Yet again, California’s progressive overlords have proven themselves the enemy of law-abiding everyday Americans: Witness the ugly saga of Will Luna, the hardworking owner of a retro video arcade in San Bernardino.
A crew of thugs from a local homeless encampment robbed and trashed the arcade over the Thanksgiving holiday; someone spotted the loot in the encampment and Luna went to investigate and found some of the stolen merch.
But when he went to the cops, he was told they could not enter or move the tents: “They said, ‘We can’t go inside, but you can,’” per Luna.
So the brave small-biz owner did and recovered some of what was taken.
The rest?
Vanished — including thousands of dollars worth of PlayStation and Nintendo consoles and a vintage X-Men arcade game.
But it’s that line from the cops that reveals the hideous truth here: Luna, and people like him, are on their own in California.
Yes, the US Supreme Court recently ruled that cities have the right to shut down homeless encampments, and places like LA are even making some gestures at real enforcement — but plainly not at the expense of “homeless rights.”
The camps near Luna’s shop don’t only menace him: All the businesses at this retail plaza have suffered break-ins as the camps have grown over recent years.
Degenerate freaks living there would even, Luna told The Post, masturbate in front of the windows of the neighboring salon.
No public good is served by letting the camps proliferate.
It’s terrible for businesses, for law-abiding citizens and for the homeless themselves — many of whom need mental-health and addiction treatment and should not be left “free” to harm others or themselves.
Why, then, are they so beloved of the activist class?
Because for contemporary leftists, people who obey the laws are the bad guys and lawbreakers — be they drug-addled vagrants, illegal immigrants or gangbangers — are the only ones deserving legal protection.
