+- Scivillage.com Casual Discussion Science Forum (https://www.scivillage.com)
+-- Forum: Culture (https://www.scivillage.com/forum-49.html)
+--- Forum: Communities & Social Networking (https://www.scivillage.com/forum-57.html)
+--- Thread: Cornered by looming Prop 36, Newsome signs lesser crime package bill (Cal community) (/thread-16370.html)
Cornered by looming Prop 36, Newsome signs lesser crime package bill (Cal community) - C C - Aug 18, 2024
IOW, the Lord Protectors are patting themselves on the back for this preemptive effort that they literally had to be dragged kicking and screaming into because of their failed efforts to derail Proposition 36. Both it and these ten bills go against the grain of their goals and policies that led to the crime wave in the first place. The outcry finally became too much for the Lord Protectors.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Newsome crime ballot initiative
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/08/16/newsom-crime-ballot-initiative-00174391
EXCERPTS: . . . Retailers like Walmart, Target and Home Depot contributed millions to qualify the measure for the ballot, and are generally expected to provide financial backing for the Yes on Proposition 36 campaign as it turns to persuading voters.
Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas told reporters earlier this week that he’s “optimistic” the bills signed into law today will encourage some retailers to abandon their support. “I think this is a strong package of bills,” he said.
They are the product of a process that began while backers of Prop 36 were still collecting signatures to qualify their initiative for the ballot. Rivas launched a select committee on the issue in the Assembly last fall with the mandate to develop legislation; the Senate introduced a package of bills on public safety in February, and the Assembly followed suit in April.
In both cases, the bill’s authors argued that they could address the issue without amending Proposition 47, which would require another ballot initiative since the changes were originally enacted in 2014 by voters.
When they struggled to bring prosecutors to the negotiating table, Democrats attempted a series of machinations that would force voters to choose between the two different sets of reforms through so-called “poison pill” inoperability clauses and then a potential countermeasure. Both of those ploys were abandoned, and Democrats decided to move forward this month by passing the laws without conditions.
In addition to creating new theft-related crime categories, the bills signed into law today would empower police to make arrests without having witnessed a crime or having footage of it. Rivas contrasted the package, for which he and other legislative leaders “built a broad group of stakeholders,” with Prop 36, which he called a “very one-sided, not an inclusive process.”
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
California Gov. Newsom signs 10 bills targeting flash mobs, theft, and smash-and-grab robberies
https://fortune.com/2024/08/16/california-crackdown-newsom-signs-10-bills-shoplifting-flash-mob/
EXCERPTS: California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday signed a bipartisan package of 10 bills that aims to crack down on smash-and-grab robberies and property crimes, making it easier to go after repeat shoplifters and auto thieves and increase penalties for those running professional reselling schemes.
The move comes as Democratic leadership works to prove that they’re tough enough on crime while trying to convince voters reject a ballot measure that would bring even harsher sentences for repeat offenders of shoplifting and drug charges.
While shoplifting has been a growing problem, large-scale, smash-and-grab thefts, in which groups of individuals brazenly rush into stores and take goods in plain sight, have become a crisis in California and elsewhere in recent years. Such crimes, often captured on video and posted on social media, have brought particular attention to the problem of retail theft in the state.
[...] How to tackle crimes in California has become increasingly difficult to navigate in recent years for state Democrats, many of whom have spent the last decade championing progressive policies to depopulate jails and prisons and invest in rehabilitation programs. Newsom’s administration has also spent $267 million to help dozens of local law enforcement agencies increase patrols, buy surveillance equipment and prosecute more criminals.
The issue hit a boiling point this year amid mounting criticism from Republicans and law enforcement, who point to viral videos of large-scale thefts where groups of individuals brazenly rush into stores and take goods in plain sight. Voters across the state are also vexed over what they see as a lawless California where retail crimes and drug abuse run rampant as the state grapples with a homelessness crisis.
As the issue could even affect the makeup — and control — of Congress, some Democrats broke with party leadership and said they supported Proposition 36, the tough-on-crime approach.
It’s hard to quantify the retail crime issue in California because of the lack of local data, but many point to major store closures and everyday products like toothpaste being locked behind plexiglass as evidence of a crisis. The California Retailers Association said it’s challenging to quantify the issue in California because many stores don’t share their data.
Crime data shows the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles saw a steady increase in shoplifting between 2021 and 2022, according to a study by the non-partisan Public Policy Institute of California...