Pelosi criticizes ‘attitude of lawlessness’ in San Francisco, says she doesn’t know where it comes from

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi blasted an “attitude of lawlessness” across the country Wednesday, decrying a recent surge in smash-and-grab crimes, particularly in her hometown of San Francisco.  Pelosi did not indicate a reason for the increase in crime.

“It’s absolutely outrageous,” Pelosi (D-Calif.) said when asked about the crime spike. “Obviously, it cannot continue. But the fact [is] that there is an attitude of lawlessness in our country that springs from I don’t know where … and we cannot have that lawlessness become the norm.”

“It must be stopped, and it’s not just San Francisco,” Pelosi emphasized. “It’s in our entire country. These people coordinate with each other and they plan traffic patterns and the rest so they can reach their goal and depart very quickly,” Pelosi added of the brazen retail thefts that are grabbing nationwide headlines. “This isn’t like somebody stealing something to go home because they don’t have money to buy. This is about stealing for profit.” 

Pelosi said an upcoming bill in the chamber could include multiple provisions that address the source of income for those “stealing for profit,” which is often online. 

“Within that bill, the Energy and Commerce Committee has something called INFORM… legislation that would require those who are selling online especially is to establish their legitimacy as to where these products came from. Because what people do is they steal things and they sell them online,” Pelosi said.

“The Judiciary Committee has a bill, Save Shopping, which addresses the same problem in of a different way in terms of holding platforms accountable and those selling things accountable for the prominence of those goods,” she added. “Out of the question that people should be able to think that they can just steal things, profit from them and not have accountability.”