By Bob on the Scanner
Robbery of what sounds like the Sunglass Hut in the La Cumbre Plaza. I heard use of a taser on the scanner, but it’s unclear if the suspects used it or the clerks or police?
Suspects described as two Hispanic males and one Hispanic female. Caller saw them leave in an older model beige Yukon SUV. SB Police on it.
This is like the robberies that have been happening in some of the larger CA cities as a result of the new state law making robbery under $950 a Misdemeanor rather than a Felony. Even if they get caught the odds are the punishment will be light. Perhaps brandishing a taser can be considered an armed robbery and raise the penalty level… IF they are caught.
8:43 AM: What bosh! Theft by force or violence or the threat thereof is a felony. Maybe someone in your rabbit hole could check with law enforcement or a lawyer and advise you before you post this sort of knee jerk stuff. (PS: The smash and grab burglaries/thefts that you seemingly refer to were also felonies for the same reason as well as the law that defines burglary as entering into a store with the intent to commit a crime.)
@8600: How rude. Lighten up!
It’s a shame that the store clerks were not armed. We’d see at least a little justice.
Depends on what the DA wants to charge. The DA has wide discretion and nobody pays attention until something major occurs. Follow this to its end (assuming the three involved are caught) and see what they eventually plead to and I bet its a misdemeanor. They may do prison time anyway if they are out on parole, or they may just have them do the 10 days in County thing. A friend of mine was on parole, committed a crime, got 10 days in county jail. He got out, was arrested in Ventura for a very impressive crime, still got only 10 days, then he committed another crime here that was a big enough felony that put him in County for 2-3 years now, not back to prison. The CA prisons are/were under judicial conditions for overcrowding due to COVID emergency rules, for generic overcrowding (more prisoners than than rated capacity).
Everyone will bet upset if we see a rise in vigilantism, but it is the natural progression of circumstances.
If people and their livelihood/possessions are not receiving protection from the tax charging state, they take things into their own hands. Then those folks get more jail time than the thieves and the state/citizen contract is broken. Santa Barbarans need to travel to rougher places and watch how it is handled there and see how systems evolve when the contract is unfulfilled. Eastern Europeans and the Baltics are fine with catching, beating thieves and using packaging plastic to tie the thief to a light post or tree with a note describing the crime. Old ladies take off their shoe and spank them. Asian Buddhist shopkeepers put peace and harmony aside for a minute and beat the living heck out of of thieves with sticks. Steal from one, and all of them show up and take turns. In the favelas of Brazil, they will shoot thieves, they run them over with cars and trucks, no one cares. In the rougher parts of some African cities they will beat, stone, shoot thieves.