Duane Chapman, star of A&E's "Dog the Bounty Hunter," told Newsmax on Friday that "legislatures across the country are decriminalizing crime" with woke Democrat efforts to defund the police, transform the bail system, and make harmful substances legal.
"They're defunding the police, and they're re-funding the criminal," Chapman said.
Chapman responded to "Eric Bolling The Balance" host Eric Bolling's question on the severity of rising crime rates in the United States, levels Bolling described as unheard of since the 1990s.
"Again, I hate to be repetitive, but that's a misdemeanor," Chapman replied. "A smash and grab or a burglary is a misdemeanor. That means that you have no bail. It is ridiculous. Crime pays right now."
In the City of Los Angeles, more than $330,000 in goods were stolen in 11 smash-and-grab incidents over two weeks, according to The Guardian.
Last month, in Union Square, San Francisco, a group broke into Louis Vuitton, Burberry, and Bloomingdale's stores. In Walnut Creek, around 80 people stole merchandise from a Nordstrom and fled to waiting cars in what police called a "planned event." A similar incident occurred at a mall in the nearby city of Hayward.
According to figures from the Los Angeles Police Department, property crime in the city was up 2.6% from 2020 this year, the Los Angeles Times reported.
"Right now, I'm in Colorado, and they're shutting schools down all across the country, and they're doing smash and grabs as they are in San Francisco," Chapman told Bolling. "And if you get caught ... you get a ticket, and you hopefully show up for court. 65% do not show up for court."
Chapman stressed that the changes are a result of policy decisions.
"Five years ago, you got booked, you had a bond set anywhere from 5 to 10,000 [dollars], you went to jail until your bond was posted, and then bail is a continuance of the original imprisonment, the federal law says. So, while you were out on bail, you were still basically in prison," he added.
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