On a recent episode of the podcast “The Issue Is”, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass expressed that the rise in retail theft in “has nothing to do” with the lack of penalties for the crime, and that “things like this happen” when profits are involved.

In a Breitbart report, Bass stated:

Well, you know what, things like this happen when there [are] profits to be made, and law enforcement put the task force together that I’m supportive of, and it has a number of different agencies, the city attorney, the district attorney, etc., all at the table.

And I will tell you that, just the other day, they made eleven arrests. And so, these are crimes that are significant. They are felonies. They are not misdemeanors. And one of the things that we need to look at though, rest assured, they are not selling $10,000 purses in poor communities. They’re selling those purses online. They’re selling those stolen goods online.

And so, I believe, when you have a crime like that, all of the actors are culpable and need to be dealt with. And so, we need to look at the online sales of stolen property, because that’s what it is.

Host Elex Michaelson then questioned, “There are a lot of viewers that feel like there aren’t enough consequences for crime in Los Angeles. What do you say to those people?”

“Well, they especially focus on that with these retail crime[s]. I think there [are] a lot of misunderstandings about that," Bass responded. "These are felonies, and in some cases…these are crimes that do have major consequences. The reforms that people object to have nothing, nothing to do with these crimes.”