Video footage of criminal suspects being arrested in one California city shows their surprised reaction after being told they would be going to jail instead of being cited and released, a practice many residents and lawmakers have said enables destructive behavior and erodes public safety.
A video montage of bodycam footage taken from the Seal Beach Police Department shows officers being asked if they can be given a citation for their alleged offenses.
“Welcome to Orange County,” one officer is heard saying off camera.
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In various clips, other suspects are heard asking if they can be transferred to Los Angeles County. Under former Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon, who was voted out in November after a turbulent first term in office, criminal suspects were treated much differently than in neighboring Orange County because of Gascon’s criminal justice reforms.
Last year, Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer, a critic of Gascon and other soft-on-crime prosecutors, launched a billboard campaign warning criminals that crime doesn’t pay in his jurisdiction.
“Voters in every California county – including more than 75 percent of voters in Orange County – voted in November to support public safety and voted to approve Prop. 36 to hold repeat thieves accountable – and that is exactly what we are doing. Orange County is different,” Spitzer said in a statement to Fox News Digital.
“We prosecute crime – and the criminals – and the police officers who arrest them – know it,” he added.
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In November, California voters approved Proposition 36, which rolled back some of the state’s most controversial soft-on-crime policies by increasing penalties for theft and drug trafficking crimes.
In the Seal Beach police footage, one person asks an officer if they will issue her a ticket for alleged petty theft.
“When you go to Orange County, you go to county jail,” an officer says.
Another is heard saying, “Can’t we go to LA County?”
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A woman is heard explaining that criminals get prosecuted in Orange County, “You’re in the wrong county to be in.”
In December, Seal Beach authorities released a video showing a trio of alleged shoplifters shocked to learn the penalty for their crime. The footage shows them in an Ulta Beauty store before allegedly stealing $650 worth of merchandise.
The video shows the women entering a Kohl’s department store and allegedly stealing more merchandise, totaling nearly $1,000 in stolen goods.
Police bodycam footage then shows police officers chasing the women before catching and arresting them.
“It’s a felony?” one of the women asks the other in the back of the patrol car.
“B—h, new laws,” the partner responds. “Stealing is a felony, and this Orange County, b—h. They don’t play.”
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