Now that crime, promoted by those campaigns they donated heavily to, has reached their doorsteps, it’s an emergency.

Private security contractors report that a recent string of high-profile retail robberies and home burglaries in upscale Los Angeles neighborhoods has caused a dramatic uptick in requests for their services and prompted many of their wealthy clients to change their routines out of a mix of caution and fear.

Living in fear because of the political motives of others really sucks, especially when property and lives are at risk.

Recent high-profile crimes involving the entertainment community include the Oct. 27 robbery of the Encino home of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Dorit Kemsley, resulting in the theft of $1 million in luxury handbags, jewelry, watches and other goods. Actor and former BET host Terrence Jenkins escaped a robbery attempt by a masked crew near his Sherman Oaks home on Nov. 10.

Then Hollywood was shaken by the fatal shooting of 81-year-old philanthropist Jacqueline Avant (wife of legendary music exec Clarence Avant and mother-in-law to Netflix’s Ted Sarandos) during an attempted burglary at her Trousdale Estates home on Dec. 1; the perpetrator, recently paroled from state prison, was charged with her murder on Dec. 6.

High-profile heists have also occurred in the Fairfax district, where suspects in police-like uniforms followed victims from a restaurant, and in Hancock Park, where two men robbed a mother with her baby. Armed robbers crashed a holiday party in Pacific Palisades on Dec. 3 to strip revelers of jewelry, iPhones and an Apple watch. On Dec. 7, thieves heisted about $100,000 worth of jewelry and goods from guests held at gunpoint outside the InterContinental Los Angeles Downtown. And on the evening of Dec. 20, a man was arrested for attempting to burglarize a Bel Air mansion.

The case could be made had these know-it-all “celebrities” voted for politicians and activists who really had the public’s best interest in mind, none of this would be necessary and millions in property damage and lives would have been spared… including theirs.

With a majority of clients in Bel Air, Beverly Hills, Pacific Palisades and Brentwood, ACS Security has seen an uptick of “about 50 percent” in calls and special patrol services in the past few weeks, says field marketing manager, Elizabeth Chyr. Many clients of SSA Security Group (which services the Palisades, Holmby Hills, Brentwood, Santa Monica and Westwood) are “asking for extra patrol,” says executive senior vice president Terry Segraves, adding that the rate of new client intake is up significantly — “we already have 12 new clients in December.”

Coldwell Banker real estate agent Joyce Rey tells THR that she has joined with neighbors in her Beverly Hills Post Office neighborhood to hire private patrols.

Sadly, the majority of the American people don’t have the disposable means to hire personal security squads or renovate their homes to include safe rooms. We just have to live with the ramifications of policy-makers the Hollywood crowd donate massively to.

Since late August, Rising S Company has completed risk assessments for multiple high-end clients in L.A. and installed 13 safe rooms, nine safe doors, two underground bunker shelters, and two window fortifications in Brentwood Park, Beverly Park and Paradise Cove, says general manager Gary Lynch. This compares to their installation of seven safe rooms in California in the 2.5 years prior.

Estate manager Bryan Peele, president and founder of the L.A.-based Estate Managers Coalition, told THR that his clients have “fully equipped safe rooms that they can live in for a few days, if necessary, that are completely hard-wired with phone cables, Internet, everything.”

One of Peele’s clients has purchased three bullet-proof cars in the last couple of months, while another located a company in London to replicate his luxury watches. “This guy will take a $200,000 Rolex and copy it, using stainless steel and other metals, so it looks like the original but costs maybe $2,000-$3,000 per watch. So, in the event that it’s stolen, the client is out a lot less money,” says Peele.

None of these people will admit they brought this crime plague down around all of us. Instead, they’ll just hunker down while it creates the intended tumult outside of their neighborhoods.

Some are taking firearm and self-defense classes, while enrolling staff in security training. “We even have one client in Brentwood that has security detail follow the kids to playdates and follow the housekeeper when she’s walking the pets,” says Peele.

Entertainment business manager John McIlwee of McIlwee & Associates — whose clients include Jane Lynch and director Matt Reeves — told THR that in the past weeks he has been reviewing insurance policies, sending reminders to use alarm systems, and adding in armed patrols.

These are the same people who’d have our Second Amendment right diminished while you can’t watch any primetime television without a depiction of a couple homicides by firearm. And while retail outlets in poorer neighborhoods are moving out due to the shoplifting sprees that result in no arrests, those thieves messed with the stores the special people frequent and that’s a problem.

In the retail realm, eleven smash-and-grab robberies in Los Angeles, from Nov. 18 through Nov. 28, involved over $338,000 worth of goods and more than $40,000 in property damage. Targeted stores include Nordstrom at the Grove shopping center (where at least 18 thieves used sledgehammers and an electric bicycle to smash through windows), Nordstrom at the Westfield Topanga & The Village shopping center in Canoga Park (where a security guard was assaulted with bear spray), Ksubi on South La Brea Avenue, Bottega Veneta on Melrose Place, and several stores in Beverly Center. Fourteen suspects, arrested on Dec. 2, were all released within hours after paying bail or meeting no-bail policies implemented last year for certain crimes to reduce jail populations during the pandemic.

The rare sneaker and streetwear shop Zero’s on Melrose Avenue, which counts Pete Davidson, Noah Cyrus, and several L.A. Rams players as clients, was robbed at gunpoint in September. Owner Zero Selon told KTLA that he was forced to spend his personal savings to hire armed security guards and additional staff.

While burglars’ attempts to smash through the Louis Vuitton and Saks Fifth Avenue storefronts in Beverly Hills with sledgehammers on Nov. 21 were thwarted by bulletproof glass, that city has significantly stepped up security.

While many celebrities showed public solidarity with Black Lives Matter and the #DefundThePolice movement, the obvious foolishness stopped at their city limits.

“We are one of the first cities in the country to hire more police — five officers were sworn in this week — and, for two years, the city of Beverly Hills has been working with two private security companies [Nastec and Covered6], so there are 80 added armed ex-military guards surveilling both the city and the [residential] neighborhoods,” Todd Johnson, president and CEO of the Beverly Hills Chamber of Commerce, told THR. “There are a lot more police on foot, bicycles, motorcycles and in cars. And there’s a good chance that you won’t even notice the undercover guys because they are dressed in sweats and sneakers. Many of the businesses on Rodeo (probably 70 to 80 percent) and throughout the city have additionally hired their own private security. We have more cameras per square foot than any other city in the world.
— The Hollywood Reporter, 12/22/21

It takes a lot of chutzpah to have it reported to the world that shit’s gotten way out of control and the red carpet crowd can afford to insulate themselves from the things that made them feel good without as much of an apology to the rest of Americans who have to live in the world they helped subsidize.

Millions of Americans have lost jobs due to COVID-19 quarantines. Businesses, large and small, were ordered shut and the public was essentially told to stay home and shut up. Personal incomes are zeroing out and the public is now starting to resist the unconstitutional edicts of elected officials who are just as fat and happy as they were a day before the #Lockdown.

A testy Gov. Andrew Cuomo delivered blunt advice Wednesday to protesters who reportedly said they hadn’t received their unemployment checks, were quickly running out of money and had to return to work.

“You want to go to work?” Cuomo said. “Go take a job as an essential worker. Do it tomorrow.”
— Yahoo News, 4/22/20

They are making sure anyone who receives a government paycheck is justified as “essential” and this appears to be happening from New York to Los Angeles.

Whoops. Looks like the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors didn’t want you to see that video, but that’s why you come here….

Thanks to KFI’s Steve Gregory for asking the question and following up after being soft-shoed.

State and federal employees, if not “reassigned”, are supposedly working from home and their paychecks have not seen any interruption. They are comfortable and can afford the luxury of telling the rest of the American people to stay home, unless they really need to frequent that local food bank.

But if some of these elected gluttons were facing the financial abyss they order their constituents to obey, we all know how quickly those “models” would’ve been doubted and that going back to a paying job would be Item #1 on their agenda. But as long as they can stuff their faces, they’ll continue to tell us all to stuff it, and they’ll all be demanding federal taxpayer monies to shore up their previous fiscal irresponsibility to keep their own checks coming in.

The FBI on Tuesday charged dozens of wealthy parents, including celebrities Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman, in a major cheating and bribery scheme to get their children admitted into some of the nation’s most elite colleges. The scheme involved bribing coaches and college administrators — with about $25 million in payments over seven years — and paying off college entrance exam administrators to allow students to cheat on their tests, according to charging documents.

Among those charged are “Desperate Housewives” star Huffman and Loughlin of “Full House” fame. Loughlin’s husband, clothing designer Mossimo Giannulli, was also charged. They and several others are accused of scheming to get their children into schools including Georgetown; Yale; Stanford; the University of Texas; the University of Southern California; the University of California, Los Angeles; and others.

Coaches at Georgetown, USC, UCLA and other schools face racketeering charges.

The FBI says the parents paid a college counseling and test prep business in Newport Beach, Calif., called “The Key,” which bribed college coaches and administrators and organized a scheme to help students cheat on college entrance exams, including the ACT and SAT.
— Politico, 3/12/19

It appears one student was either too stupid and/or lazy to fill out her own college applications.

LOUGHLIN wrote: “[Our younger daughter] has not submitted all her colleges [sic] apps and is confused on how to do so. I want to make sure she gets those in as I don’t want to call any attention to [her] with our little friend at [her high school]. Can you tell us how to proceed?” Cooperating Witness-1 responded by directing an employee to submit the applications on behalf of the GIANNULLIS’ younger daughter.

Just so you know what we’re dealing with here.

“The Key” looks pretty legit, if you can afford the price of admission.

Authorities called it the biggest college admissions scam ever prosecuted by the U.S. Justice Department.

“These parents are a catalog of wealth and privilege. For every student admitted through fraud, an honest and genuinely talented student was rejected,” U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling said in announcing the $25 million bribery case against 50 people in all. 
— US News, 3/12/19

Like they really gave a shit.

“In many instances, Singer helped parents take staged photographs of their children engaged in particular sports,” Massachusetts US Attorney Andrew Lelling said in a Tuesday press conference. “Other times, he used stock photos, sometimes Photoshopping the face of the child on the athlete, and submitting it.”

“I’ll pick a sport and we’ll do a picture of him, or … we’ll put his face on a picture, whatever,” Singer allegedly told the McGlashan. “I’ve already done that a million times.”
— New York Post, 3/12/19

Over the years, especially during the online digital age, we’ve seen children of the elite behaving badly, if not criminally indifferent and deranged. They drive expensive cars, drink and do drugs, and are routinely bailed out from the ramification of their actions because of the wealth and influence of their parents.

On December 30, 2018, supermodel Cindy Crawford‘s son Presley Gerber was arrested for driving under the influence. Gerber, who was 19 at the time of his arrest, was pulled over in Beverly Hills, CA, when police saw him speeding. Reportedly, Gerber smelled like alcohol when he was pulled over.

Chet Hanks, the second son of Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson, has openly struggled with drug addiction. He checked into rehab in 2015, but not before he got himself in hot water for rear-ending a driver named Terry Moogan in California. In 2016, Tom and Rita were also named as co-defendants in the driver’s suit against Chet. Moogan said that he suffered physical and emotional injuries as a result of the crash, and that Hanks and Wilson were partly to blame since they knew about Chet’s struggle with sobriety and technically owned the car.

Nicolas Cage‘s son, Weston, born Dec. 26, 1990, was arrested for domestic violence in 2011. He also went to rehab for drug abuse.

Robert Downey Jr.‘s son, Indio Downey, was busted with cocaine and charged with a felony count of possession of a controlled substance in 2014. The 20-year-old was later sent to rehab by his father.

Jackie Chan‘s son, Jaycee, was sentenced to six months in prison in Beijing after being caught up in a huge drug bust in 2015. Chinese police found more than 100 grams of marijuana in the 32 year old’s apartment. This, despite the fact that Jackie Chan was named an anti-drugs ambassador by the Chinese government in 2009.

Bruce Willis and Demi Moore‘s daughter, Scout, born July 20, 1991, was arrested for giving cops a fake ID after she was caught with an open beer. In 2014, their youngest daughter, Tallulah, entered rehab at age 20 after years of hard partying.

Michael Jordan‘s son, Marcus, born Dec. 24, 1990, was arrested for resisting arrest and disorderly conduct in 2012 after engaging in a loud fight with two women. More recently, Marcus took to Twitter to share a picture of his penis.

Cameron Douglas, the son of actor Michael Douglas and his former wife Diandra Morrell Douglas has been arrested for drug offenses at least three times. In 2010, he was given a 5 year prison sentence for selling methamphetamine from a high-end Manhattan hotel. After repeatedly violating prison rules by arranging for his lawyer to smuggle him drugs in jail, he was ordered to spend 2 years in solitary confinement and his prison sentence was nearly doubled.

Lionel Richie‘s daughter, Nicole, born Sept. 21, 1981, was charged with possession of heroin in 2003. Nicole Richie was also convicted of drunk driving in 2006.
— Ranker

And of course, this is only part of a published list. Many of these stories went under the radar because high-priced attorneys could keep court records sealed, the entertainment media which cares more about celebrity access (than informing the public) looked the other way, and these rich kids could continue to be proven more of a pain-in-the-ass to their celebrity parents.

And when it came time to hope they’d go to college, some weren’t even smart enough to do that on their own. Lori Loughlin’s daughter was arrogantly honest… on YouTube.

Last August, Olivia (aka Olivia Jade) posted a video to her YouTube account in which she talked about “all the tea you need to know about me,” which touched on everything from boys to college to YouTubers.

“I don’t know how much of school I’m gonna attend,” she said in the video. “But I’m gonna go in and talk to my deans and everyone, and hope that I can try and balance it all. But I do want the experience of, like, game days, partying… I don’t really care about school, as you guys all know.”
— Yahoo, 3/12/19

Now, we’re not saying their parents should have cheated… but we understand and who will be the first to whine that President Donald Trump’s FBI is picking on them. Can’t imagine why they’d think he’d have any animosity towards anyone in and around Hollywood.

While the dollar figures suggest this a real big deal, media coverage will wane because that’s why these celebs hire publicists. While their job is promote, it’s also to do damage control thus making inconvenient publicity not hurt so bad. Ask anyone who’s lived there, that’s the way things work in Los Angeles. And don’t look for a movie coming out regarding this scandal in the near future because Hollywood very rarely unveils morality tales when it comes to their personal debauchery or illegal activities.

We just got Jay Leno out in NYC and asked him about the scandal … Leno certainly didn’t hold back, calling the whole thing “the definition of white privilege.“
— TMZ, 3/13/19

Ya think?

Remember this when sanctimonious Hollywood celebrities lecture the American people during award ceremonies, etc. about honesty and/or decency. They exploit their privilege, many of their kids are losers and it appears no amount of money can fix that. What’s also sad is that, according to the federal indictment, the brats didn’t know their parents greased the skids for them, which means some of them actually think they’re intellectuals.

This in not to say all of Hollywood’s kids run afoul of the law. Many stay out of trouble and wind up like a Kardashian or Hilton.

UPDATE

This wouldn’t even be a plotline for a bad Hallmark movie.

As Lori Loughlin traveled from Vancouver to L.A. Tuesday night to surrender to federal authorities in the college bribery scandal — Olivia spent the night on the yacht of the Chairman of USC’s Board of Trustees … but she’s off the boat now, TMZ has learned. We’ve learned 19-year-old Olivia was on Rick Caruso’s yacht in the Bahamas.
— TMZ, 3/13/19

Sucks not to be fawned over simply because you exist. Another continues to prove the point that these children of the elite are just vile human beings.

Gregory and Marcia Abbott’s “rapper” son, Malcolm, popped out of the family’s Fifth Avenue building to smoke a giant blunt — while defending his parents and bragging about his latest CD.
— New York Post, 3/13/19

Reality checks are a tough thing for the fragile egos of those who live large in the land of make believe.

Olivia Jade, 19, and her sister, 20-year-old Isabella Rose, have decided to withdraw from USC days, TMZ reported. One source told the gossip website the girls worry they’ll be “viciously bullied” if they return to school.
— Page Six, 3/14/19

NOW, it’s becoming real to one brat.

Sephora has canceled its partnership with Olivia Jade Giannulli after her parents were charged in an explosive college-admissions bribery scandal. “After careful review of recent developments, we have made the decision to end the Sephora Collection partnership with Olivia Jade, effective immediately,” a Sephora representative said in a statement to Business Insider on Thursday.
— Business Insider, 3/14/19

In the past two years, Olivia Jade has scored sponsorship deals with beauty and fashion companies Too Faced, Tresemme, Smashbox, Marc Jacobs Beauty, Lulus, Boohoo and Dolce & Gabbana beauty, as well as HP Inc. Haircare brand Tresemme told THR on Thursday it will no longer work with Olivia Jade.
— Hollywood Reporter, 3/14/19

Lori Loughlin‘s daughter, Olivia Jade, for the first time in her influencer life … does not want to hear from her fans. The 19-year-old YouTube star has done the unthinkable and disabled the comments section of her videos after users began ripping her over the college bribery scandal. Not only did Olivia Jade disable her YouTube comments, she stopped fans from lashing out on her most recent Instagram posts.
— The Blast, 3/14/19

There’s the customary “being in denial” thing….

According to the source, Bella, 20, and Olivia, 19, “never expected their parents to be charged for any crime, let alone one related to them.” “They’ve always seen themselves as a good, honest family that works hard and follows the rules, but everything has changed overnight,” the source says. “The reality of all of this has been devastating.” ET’s source also claims that the pair are “so painfully embarrassed” that they don’t want to go outside.
— ET Online, 3/14/19

The comeuppance has only just begun.

Two Stanford students filed a $5 million class action suit on Wednesday claiming they were denied opportunities to get admitted to Yale and USC and have now had their degrees devalued in the wake of the recent charges. Meanwhile, a San Francisco parent has filed a separate $500 billion lawsuit claiming her son was not admitted to some colleges because wealthy parents charged in the scandal thought it was ‘OK to lie, cheat, steal and bribe their children’s way into a good college’.
— Daily Mail (UK), 3/14/19

The case could be made.

UPDATE

The bleeding continues….

Lifestyle vlogger Olivia Jade Giannulli, 19, took on fellow influencer Marissa Rachel and singer Rydel Lynch in a 2016 episode of Tap That Awesome App for a now defunct Verizon mobile phone channel. But when Rachel was declared the winner in front of a live audience she says studio execs mysteriously stepped in and ordered producers to re-shoot the final few questions.

When the trivia contest resumed Rachel and Lynch were under orders not to buzz in with the correct answers, leaving Giannulli to take home first prize, a $5,000 donation to a charity of her choice, it’s alleged.
— Daily Mail, 3/15/19

The word “stupid” is gaining in validity.

UPDATE

Olivia Jade is playing the victim because she (of course) had no idea of what her parents did, never wanted to go to college and her value to society is now dead in the water.

The 19-year-old YouTube vlogger is “really angry with her parents because she told them she did not want to go to college and she was pushed,” the source says.

“She has been passionate about her career and wanted to work and was doing well but that wasn’t enough,” the source continues. “Her parents said she would have to juggle college and her career. Now she’s devastated because everything she built implode before her eyes.”

“She feels they ruined everything,” the source adds.
— Entertainment Tonight, 3/20/19

If things were going so great, why didn’t she simply move out and rough it on her own? That’s right, she’d have to feed herself and pay bills with HER money. That would really suck.