The Union Pacific (UP) railroad, in a letter to Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon, said it may discontinue service to LA after videos of the looting went viral according to a letter obtained by local CBS News and published on Twitter.
“UP considering rerouting it’s trains out of LA county,” said a tweet from CBS News reporter Kristine Lazar. “UP asks DA to be harder on theives. Says they’re back out on the tracks a day after released.”
Letter from @UnionPacific to @LADAOffice on rise in train robberies. 90 containers breached a day, theft up 356% says UP. UP considering rerouting it’s trains out of LA county. UP asks DA to be harder on theives. Says they’re back out on the tracks a day after released. @CBSLA pic.twitter.com/SRNFYkPtiq
— Kristine Lazar (@CBSLAKristine) January 14, 2022
The railroad company estimated that up to 90 shipping containers each day are breached and looted in the county, a 356% increase.
It blamed “social justice” policies of the county for the increase in crime and said that the Gascon should do more to hold criminals accountable—while protecting Union Pacific employees and the local and national railroad infrastructure.
“Even with all the arrests made, the no-cash bail policy and extended timeframe for suspects to appear in court is causing re-victimization to UP by these same criminals,” said Adrian Guerrero, a Union Pacific public relations executive, in the letter to Gascon.
Union Pacific estimated that over 100 arrests had been made by local law enforcement, with UP accounting for “dozens” of arrests, while not being contacted even once by Gascon’s office about court proceedings.
As result, Union Pacific is considering plans to reroute trains away from the county on behalf of their customers, like UPS and FedEx, despite the implications it has to further slowdown the supply chain.
“We do not take this effort lightly, particularly during the supply chain crisis, as this drastic change to our operations will create significant impacts and strains throughout the local, state, and national supply chain systems,” Guerrero said in the letter.
Video and still photos of the trainyards in LA went viral last week after CBS photojournalist John Schreiber tweeted out images that showed debris left over after the trains have been looted.
“Video footage has shown hundreds—if not thousands—of packages thrown across the railroad north of downtown Los Angeles, in the Lincoln Heights neighbourhood,” said the Independent.
