Lawmakers want to crack down on retail theft while opposing upcoming ballot measure to undo some softer-on-crime decrees
Democrats completely dominate California’s state government, and one aspect of that hegemony is their ability to act without compunction.Thus, the Capitol has become an echo chamber rather than a forum for forthright debate about issues.
Democrats were committed to “criminal justice reform,” which meant decreasing penalties for crime, reducing the numbers of offenders behind bars and implicitly viewing them more as victims of an unjust society rather than victimizers. “Californians’ perception of crime spiked during the pandemic — as did certain types of crime,” PPIC found, adding, “nearly 2 in 3 Californians call violence and street crime in their local community a problem. This includes 31% who call them a big problem, a noticeable increase from February 2020 .”
The dissonance between the public’s changing attitudes and the Capitol’s unchanging commitment to softening criminal penalties reached a climax last year when the Assembly Public Safety Committee rejected legislation that would have reclassified human trafficking of a minor as a “serious felony,” thereby increasing punishment for committing it.
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