The following is an important article published by the Epoch Times January 17th. The distribution of food and supplies could become even more difficult and mean even more shortages and more price increases if this problem is not solved quickly. If you think preparing is too hard or too expensive it is only going to get worse, now is the time. Please don’t put it off. Please ask us if you need help.
“Instead of making train burglars think twice by threatening jail time, Los Angeles County has made Union Pacific reconsider sending its goods through the area, according to a letter from the company.
Union Pacific (UP), the nation’s largest rail freight company, sent a letter to Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón stating that train burglaries in his jurisdiction have increased by 356 percent from October 2020 to October 2021.
On train tracks in Los Angeles, a carpet of ripped-open packages and plastic stretches as far as the eye can see. At one point, packages on the tracks piled up so much that they derailed a train.
One reporter at the scene where several such burglaries take place estimated that one in every five train cars was torn open and looted. In its letter, UP said that in the past three months, thieves have broken into 90 train containers every day. Often, they’ve carried weapons and assaulted train employees.
Thieves have taken a grand total of $5 million from the railroad, according to the letter.
Instead of charging thieves with felonies, the district attorney’s office has sent them to local courts, reduced their charges to misdemeanors or petty offenses, and released them after they paid a small fine, according to UP. The whole process takes about one day.
“Criminals boast to our officers that charges will be pled down to simple trespassing—which bears no serious consequence,” the letter reads.
Los Angeles County’s decision to allow the tracks to become too dangerous for trains will have nationwide consequences. Los Angeles County is one of the most important U.S. transportation hubs.
The county has both of the two largest U.S. ports: the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach, which together receive more than 9 million containers yearly.
At the Port of Los Angeles, freight trains carry about a third of this never-ending river of containers to their eventual destinations across the United States.
Currently, UP runs three of the port’s five main rail yards. The Port of Long Beach also depends on UP for railroad shipping. Without Union Pacific, the ports would have to find a new way to export containers (from the ports to U.S. cities)."
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