Louis Vuitton (LVMH), pharmacies ... Wave of lightning flights to the United States, "it's domestic terrorism"
It is a phenomenon that worries the authorities.Groups of people, who appear as a cloud of locusts, rob a store in a few minutes and escape by cars.Several luxury brands, victims of these raids, said they were distraught in the face of this wave of flash flights perpetrated as the end of year celebrations in the United States approach.Latest example, Saturday, November 20.About 80 masked people have attacked a Nordstrom department store in a shopping center in Walnut Creek, near San Francisco, taking their loot in 25 cars waiting for them.
The day before, around forty thieves had raid in a Louis Vuitton store in San Francisco.The French luxury brand had been the victim a few days earlier from another flash attack near Chicago, when about fifteen people had stolen for more than 100.000 dollars of bags and clothing.It was the third assault against the brand in a month in the region.
A gang devalues a jewelry store
Faced with these raids, the country's stores redoubled a precaution by strengthening their security services, but the surprise effect is difficult to adorn.And thieves do not hesitate to resort to violence.In Oakland, bands targeting cannabis stores opened fire on the police."The level of flight to the organized display that we see is just unacceptable," California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom denounced on Tuesday on Tuesday."Stores and customers should feel safe by shopping for the holidays," he said.
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These flights occur at a key period for American merchants: Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, the "Black Friday" will launch the season of Christmas shopping.Gavin Newsom ordered a unit of the state motorway police specializing in organized crime to collaborate with local police to resolve these cases.At the time of this announcement, a gang of around forty thieves robbed a jewelry in Hayward, near San Francisco.
Further north, in Oakland, it was a clothing store that was emptied in a flash.The surveillance images show around thirty thieves, masked and hooded, enter the shop to come out with shoes, clothes or caps.The operation lasted less than a minute.
Strong images
These "Flash Mob flights", or flash flights, are not new in the United States, but they have accelerated in recent months and aim without distinction pharmacies, small stores and signs of luxury.And the number of thieves as well as the speed of their raids cause disbelief."I would not even describe that organized crime, it is domestic terrorism," was outraged Rachel Michelin, president of the California traders' association, on the local channel Fox40.
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For Jeffrey Ian Ross, professor of criminology at the University of Baltimore, nothing indicates that the display flight experiences a significant increase in the country.But the media coverage of raids and the dissemination of images on social networks has been able to inspire other groups."It's daring, the images are strong".The police, already overwhelmed by the increase in murders and other violent crimes, "cannot follow" in the face of the volume of stolen goods and the number of people who resell them, according to Jeffrey Ian Ross.
Among the many gray areas of this phenomenon include the possible links between these flights organized in the San Francisco region, or the way in which the authors of these raids communicate and coordinate themselves.Rachel Michelin claims more severe laws for this type of organized flight, believing that thieves seem to coordinate via social networks."We will have to have a frank discussion about the laws in force which, apparently, do not work," she said.
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