Rampant Crime Knock-Knock-Knocking On Hollywood’s Door

Celebrities locked arms with their progressive pals in 2020 to promote the Defund the Police narrative.

Among the stars boosting the Defund cause included Natalie Portman, Brie Larson, John Legend, Tessa Thompson, Jane Fonda, America Ferrera, Common, The Weeknd, Taraji P. Henson and Lizzo.

The hard-Left late night crew did the same, including Samantha Bee, Trevor Noah, John Oliver and Seth Meyers.

“One bad flight? ‘Maybe we can make air travel better.’ But if every flight ends up in the Hudson River you might think, ‘it’s time to defund Spirit Airlines,'” Meyers says via his NBC showcase.

True believers? Virtue signaling? One thing is clear. They clammed up, and fast, once wave after wave of crime pummeled major cities in the ensuing months.

The stars held a clear advantage over everyday citizens. The crime washing over Denver, New York, Chicago, Minneapolis and elsewhere didn’t reach their neighborhoods, their homes. They were wrong about the best way to fight crime, and their silence confirmed it. They faced few direct consequences for helping spark a crime renaissance.

Is that beginning to change?

Tragedy struck the Big Apple set of “Law & Order: Organized Crime“ this week. A contractor for the NBC series, Johnny Pizarro, was shot and killed on location in Brooklyn. He had been waiting in his car for work to start.

A few days earlier, “Office” alum Craig Robinson had to cancel his show at Charlotte’s Comedy Zone when a gunman opened fire at the club. Robinson was in the green room waiting to start his set when shots rang out. No one was hurt and police arrested the gunman.

The reboot of FX’s celebrated “Justified” also endured real-world violence this week. The upcoming show, once again starring Timothy Olyphant as Raylan Givens, paused filming after two cars, which were exchanging gunfire, crashed through barriers put up on the set.

Other frightening crime headlines are hitting the very rich and famous.

Drake narrowly escaped a confrontation this month with a man claiming to be the rapper’s son. The 23-year-old man got caught lurking around the superstar’s Beverly Hills-adjacent home worth $75 million. The musician wasn't home at the time.

Even walking down the street in and around Hollywood is no longer safe. 

West Hollywood law enforcement warned area residents last month to watch their pockets. Citizens are complaining about stolen wallets and phones swiped as they stroll through the tony community.

Crime rates in the area have more than doubled since pre-COVID days, police told KTLA News, and shops along the Santa Monica strip are suffering a frightening uptick in grand theft 

Area police pin some of the blame on game activity. In April, law enforcement drew attention to nearly 20 gangs tied to the Bloods and Crips targeting anyone wearing high-priced jewelry or driving expensive cars.

The LAPD says most of the incidents are happening in Hollywood, but it's also a problem in DTLA and even the San Fernando Valley. In some instances, cops say they've seen gangs rolling 3 to 5 cars deep, with gangsters hopping out of their rides and attacking victims, sometimes brandishing firearms and pistol-whipping them.

And late last year, intruders broke into the home of Bravo reality starlet Dorit Kemsley. The men entered the home through a rear window, contronted the “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” star in bed and escaped with roughly $1 million in valuables.

Hollywood walks in lockstep with Democrats, a party renowned for its soft-on-crime policies. The stars are starting to learn the dangerous fallout from that approach.