Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom visited the Union Pacific railroad in Los Angeles on Thursday to help clean up the site following a string of railcar thefts.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m asking myself, what the hell is going on? We look like a third-world country,\u201d Newsom said.<\/p>\n

Newsom was visiting the site following a rash of organized train robberies. There has been a surge in railroad crime, that led Union Pacific to write an urgent letter to Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon criticizing the prosecutor for his no-cash bail policy which the company said contributed to the rise in crime.<\/p>\n

The Democratic governor told reporters that his office had outlined a plan to stop the \u201corganized gangs\u201d of criminals but quickly apologized for using the term \u201cgangs.\u201d \u201cThis is not one-off. This is organized theft,\u201d Newsom said. \u201cThese are organized gangs of people that are coming out, and forgive me for saying gangs, that\u2019s not a pejorative.\u201d<\/p>\n

Newsom also announced a state-level initiative to stop the threat of rail theft and aid Union Pacific in cleaning up the area.<\/p>\n

\u201cCaltrans crews will assist Union Pacific in their efforts over the next few days to clean up the impacted area,\u201d his office announced in a press release. \u201cAdditionally, the California Highway Patrol will continue its efforts to coordinate with local law enforcement to help prevent theft on railways in Los Angeles.\u201d<\/p>\n

More than 90 train containers are broken into daily, according to Union Pacific, and rail theft increased 160% from December 2020 to December 2021 and 365% from October 2020 to October 2021.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat has happened on this stretch of the Union Pacific railroad is unacceptable,\u201d Newsom said. \u201cWe are committed to an all-of-government approach to prevent thefts, prosecute the criminals involved, and clean up local communities.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom visited the Union Pacific railroad in Los Angeles on Thursday to help clean up the site following a string of railcar thefts. \u201cI\u2019m asking myself, what the hell is going on? We look like a third-world country,\u201d Newsom said. Newsom was visiting the site following a rash of organized train …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4734,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion"],"yoast_head":"\n