Smashing Times

L.A. thieves grab some while they can:

Friday’s string of smash and grabs come after Newsom hailed his new bills as a turning point in the Golden State’s bid to tackle the lawless behavior which has plagued California and other states in recent years. The incidents in many cases have been captured on video and posted online, bringing national attention to the rise of retail theft in the Golden State. The bipartisan package of 10 bills creates stricter penalties for repeat offenders and people running professional reselling schemes. The legislation allows prosecutors to combine the value of items stolen from different victims across various counties to help meet the threshold for felony grand theft and enforce harsher penalties for smash-and-grabs and large-scale reselling operations. "This goes to the heart of the issue, and it does it in a thoughtful and judicious way," Newsom said of the package. "This is the real deal."

So is the steal...