Florida men caught up in a purported crime over a Donald Trump -embossed cowboy hat may want to mosey away once they hear what the head of the Republican party had to say about retail theft.
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Police arrested two men in Madeira Beach, Fla., after they found them allegedly burglarizing a store full of Trump merchandise. According to a court document from Pinellas County, Fla., officers arrested Lance Petrisevac, 57, and John Paul Peters, 61, after finding them outside the Trump store while “assigned to patrol the city of Madeira Beach for looters due to Hurricane Helene .”
The report notes that Petrisevac “was loitering in front of the [Trump store]. The defendant was wearing a “Trump’ cowboy hat.” Police said they inspected the store, which carried the same style of hat Petrisevac allegedly wore at the time of his arrest. Because of the hurricane, the report states, the Trump store had been “unsecured.”
In his dealings with police, Petrisevac allegedly said the hat “washed up from the hurricane, and that’s how [it] ended up in his possession.”
Public records show a court ordered Petrisevac and Peters to “stay away from” the Trump store. Both were charged with felony burglary, as well as misdemeanor loitering and prowling. Both men have been arrested several other times this year. In Florida, a burglary at an unoccupied structure is considered a third-degree felony, which can be punishable by fines and up to five years in prison.
On Sept. 29, two days after Petrisevac and Peters’ arrests, Trump took the stage to speak to supporters in Erie, Pa., segueing onto the topic of retail crime . He suggested police should be allowed “one real rough, nasty day” to crack down on shoplifting, asserting that “the police aren’t allowed to do their job” because of societal and political pressures from Democrats.
Moments later, he backed off of the proposal of “one really violent day” in exchange for a single, violent hour, proposing that such action would deter retail crime—present and future.
“One rough hour—and I mean real rough—the word will get out, and it will end immediately,” he told supporters.
The former president also seized upon the state of California’s crime laws, where Proposition 47 raised the felony retail crime value threshold to $950 in 2014.
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“She [Harris] created something in San Francisco—$950, you’re allowed to steal. Anything above that, you will be prosecuted. It works out that the $950 is a misnomer because you can steal whatever you want,” Trump said this weekend.
At the time Prop. 47 went into effect, Vice President Kamala Harris served as California’s attorney general. Throughout the campaign, Republicans have blamed Harris for retail crime rates in California, alleging that they have ratcheted up since Prop 47 passed.
According to the California Budget & Policy Center, “The shoplifting rate—the number of shoplifting crimes per 100,000 Californians—was 210 in 2022, the most recent statewide data available. This is down 17 percent from 2014, the year Prop 47 took effect.”
Trump and other Republicans, like Florida Governor Ron DeSantis , have been clear that they don’t believe states like California and New York have imposed harsh enough penalties on retail crime.
This year in California, residents will vote on Proposition 36 , which could turn some of the retail crime currently classified as misdemeanors into felonies.
The Trump campaign did not immediately return Sourcing Journal’s request for comment on Trump’s statements, but Politico reported a campaign official told the outlet Trump was “clearly just floating it in jest.”
“President Trump has always been the law and order president and he continues to reiterate the importance of enforcing existing laws,” Steven Cheung, the campaign’s communications director, told Politico. “Otherwise it’s all-out anarchy, which is what Kamala Harris has created in some of these communities across America, especially during her time as [California] Attorney General when she emboldened criminals.”
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