San Clemente, California — a staid, staunchly Republican city on the Pacific coast at the southernmost tip of Orange County. Many residents are civilian employees at USMC’s Camp Pendleton. It may shock, but it shouldn’t be surprising that an incident of unchecked mob violence broke out. Even Marines trying to enjoy a quiet evening at the beach are not immune from delinquents who feel public spaces belong to them.

Three US Marines were assaulted by a crowd of teenagers on Friday at a California beach, according to police.

One of the victims, Hunter Antonino, told KCAL-TV that the teenagers were acting aggressively and lighting firecrackers at the beach in the San Clemente Pier Bowl area and when he asked them to stop he was hit in the head with debris and the fight started.

Two of the victims ended up on the ground in the fetal position while the teens punched and kicked them before two other adults finally broke up the crowd.

In the video you discover that local residents overlooking the pier and adjacent beach had already made numerous phone calls to law enforcement about the mob of teens and use of illegal fireworks.

Where was the Orange County Sheriff’s Department? No amount of post hoc bloviating about “increasing patrols” and “continuing to investigate” is going to ameliorate the Marines’ injuries nor satisfy residents whose calls were ignored. Indeed, if the videos of the beatdown hadn’t gone immediately viral, would OCSD brass done more than just tut-tut and reach for another glazed donut?

This isn’t a tragedy, this is something that should never happened in the first place. Yeah, teens in large groups are particularly mindless and predatory. Spring Break shenanigans have been infamous for decades. But something changed after the summer of MostlyPeacefulProtests™. Mobs of a particular kind have lost all fear of repercussions. Police are told to avoid contact, to stand down from any confrontation by brass fearful of any bad press that will give their wokest local politicians from shrieking about defunding their departments. Politicians who listen to organized, Leftwing thugs more than their suffering, but law-abiding, constituents.

Over the last few years, street takeovers have grown as ubiquitous across Los Angeles County as smash-and-grab mob shoplifting. It finally reached a peak in August 2022 where these criminal events were combined. Come for the screeching cars, stay for the looting of nearby businesses.

And while LAPD made a Big Deal over showing up to arrest, I have been unable to find out the resolution to those arrests. Were they prosecuted? Were the cars confiscated? Heck, for the minors involved, did their parents suffer any consequence?

Meanwhile, summer season is upon us where, in face of car-fueled wildings, we will be told it is incumbent upon us to deescalate and retreat. Hand over your money, your car, your business … shut up, normie, these aren’t your streets.

Realize what happened to those Marines in San Clemente, of all places, is a feature, not a bug in the Fundamental Transformation of America.

And it’s going to get worse.

UPDATE: Welcome Instapundit readers!

featured image, San Clemente Pier at Sunset, copywrite HipShots Photography, used with permission