California Democrats are advocating for a set of bills aimed at curbing the surge of retail theft that has greatly impacted the state. However, there is a condition attached to these bills – they would be nullified if a ballot measure enforcing stricter penalties for specific crimes is sanctioned. In an unexpected move, Democrats in the California State Legislature included provisions in the bill package, stating that the laws would be repealed if the ballot initiative is successful. This action has provoked strong criticism from Republicans, who have accused the Democrats of engaging in political maneuvering, as reported by The San Francisco Chronicle.
“Democrats need to stop playing politics with public safety and let voters decide on fixing Prop. 47,” said Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher in a press release. “These poison pills show that Democrats aren’t serious about ending the crime wave–they just want to look like they’re doing something because their years-long support for criminals has become a political liability.”
The proposed legislation, known as the “Homelessness, Drug Addiction & Theft Reduction Act,” aims to reverse certain aspects of the 2014 Ballot Proposition 47. This proposition reduced the severity of penalties for drug possession and theft under $950, changing them from felonies to misdemeanors.
The new proposal seeks to eliminate the $950 threshold for a third theft offense, making it a felony, and to elevate a third drug possession offense to a felony as well. Additionally, it would extend jail time for repeat retail theft and classify the possession of fentanyl as a felony. Assembly Member Rick Chavez Zbur has defended these controversial provisions, arguing that the bills and the initiative should not be implemented simultaneously.
“When you add (the ballot measure), you have a whole additional group of people that can be prosecuted and jailed for very small activities,” he told the Chronicle. “The combination of those two, it’s sort of supercharging of this whole process and moving back to a period where we’re going to have much more incarceration. … Our package was never intended to be stacked on top of a one-sided ballot measure.”
You can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig.
Yesterday, I joined my colleagues to expose the Democrats’ dirty tricks to undermine public safety in California.
Democrats are sneaking in amendments to sabotage a citizen-led Prop 47 reform, forcing voters into a false… pic.twitter.com/bMgWOoPmdY
— James Gallagher (@J_GallagherAD3) June 12, 2024
Gallagher and Brian Jones, the California Senate Republican Leader, stood up in support of the initiative and bill that were approved. They emphasized that the new initiative tackles the shortcomings they perceive in Proposition 47.
“While the retail theft package is commendable, the battle against crime in California requires a more robust approach, particularly addressing the failures of Proposition 47,” said Gallagher and Jones in a letter to California Speaker Robert Rivas and Senate President Pro Tempore Mike McGuire. “To truly turn back the wave of property crime that has washed over California, we must return to the voters with the Homelessness, Drug Addiction & Theft Reduction Act–a citizen-led initiative to impose additional consequences for property crime and fentanyl offenses.”