Politics
Sacramento city attorney reportedly threatened to fine Target store for reporting theft crimes
The City of Sacramento, California’s legal department threatened to fine a popular retail store for public nuisance over numerous calls to police after thieves stole from its Land Park location multiple times, according to a report.
The Sacramento Bee reported that a person with knowledge of the warning who wanted to remain anonymous out of fear they could be retaliated against, said Sacramento officials warned they would issue an administrative fine to the Target at 2505 Riverside Boulevard in Land Park, during the past year.
A police spokesperson confirmed the location to the publication after being asked about the alleged warning.
After learning about the city’s warning and comparable actions across the state, state lawmakers added an amendment to a retail theft bill, outlawing these types of threats toward businesses from authorities.
SACRAMENTO MASS SHOOTING SUSPECT FOUND DEAD IN JAIL CELL WHILE AWAITING TRIAL
Gov. Gavin Newsom, Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, and Senator Mike McGuire are pushing a package with 14 bills that tighten penalties on retail theft offenses. The lawmakers believe their legislation will help deal with retail theft crimes, rather than pass changes to Proposition 47.
Last month, California’s Secretary of State announced that petitioners had garnered more than enough signatures to place a measure to reform Proposition 47 on the November ballot. Prop 47, a voter-approved initiative passed in 2014, loosened the penalties for drug and theft crimes in California and has been blamed for California’s rampant theft problems.
Shortly after the measure to reform Prop 47 was approved, legislators in the Democrat-controlled Capitol in Sacramento began debating legislation that they say would address crime in the state. Critics say the move is essentially a “poison pill” that Democrats will use to discourage people from voting to fix Prop 47 in November by arguing that doing so would undo the legislation that combats crime.
NEWSOM PROPOSES DEFUNDING LAW ENFORCEMENT, PRISONS, PUBLIC SAFETY AS CALIFORNIA FACES MASSIVE DEFICIT
“Newsom keeps insisting that reports of theft are dropping – well now we know why. Not only are thieves let off without even a slap on the wrist, but now the victims are being threatened for even reporting crimes,” California Assembly GOP Leader James Gallagher told Fox News Digital. “Everyone can see that Newsom’s pro-criminal policies are a failure – no matter how much his allies try to cover it up.”
Criminal defense attorney Nicole Castronova also weighed in on the matter, telling Fox News Digital politicians in California are leaving citizens out to dry, as “crime begets crime.”
“Lawmakers have allowed smash and grab robberies to terrorize our cities. As a consequence, retailers are leaving major cities in droves – taking jobs with them,” she said.
Castronova explained that losing jobs directly correlates to an increase in crime.
‘UNETHICAL’: CALIFORNIA SHERIFF RIPS DEMS FOR PLOTTING ‘IMMORAL’ MOVE TO SINK ANTI-CRIME PROPOSAL
She also said retailers are being victimized by the government for failing to protect them.
“Now the government seeks to silence those retailers and, in turn, manufacturers lower crime rates,” Castronova said. “No citizen should ever be penalized for lawfully calling upon its government for protection.”
Alexander Gammelgard, president of the California Police Chiefs Association, testified during the State Assembly’s first retail theft committee meeting in December, saying he was surprised anyone would ever attempt to make a nuisance case out of someone calling to report a legitimate crime.
“I don’t think there is a place for that,” Gammelgard said.
NEWSOM URGED TO HALT PROGRESSIVES’ ‘SCHEMING’ TO DERAIL POPULAR ANTI-CRIME INITIATIVE
It is not clear why the city attorney, Susana Alcala Wood, and her office would issue warnings to businesses like Target, seeking assistance from police. Her office did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
California State University, Stanislaus criminal justice professor Blake Randol told the Sacramento Bee he found the situation in Sacramento to be disconcerting. He told the publication the city has a responsibility to help residents, and if the city were to threaten public nuisance for reporting crimes, it could deter a business from making a report.
Randol also said city officials may issue warnings to make it look like crime statistics are going down.
“What’s problematic is that what Target is complaining about is a legitimate crime concern,” Randol told the Sacramento Bee. “The city does have a responsibility to be more responsive to the public and be responsive to crime control demands from the public.”
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The location in question has drawn criticism from the local community, as reported by a local CBS station.
Sacramento City Councilman Rick Jennings II, city police and the city attorney’s office reportedly put together a plan after seeing the reports, to meet with the retail store and produce a safety plan to mitigate incidents, the Sacramento Bee discovered through a public records request.
“It would be great to be at the store and show what we have actually [been] working on to address the concern raised most recently in all the news this week,” Alex Garcia, a former director of Target’s governmental affairs, wrote in an email regarding past news coverage. The note was sent to Dennis Rodgers, Jennings’ chief-of-staff.
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As a result of the collaboration, the Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design was created to address concerns brought up in the reports.
The plan also included “placement of security measures such as alarms, cameras, and security personnel” along with the implementation of “light fixtures, landscaping, wayfinding and space activation measures,” the internal communications reportedly showed.
During the meetings, city officials also got a chance to discuss their “concerns” with Target, which also acknowledged its “problems,” according to a statement from Jennings.
The concerns raised, though, are still vague.
Fox News Digital reached out to both Target and the City of Sacramento for a statement but did not immediately hear back.
The publication reported that data from the police department shows city law enforcement officials saw an increase in theft, robbery and shoplifting at the city’s three Target locations during 2023.
In 2023, Target locations in Sacramento reportedly had 375 calls for service for theft, robbery and shoplifting, compared to the 80 crimes reported for theft, robbery and shoplifting by Sacramento police in 2023.
Fox News Digital’s Andrew Mark Miller contributed to this report.
Politics
Trump preaches unity as he accepts GOP presidential nomination days after surviving assassination attempt
MILWAUKEE – Five days after surviving an assassination attempt, former President Trump pleaded for national unity as he formally accepted the GOP presidential nomination during the culminating moment of the 2024 Republican National Convention.
“I am running to be president for all of America, not half of America, because there is no victory in winning for half of America,” Trump emphasized as he addressed the thousands of delegates, party officials and activists packed into Milwaukee’s Fiserv Forum and to the national audience of Americans watching the convention from home.
“The discord and division in our society must be healed. As Americans, we are bound together by a single fate and a shared destiny. We rise together. Or we fall apart,” the former president noted.
The shooting, at Trump’s rally Saturday in western Pennsylvania where one spectator was killed, along with the gunman, instantly impacted the tone and message of the convention, and as Trump has acknowledged, altered his convention address.
MCCARTHY SAYS TRUMP SHOWING ‘REAL LEADERSHIP’ TO THE WORLD AFTER ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT
“Let me begin this evening by expressing my gratitude to the American people for your outpouring of love and support following the assassination attempt at my rally on Saturday,” Trump said. “As you already know, the assassin’s bullet came within a quarter of an inch of taking my life.”
The former president and GOP presidential nominee said that “so many people have asked me what happened, and therefore, I’ll tell you what happened.”
“You’ll never hear it from me a second time, because it’s too painful to tell,” he said.
Trump recounted the shooting, saying he knew “we were under attack.”
Trump praised the “very brave Secret Service agents who rushed to the stage and pounced on top of me for protection.”
“There was blood pouring everywhere, and yet, in a certain way, I felt very safe, because I had God on my side,” Trump said. “The amazing thing is that prior to the shot, if I had NOT moved my head at the very last instant, the assassin’s bullet would have perfectly hit its mark, and I would not be with you tonight.”
“I am not supposed to be here tonight. I stand before you in this arena only by the grace of almighty God. Many people say it was a providential moment,” Trump said.
But the crowd chanted: “Yes you are. Yes you are.”
And he acknowledged that “none of us knows God’s plan, or where life’s adventure will take us. But if the events of last Saturday make anything clear, it is that every single moment we have on earth is a gift from God. We have to make the most of every day for the people and country we love.”
EMOTIONAL TRIBUTE TO COREY COMPERATORE DURING RNC SPEECH: ‘SPIRIT THAT FORGED AMERICA’
Trump also pointed to the helmet and firefighting jacket of Corey Comperatore, the former fire chief killed at the rally, which were placed on the stage by the former president. And he asked the audience to observe a moment of silence.
He said he has raised more than $6 million in recent days for Comperatore’s family, and the families of the two men who were seriously wounded in the shooting.
The former president also took time to thank his wife, former first lady Melania Trump.
“On this journey, I am deeply honored to be joined by my amazing wife, Melania,” Trump told the crowd in Milwaukee during an emotional speech.
He then referred to her letter to America, in which she called for unity in the wake of the assassination attempt against her husband.
“I am thinking of you, now, my fellow Americans,” she wrote. “Dawn is here again. Let us reunite. Now.”
The former president praised the letter.
“And Melania, thank you very much. You also did something really beautiful. A letter to America calling for national unity. And it really took the Republican Party by surprise. I will tell you, it was beautiful,’ he said.
“Some very serious people said that we should take that letter and put it as part of the Republican platform. That would be an honor, wouldn’t it?”
The former president also thanked his family, especially his children and grandchildren.
But in the wake of his brush with death, the former president called for a lowering of the temperature in a political climate seared with heated rhetoric from both the right and the left.
“In an age when our politics too often divide us, now is the time to remember that we are all fellow citizens—we are one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all,” Trump stressed.
“We must not criminalize dissent or demonize political disagreement. In that spirit, the Democrat Party should immediately stop weaponizing the Justice System and labeling their political opponent as an enemy of democracy, especially since that is not true,” Trump claimed.
Making a pitch “to every citizen, whether you are young or old, man or woman, Democrat, Republican, or Independent, black or white, Asian or Hispanic,” Trump repeatedly criticized the administration of the Democratic incumbent in the White House, but only mentioned President Biden’s name once.
“They will not have done the damage that Biden has done, only going to use the term once,” Trump said. “Biden. I’m not going to use the name anymore. Just one time.”
LIVE UPDATES: REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION
Pointing to inflation, the crisis at the nation’s southern border with Mexico, and the ongoing wars in Ukraine and in Gaza, Trump argued that “it is time for a change. We simply cannot sustain four more years of this administration.”
Trump reminded his supporters that the MAGA movement “has never been about me, it has always been about you.”
“It has always been about the hardworking, patriotic citizens of America,” he said.
Trump was joined on the podium following his address by his family and by his running mate Sen. JD Vance, and the senator from Ohio’s family.
The former president announced on Monday as the convention kicked off that the 39-year-old Vance, a one-time Trump critic who has transformed into a leading America First disciple, would serve as his running mate.
“I am thrilled to have a new friend and partner fighting by my side: the next Vice President of the United States, the current Senator from Ohio, J.D. Vance, and his incredible wife, Usha,” Trump said minutes earlier as he gave a shout-out during his address to his running mate.
CLICK HERE FOR THE LATEST FOX NEWS UPDATES FROM THE GOP CONVENTION
Republicans used their convention as a venue to reunite the party and energize delegates and activists ahead of the final stretch of the campaign in Trump’s 2024 election rematch with Biden.
The push for party unity was on display throughout the convention and included former GOP presidential rivals Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida and former U.N. ambassador and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley – who both battled Trump in a contentious primary season – delivering speeches from the podium in support of the former president.
The Biden campaign took aim at Trump, Vance, and Republicans as the GOP convention wrapped up.
“Over the course of the last four days Republicans have offered their vision for the country. And now it’s never been more clear that Americans will face a stark choice, a contrasting vision for this country,” Biden principal deputy campaign manager Quentin Fulks emphasized.
“The Biden-Harris ticket who’s focused on uniting the country, creating opportunity for everyone, and lowering costs or the Trump-Vance one – with a harmful agenda of taking away Americans’ rights, hurting the middle class, and making life more expensive – all while benefiting the ultra-rich and greedy corporations benefit,” Fulks argued.
Trump’s convention address comes less than two months after he was convicted of 34 felony counts in the first criminal trial of a former or current president in the nation’s history. But the Supreme Court ruled on the issue of presidential immunity–a question stemming from charges brought against Trump by Special Counsel Jack Smith. The high court ruled that a president is immune from “official acts.” Trump is using that Supreme Court precedent in an effort to overturn the verdict and appeal.
A judge delayed Trump’s possible sentencing until September.
Last month, though, Biden severely stumbled with a disastrous debate performance against Trump, which has led to a rising chorus of calls from within the Democratic Party for the president to end his 2024 re-election bid and bow out of the race.
Reports over the past 24 hours indicated that top Democrats – including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi – have had frank conversations with Biden about him ending his campaign.
And as Trump delivered his convention address, speculation was rampant that the president could bow out of the 2024 election within days.
But Biden campaign spokesman TJ Ducklo told Fox News Digital those reports are “entirely inaccurate.”
And another Biden aide tells Fox News Digital that Biden “is more committed than ever to winning this election.”
Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.
Politics
Trump describes assassination attempt during RNC speech
Former President Trump said Thursday that divine providence saved him from being killed by an assassin in his first public remarks since he was injured by a gunman’s bullet over the weekend.
“I’m not supposed to be here tonight,” Trump told the crowd at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. “I stand before you in this arena only by the grace of almighty God.”
Trump said that this was the only night he would speak about the incident — “You’ll never hear it from me a second time, because it’s too painful to tell” — before he accepted the GOP presidential nomination.
In a subdued voice, Trump recounted what happened during a rally Saturday in Butler Township, Pa. He was speaking about immigration and turned to gesture toward a screen with a chart with immigration statistics. Then he heard a “loud whizzing sound” and “felt something hit me really, really hard on my right ear. I said to myself, ‘Wow, what was that?’”
He cupped it, and his hand was covered in blood, Trump said.
“Bullets were continuing to fly as very brave Secret Service agents rushed to the stage,” Trump said, praising their actions.
“They pounced on top of me so I would be protected. There was blood pouring everywhere. Yet, in a certain way, I felt very safe, because I had God on my side,” he said.
He said the rally crowd didn’t scurry, but instead waited to see if he had survived, leading him to try to reassure them as he was rushed to safety by the Secret Service agents — an image that has grown iconic among Republican voters.
“I wanted to do something to let them know I was OK. I raised my right arm, looked at the thousands of people who were breathlessly waiting and started chanting, ‘Fight! Fight! Fight!’” Trump said, prompting the delegates to chant the slogan.
“Once my clenched fist went up and it was high into the air …. the crowd realized I was OK and roared with pride for our country like no crowd I have ever heard before,” Trump said.
He paid homage to former Fire Chief Corey Comperatore, who was killed while shielding family members at the rally. Other attendees were also injured.
Trump said that $6.3 million had been raised for the three families, and walked over to a helmet and jacket that he said belonged to Comperatore and kissed the helmet.
Politics
See How Trump’s and Biden’s Campaign Rhetoric Compares
In the wake of the recent assassination attempt on former President Donald J. Trump, much attention has focused on heated political rhetoric in the 2024 presidential race. To capture a slice of the candidates’ language, we examined all of the campaign emails Mr. Trump and President Biden sent in the week before the deadly shooting at a Trump rally. Here’s how they discussed each other, their political rivals and what’s at stake in November’s election.
Soon after these emails were sent, a man fired multiple shots toward the stage during Mr. Trump’s rally in Butler, Pa., killing one spectator and critically injuring two others. Immediately following the assassination attempt, Mr. Trump added the words “unity” and “peace” to some of his emails. Mr. Biden noted “the need for us to lower the temperature in our politics.” The following day, Mr. Trump assured supporters that “we will CRUSH the Far-Left plot to steal America.”
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