Union Pacific is one of the largest railroads in the nation. While people tend to associate railroads with the Old West, trains are still a major part of our transportation system. Rather than transporting people hither and yon like they used to, they’re a key part of transporting goods.

However, Union Pacific has an issue with the city of Los Angeles.

A big issue.

An official with Union Pacific (UP) revealed late last week that the organization believes that approximately 90 shipping containers are compromised by theives every day as images have gone viral in recent days showing the aftermath of the thieves stealing thousands of packages.

Adrian Guerrero, director of public affairs for UP, revealed the following in a letter to far-left L.A. District Attorney George Gascon:

• “Since December 2020, UP has experienced an over 160% increase in criminal rail theft in Los Angeles County. In several months during that period, the increase from the previous year surpassed 200%. In October 2021 alone, the increase was 356% over compared to October 2020. Not only do these dramatic increases represent retail product thefts – they include increased assaults and armed robberies of UP employees performing their duties moving trains.”
• Over the last three months, “over 90 containers [are] compromised per day.”
• “This increased criminal activity over the past twelve months accounts for approximately $5 million in claims, losses and damages to UP. And that value does not include respective losses to our impacted customers.”

Guerrero then slammed the city’s far-left politics, saying that they are enabling the criminals who he says brag about being let off easy for their crimes.

…

Guerrero said that the problem is so bad that Union Pacific is now evaluating “serious changes to our operating plans to avoid Los Angeles County.”

That’s not likely to help supply chain issues all that much, but it can’t be worse than having so many containers robbed each and every day.

The problem, as Union Pacific notes, is that when there are arrests made, the charges get dropped down to misdemeanors with just a fine, putting the culprits back out onto the streets so they can rob the railroad yet again.

Frankly, I don’t blame them for considering how to bypass the city entirely. I sure would.

The reason this matters, though, is that theft like this is often something of a gateway crime. People start with stuff like this and unless they learn that crime doesn’t pay, they simply turn around and step up their game. There’s a reason why broken window policing actually works, even if some don’t want to acknowledge that fact.

What this lax approach is going to yield isn’t a kinder, gentler Los Angeles. It’ll be a whole crop of criminals who are ready to take their criminal gang to new levels, including violent crime.

DA George Gascon is killing the city and Union Pacific is just one of the people calling attention to that fact.

It’s going to be up to the voters of Los Angeles to determine if this is what they want. If it is, they’re going to get what they asked for.

Good and hard.