Federal law enforcement agencies are working with local officials to crack down on a wave of smash-and-grab raids, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki announced on Friday, a day after she said the pandemic was behind the surge in crime.
Big U.S. cities are being plagued by gangs of thieves storming through luxury stores and making of with thousands of dollars in merchandise at a time.
San Francisco and Los Angeles have been particularly badly affected.
Psaki was asked about the issue on Thursday and said the pandemic was a 'root cause' of the problem.
A day later she brought up the subject withou#t being asked during her daily briefing.
'The Justice Department, the FBI and federal law enforcement has been in touch, in contact with jurisdictions where we have seen this high level of retail theft,' she said.
She said the FBI was working with a task force set up with LA Police and that San Francisco was getting funding to hire 50 more officers.
California is worst affected but cities across the nation have been hit, including Chicago and its suburbs, where more than a dozen suspects attacked a Louis Vuitton store recently stole more than $120,000 worth of high-end clothing and other merchandise.
Federal law enforcement agencies are working with local officials to crack down on a wave of smash-and-grab raids, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki announced on Friday, a day after she said the pandemic was behind the surge in crime
Thieves caught on camera taking $20,000 of merchandise from California Apple store in broad daylight in November. The store was the latest to be ransacked as LA and Bay Area suffer a string of smash-and-grab raids
On Thursday, Psaki said: 'I think many people have conveyed that and also one of the ... root causes of crime in communities is guns and gun violence,' she said. 'And we've seen that statistically around the country.'
Fox News' Peter Doocy continued with his line of questioning
He said: 'So when a huge group of criminals organises themselves and they want to go loot, a store, CVS and Nordstrom a Home Depot until the shelves are clean, you think that's because of the pandemic?'
Psaki replied: 'I think a root cause in a lot of communities is the pandemic. Yes.'
The White House and the president have made the same point a number of times this year, suggesting that a surge in violent crime this year was the result of the country reopening.
In June, Biden said: As we emerge from this pandemic, with the country opening back up again, the traditional summer's ... summer spike may even be more pronounced than it usually would be.'
Psaki's comments follow a string of reports of attacks on well-known stores and the intervention of former President Trump who hours earlier accused the mainstream media of ignoring the issue.
Suspects took about $120,000 of merchandise as they smashed their way through a Louis Vuitton store in Oak Brook, Illinois, last month
A group of about 40 to 50 teenage shoplifters made off with an unknown amount of jewelry and other items in Hayward, California, last month. Experts and officials say national crime networks are behind many of the 'smash-and-grab ' operations
'You know, the media, outside of you people and a few others, the media isn't reporting this problem but when you have hoards of people running in, kids mostly, running in and stealing, robbing stores where drug chains are closing all their stores in different cities because they can't keep them open, we just don't have law enforcement, we're not allowed to have law enforcement,' Trump told Fox & Friends.
But Psaki hinted that part of the blame lay at his door, when she was asked what Biden was doing to take the spike.
'I would say that one: The President proposed additional funding in his budget over the funding that had been proposed by the prior president to increase and support local police departments, make sure we keep cops on the beat.
'The President proposed additional funding in his budget over the funding that had been proposed by the prior precedent to increase in support local, local police departments, make sure we keep cops on the beat.'
California has been worst affected.
At least 18 people broke into a Nordstrom department store in Los Angeles last week, according to city police.
And it followed a string of similar incidents in the San Francisco Bay Area,
