Editorial: LA’s smash-and-grab robberies are terrible, but not spurred by criminal justice reform

Flash mob robberies of the kind that have been again hitting Los Angeles area retailers harm far more than the store owners who lose hundreds of thousands of dollars in goods. They harm more than the shoppers and the employees present during the heists who were put in fear of violence from the swarms of rampaging hooded criminals.

These crimes degrade the quality of all our lives — by casting a cloud of hesitancy, then discomfort, then dread over shopping areas and public