They are not the sort of pirates swinging from ropes aboard tall ships like in "Pirates of the Caribbean," but instead are criminals aboard dinghies who loot, steal, and sabotage, leaving a trail of graffiti, sunken ships, and hypodermic needles in their wake.
Recently, the Oakland Estuary, a 5.6-mile-long strait connecting to San Francisco Bay, has become a hotspot for crime as so-called pirates sail into marinas under the cover of night to plunder larger boats.
The police do not have the resources to assist, and the politicians in California have not made stopping piracy a priority, leading Oakland's citizens, abandoned by their government, to band together to stop the pirates themselves with knives and guns.
While it may surprise some that the Coast Guard would help with this situation, the service has been fighting pirates for about 200 years.
One of its primary mandates was also to fight pirates off America's coasts.
To deal with the pirates in the estuary, the modern Coast Guard has dedicated small boats and aircraft to random and recurring patrols to deter and intercept pirates.
These pirates are more evidence that progressive law enforcement policies do not, and cannot, work.
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