Oakland, California, has become a ghost town due to the rising crime in the liberal city. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, a shocking one out of every 30 residents in Oakland had a car stolen last year. But motor vehicle theft, which climbed 44 percent in 2023, is only one problem. Robberies increased by 38 percent last year, police data show, burglaries also jumped double digits, by 23 percent, and violent crime was up 21 percent as well last year. It’s not surprising then to see otherwise profitable businesses like In-N-Out, which has never closed a location, shut its doors in Oakland, which had been open for nearly two decades, citing crime. “Despite taking repeated steps to create safer conditions, our customers and associates are regularly victimized by car break-ins, property damage, theft, and armed robberies,” the burger chain said in a statement, explaining its decision.
Why can’t Oakland officials get a handle on crime that’s driving people and economic opportunities away from the city? What the city did in response to copper thieves at one busy intersection explains it.
A California city removed the traffic lights from a four-way intersection as the city grapples with thefts attributed to a massive homeless encampment nearby.
Oakland has been experiencing high crime and theft, including people stealing copper wires and the city's infrastructure, according to locals who spoke to CBS News. The city attempted to thwart criminals tampering with its electrical boxes by placing cement barriers over them – to no avail. Now, the city has taken to removing the traffic lights at a busy intersection and replacing them with stop signs.
"It's just telling us that the city is giving up on us," said Tam Le, owner of Le's Auto Body & Engine Repair, nearby the intersection, told CBS News. "If you really want to fix the stop sign, I think you really have to clean up this homeless encampment."
The lights had been working on and off for months due to criminals tampering with the electricity and stealing the wires, the report said. One local, Mason Young, said it was becoming extremely dangerous to drive through the intersection, and noted an accident that recently occurred there. [...]
CBS News reported that the stop signs are temporary, but they currently have no timeline on when they can put the traffic lights back up. (Fox News)
So rather than cracking down on the encampment, they put up stop signs. As Young noted, the city has to "stop just putting band-aids on things."
Oakland is now replacing traffic lights with stop signs due to homeless encampments stealing from Oakland's electrical boxes: pic.twitter.com/Y2lFQ8BJsM
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) May 19, 2024