Fox News host Greg Gutfeld suggested Monday that the solution to urban looting sprees lies with only men being in positions of authority—even though, he acknowledged, that would in turn cause “lots of new, bad problems.”
On The Five, Gutfeld reacted to how thieves ransacked a Nordstrom store in Los Angeles on Saturday. Those in the “Flash Rob” made off with upwards of $300,000 in merchandise, the LAPD said in a news release, with one suspect using bear spray on a security guard who had to be treated by paramedics.
Such illegal activity isn’t discouraged enough, according to Gutfeld, who singled out the city’s Democratic mayor, Karen Bass. In a statement Saturday, Bass called the mass theft “absolutely unacceptable,” adding that “those who committed these acts and acts like it in neighboring areas must be held accountable.” She also stated that the city’s police force will work to prevent similar attacks.
ADVERTISEMENT
Yet Bass’ comment about the looting being “unacceptable,” Gutfeld argued, “was wrong.”
“She says it’s not acceptable? Of course it’s acceptable; that’s why it keeps happening! If it was unacceptable, it would never happen,” he claimed.
“If you don’t do anything after this happens, you’re telegraphing to everybody to imitate the behavior,” he continued. “You’re incentivizing this behavior, and if you try to fight back—thanks to the modern, progressive liberal—you will become the villain. You will be investigated. It’s a crime to fight back, but it’s no longer a crime to commit crime.”
Gutfeld then posed a question to his colleagues, two of whom were women: “How many of these problems would still exist…if all the women took a ladies’ week off and they went to Venus?”
Although admitting that “lots of new, bad problems” would arise in such a scenario, the Fox host claimed that “the smash-and-grabs, the no cash bail, the rampant recidivism that we are putting up with would disappear.”
“We have gotten so soft and it’s because we have decided that somehow discipline and punishment is wrong,” he insisted. “We have decided that the carrot is better than the stick when all I want is a carrot shaped like a stick to beat looters with. That’s not too much to ask, right?”
In a decision last month by L.A. County Presiding Judge Samantha Jessner, the use of cash bail for those accused of misdemeanors or nonviolent felonies will be almost entirely eliminated beginning Oct. 1.
“A person’s ability to pay a large sum of money should not be the determining factor in deciding whether that person, who is presumed innocent, stays in jail before trial or is released,” Jessner said.
The county instituted no cash bail for many offenses during the COVID-19 pandemic to help prevent the spread of the disease in jails.
