Union Pacific sent a letter to Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón last month threatening to route rail cargo traffic elsewhere if he would not prosecute theft and looting from cargo trains more aggressively, it was revealed on Monday.
Bloomberg News reported that the rail company sent a letter to Gascón in December, citing repeated theft from its trains near downtown Los Angeles, which came to public attention last week as video of the looting and debris went viral.
Bloomberg noted:
“Customers like UPS and FedEx that utilize our essential rail service during peak holiday season are now seeking to divert rail business away to other areas in the hope of avoiding the organized and opportunistic criminal theft that has impacted their own business and customers,” UP public affairs director Adrian Guerrero wrote in a Dec. 20 letter to the Los Angeles district attorney.
The letter added that “like our customers, UP is now contemplating serious changes to our operating plans to avoid Los Angeles County.” A spokeswoman said in an emailed statement on Sunday that the company is still considering such options.
In the three months leading up to the holiday shopping season, UP said an average of more than 90 containers were compromised per day and more than 100 arrests were made. “Of all those arrests, however, UP has not been contacted for any court proceedings,” the letter stated.
The railroad has increased the number of agents, drones, fencing and trespass detection systems. “We need the L.A. District Attorney’s help to ensure there are consequences for those who prevent us from safely moving customer goods,” UP said in the statement.
Gascón, who won election in 2020 with donations of millions of dollars from left-wing billionaire George Soros, has pursued an agenda of “criminal justice reform” that seeks lenient sentences, and that has enraged local residents during a crime wave.
As Breitbart News reported Tuesday, Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg has been quite about the spate of rail theft, though he has tried to claim credit for incremental improvements at the Los Angeles and Long Beach cargo port facilities.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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