Dozens of Stores Hit by Organized Mobs of Crazed Looters as Chaos Overwhelms San Francisco

Dozens of stores in San Francisco were left ransacked and emptied of goods after organized and violent mobs of hundreds of people looted them while police stood by helplessly.

As Fox News reports:

“At least two dozen businesses were impacted,” Oakland Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong told CBS SF. “Roving caravans of vehicles, targeting cannabis operations, retail shops, pharmacies, throughout the city of Oakland.”

The mobs of thieves hit a handful of pharmacies and marijuana dispensaries in Oakland, including the Wellspring pharmacy that released surveillance video of the scene to the media. Police added that the mobs in Oakland fired 175 shots during the incidents, forcing officers to pull back to safe locations, The Mercury News reported.

The area kicked off the weekend of crime with a swarm of people descending on a Louis Vuitton in San Francisco, clearing out the store of its high-end merchandise. That same night, “hundreds” of vehicles targeted marijuana dispensaries in Oakland, Armstrong told The Mercury News.

On Saturday, about 80 people wearing ski masks and armed with crowbars stormed a Nordstrom location in nearby Walnut Creek. They then rushed from the store to their vehicles with stolen merchandise. Three people have so far been arrested in connection to that incident.

#Breaking About 25 cars just blocked the street and rushed into the Walnut Creek Nordstrom making off with goods before getting in cars snd speeding away. At least two people arrested at gunpoint. pic.twitter.com/AG3R94M9L3

— Jodi Hernandez (@JodiHernandezTV) November 21, 2021

Many experts pointed to California’s new lax laws, which have now lowered Shoplifting $950 or less from felonies to misdemeanors, as one of the main culprits for the new wave of chaos.

Matthew Williams