the calculation, and those would skew crime statistics to show it has gone up. Regardless, it matters little to the people of this community — whether the numbers say crime is up or crime is down, one thing is for certain: In Orange County, and Newport Beach specifically, the recent sensational crimes perpetrated by criminals have made people feel more terror and apprehension. The fear of crime is indisputably up.
And it’s not just violent crime that has the citizens of Newport Beach on edge, letting fear influence their day-to-day lives. Nousha Emami, whose family owns a house in the coveted, affluent Newport Coast — a subsection of Newport Beach — had their house robbed last September in a brazen robbery. The thieves, somehow knowing they were gone for the weekend, broke in through a side door and rummaged through their house, breaking open a safe and stealing jewelry, gold coins and other valuables.
In an interview, Ms. Emami said, “Ten years ago we used to leave our door open. We had a small dog and we would leave the front gate open for the dog sitter to take her for walks and feeding her and stuff. We would leave town like that, and we never had anything happen.”
Since then, she went on to explain, they now have ordered security for their house, including motion detectors and cameras, and frequently attend communal gatherings that are put together by the Newport Beach police to help residents combat property theft. What was never an issue, now is at the forefront of her concern and the community around her.
On the app Neighbors, on a thread about another Fashion Island incident that occurred one month after the woman from New Zealand was murdered — where two men in fancy cars were robbed at gunpoint while sitting in their cars in the parking lot — one anonymous member said, “Even Newport doesn’t feel as safe yet no one seems to understand why it’s happening now. It hasn’t been this bad in the 40 plus years I’ve lived in the area. Any ideas?”
Said to ABC7 about the same incident, Angie Francis who was visiting Fashion Island: “If it’s going to be like this I’d rather not go to a mall and fear for my life. South Coast Plaza, same thing, they’re robbing stores so frequently and getting away with it, and no one can do anything. It’s so scary. What are we supposed to do?”
Local politicians and officials are coordinated in response. In an email exchange with the mayor of Newport Beach, Will O’Neill, he responded to questions about the safety of Newport Beach by referencing an article in The Orange County Register that shows crime numbers up in the big cities and down in the smaller cities adjacent. The implication was clear: crime that does exist, minimal as it is in Newport Beach as compared to the bigger cities surrounding it, is a transplant of the crime-ridden cities such as Los Angeles; it is not endemic to the people of this area.
Another notable official of the Orange County area, the district attorney Todd Spitzer, echoes the mayor in placing the onus on the failure of Los Angeles. No fan of Los Angeles’ district attorney George Gascon or Mayor Karen Bass, Mr. Spitzer’s X (twitter) bio says, “ensure OC never becomes LA or SF” and includes the hashtag #NoLAinOC. He frequently comments on crime in Los Angeles and how the city is out of control through failed policy.
In addition, both men — Mayor Will O’Neill and district attorney Todd Spitzer — are Republicans, who have numerous posts on their X feed that show distaste for the Democratic leaning state government. After the homicide that occurred at Fashion Island, Mr. Spitzer said in a news release: “Our shopping centers and malls have become hunting grounds for criminals who are stalking innocent shoppers to rob them blind because our Governor and our Legislature refuse to hold anyone accountable for their actions.” He continued, “Actions have consequences and it shouldn’t have to result in the death of an elderly woman just enjoying a day of shopping with her husband for our elected leaders in Sacramento to realize that this is the product of their soft-on-crime policies which encourage criminality while sacrificing public safety.”
State officials are responding with tough-on-crime measures. Governor Gavin Newsom recently enacted 10 new bills that aim to combat theft and other crimes, with heftier sentencing. Furthermore, on the ballot this year is Proposition 36, which seeks to levy harsher and stricter sentencing, an undoing of Proposition 47 that was put into law ten years ago and aimed to ease an overcrowded prison system through lenient punishment of criminals.
But how effective will these state-wide actions be in alleviating local crime and concern? That remains to be seen, but local action is also being taken. More security guards have been placed at Fashion Island, one placed exactly at the spot of the crime with the homicide; and Mr. Spitzer is using the full extent of the law to punish the three men guilty of the murder, hoping to set a precedent of stern prosecution that sends a strong message to would-be criminals.
An email was sent to the spokesperson for the Newport Beach police department for a comment on how they are responding to the problem, but no comment was given. What is evident is not everyone is fully confident in local law enforcement’s ability. Ms. Emami, as an example, the woman who had her family’s house robbed, was dismayed at the Newport Beach police department’s ability to apprehend those responsible for the robbery. Although helpful initially in making sure the house is secure, they told her in subsequent interactions that there was not much they could do, as just recently over 28 homes had been burglarized in the area. Many arrests occur but a majority are getting away with it, incentivizing — Ms. Emami noted — more criminals to commit crimes.
Whether the answer is stronger policing, stringent sentencing, or social changes to aid those in abject circumstances, what has shifted is a community once oblivious to security concerns, is now living their day to day lives more aware and wary of criminal behavior. The sentiment of many in the area was summed up nicely in an NBC news segment when Charles Stennet, formerly a resident of Los Angeles and now one of Newport, said, “Safety is one of the reasons we moved down here and I hate to see it going more towards the Los Angeles spectrum than what we were expecting down here.”
