Progressive mayors are backing efforts to undo certain policies from California’s decades-old crime referendum. Critics say the referendum lowers penalties for petty theft and drug possession, emboldening criminals.
The 2014 law in question, Proposition 47, reclassified many felonies as misdemeanors, including retail and property theft. Under Proposition 47, petty theft of merchandise valued at less than $950 would be classified as a misdemeanor, even if it is a multiple crime. It also broadly targeted drug possession crimes, which were previously felonies, and converted them to misdemeanors.
But the ballot initiative to amend Proposition 47, called the Homelessness, Drug Addiction, and Theft Reduction Act, has support from both sides of the Golden State’s political spectrum and has already received nearly 70% of the required petition signatures. I am receiving it. The movement behind the bill says it will be on the ballot this November.
“This effort, make no mistake about it… is a very balanced, very measured and thoughtful approach,” said Californians to Reduce Homelessness, Addiction and Theft, co-chair of the California Association of District Attorneys. CEO Greg Totten told FOX. News Digital interview. “It’s not blue or red. It’s just California.”
San Francisco Mayor London Breed (left) and San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan. (Getty Images)
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Two Democratic progressive mayors in California’s two largest cities, San Francisco Mayor London Breed and San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, endorsed the reform campaign earlier this week.
Breed, who initially supported Prop. 47, is now seeing the measure have unintended consequences as the city tries to crack down on illegal drugs and theft, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. The paper reported.
“Our goal is not to keep people locked up,” she says. “But when there are no real consequences for crimes committed in this city, that’s a serious problem.”
Proposition 47 reclassified many felonies as misdemeanors, including retail and property theft. (California Highway Patrol, via Facebook)
Totten, who was a prosecutor for 40 years before working for the California District Attorneys Association, said conceptually Prop. 47 was originally proposed as a way to promote “more treatment, less prison.” FOX News Digital explained.
Totten said that while fewer offenders are being incarcerated, treatment for drug offenders involved with hard drugs such as cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, PCP and fentanyl has “significantly declined.”
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San Francisco Mayor London Breed initially supported Proposition 47. (Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
“We used to have strong drug court programs across the state and you had strong treatment programs, but now in California, people don’t go to treatment because they don’t have an impact,” he said. Stated.
“The way our criminal justice system has historically influenced people to seek treatment is essentially by having the possibility of prison sentences and felony convictions as a means of coercing people into treatment. And if they go to treatment, they don’t go to jail, and that’s how it’s been done historically,” Totten explained.
“Unfortunately, Proposition 47 took away that incentive.”
An Axis Research poll conducted in November showed that 70% of Californians would likely support legislation that would amend Proposition 47. A petition to put the measure on the ballot has more than 360,000 signatures, well ahead of the roughly 500,000 signatures previously needed. The deadline is April, the group said.
“California and Californians are at a tipping point. We are tired of rampant drug use, homelessness and theft happening right under our noses,” Totten said. “So when they go into stores, products are locked up, inventory is reduced, store hours are reduced, stores are closed, shopping malls are closed, so the public is not ready to accept change. “We’re doing it,” he said.
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An Axis Research poll conducted in November showed that 70% of Californians would likely support legislation that would amend Proposition 47. (Justin Sullivan/Justin Sullivan)
“Proposition 47 is a major consumer protection concern because crime is a major consumer issue,” said O.H. Skinner, executive director of the Alliance for Consumers, a consumer advocacy group.
“It’s hard to get excited about shopping with your family when you’re witnessing the threat of unrestricted theft and car break-ins, or seeing cars smashed through storefronts as part of flip-flops. And California crime. There is a real risk that some California communities will soon feel like retail deserts in urban areas, as retailers large and small close their doors in response to crime and theft. “There is,” he said.
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“California consumers deserve an opportunity to consider Prop. 47 and the social disruption it has fostered in their lives,” Skinner added.
