“Just about every national trend starts in California and then goes mainstream”
That used to be the case, but thankfully, no more. CA is a world unto itself now.
Let them try to torch cars in Texas or a few other places. That will last about a New York minute.
Sigh. You might want to rephrase that. I live in NYS. We have a "duty-to-retreat" in this state. If a car's owner gets medieval on some arsonist's hind end, the car owner will be the one prosecuted.