by Jack
Not long ago the liberals in CA were wringing their hands because of all the criminals that were in prison for non-violent offenses. So, they carefully crafted a get-out- of-jail proposition and made sure the title would mislead low information voters. It worked!
“The Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act” passed and now we are paying for it in… unsafe neighborhoods and schools! This is CA’s Proposition 47, which was approved by voters in November 2014 by over 60 percent of the vote! That means 60% of CA voters are incompetent and many are complete morons. No wonder the dominant party is the democrats with 43% of the votes, but 100% the state government. 
The downgrading of drug possession and many property crimes from a felony to a misdemeanor has been a bonanza for the criminal, not so good for the nice folks. Liberals told us that lesser punishment for low-level offenders would enhance public safety, but as usual they were wrong. The reality is just the opposite and we’ve got the stats to prove it.
One of the high profile liberals that pushed hard for Prop 47 is San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon. “What we have been doing hasn’t worked, frankly.” Well, that depends on what you mean by “worked.” We were locking up a lot of bad people who needed locking up, but that’s just my definition of working.
Not everyone in jail for a non-violent offense is non-violent.
Liberals have long felt drug offenders should not locked up in prison, and there is something to that. But, Prop 47 has actually made it easier for drug offenders to avoid mandated treatment programs! More druggies on the street means more crime.
Prop 47 also reduced penalties for the theft of goods worth less than $950. Do you think this benchmark dollar amount went unnoticed by criminals? Just a little minor adjustment in what one steals these days will keep you from doing hard time. (It’s easy pickings for CA crooks)
When Prop 47 passed over 3,700 inmates were immediately freed and we could feel the ripple effect in a broad spectrum of crime right off and its been getting worse ever since.
In San Francisco, theft from cars is up 47 percent this year over the same period in 2014. Auto theft is up by 17 percent. Robberies are up 23 percent. And aggravated assaults are up 2 percent, according to San Francisco police spokesman Carlos Manfredi. I wonder if any San Franciscans are complaining to their D.A. that his proposition isn’t quite going as planned?
“The City of Angels saw a 12.7 percent increase in overall crime this year, says the Los Angeles Times; violent offenses rose 20.6 percent, while property crime rose by 11 percent. The brilliant liberal Mayor Eric Garcetti says Prop 47 may explain Los Angeles’ change in course from crime reduction to crime increases. Really, ya think so Mr. Mayor? Gosh, who wouldda guessed that releasing thousands of criminals from prison would have increased crime?” SF GATE.
“It used to be that if you were caught in the possession of methamphetamine, you would be arrested; you’d end up in drug court or in some other program, probably in custody receiving some type of treatment,” Yolo County District Attorney Jeff Reisig told the Daily Democrat. “Well, now the officers on the street just give them a ticket. So they have been arrested for a crime. The case actually gets forwarded to my office. We charge them with a crime, but they never show up to court. They get arrested again and are given another ticket for methamphetamine. And so we’ve seen that.” Giving a ticket to a methamphibian? Like that’s going to work.
San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe told the Oakland Tribune’s Malaika Fraley, “We’re finding that about one-third of the cases that were appropriate at the felony level are now misdemeanors. That means that offenders are serving little or no time and that means they are out in our community….and he added, there are a portion of them who are serious offenders with long prior records.”
“With misdemeanor charges the clients do not face the specter of incarceration for long periods of time.” Mike Hestrin, DA
District Attorney Mike Hestrin also said, “I can tell you from my perspective, in Riverside County it’s a disaster.”
Sheriff Stan Sniff says both laws may work somewhere…. but not in Riverside County where they are allowing criminals to get away with their crimes repeatedly.
Sniff said, “What we find is the jail system today in Riverside County keeps the worst of the worst in custody, and the best of the worst end up getting released.”
Palm Springs Police Chief Al Franz said, “What we’re dealing with here in my community is a ‘catch and release’ program as we call it.”
Indio Police Chief Richard Twiss said, “Sometimes these burglars are released before the filing work makes its way to the DA’s office to hold them.”
Sniff blames Riverside County’s already overcrowded jails, which haven’t kept up with the county’s rapid growth.
Desert Hot Springs Interim Police Chief, Jeff Kirkpatrick, says the city has seen nearly 100 auto thefts in the first three months of this year, twice last year’s pace.
It’s accompanied a 120-percent increase of resident parolees.
News flash: There is no deterrence factor when the penalties are too soft to fit the crime.
Hestrin said, “It’s very difficult to run a criminal justice system when the defendants in court don’t take seriously our sentences.”
And because of jail overcrowding, county programs to stop people from reoffending are badly damaged.
“You have some offenders who figure out that they can plead guilty and take any sentence,” said Hestrin. “They’re only going to spend 2 weeks in the jail. For some people it’s a cost of doing business,” he added.
Hestrin, Sniff and county’s head of probation, Mark Hake, want California to return to something called progressive sentencing. It provides increasingly harsh sentences for people who repeatedly break laws. (That’s the idea the liberals just tossed out!)
The categories of crimes that were reclassification include shoplifting, grand theft, receiving stolen property, forgery, check fraud and petty theft where the value or amount involved does not exceed $950, as well as drug possession for personal use and this has been akin to a license to stead and do drugs.
The CA Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) expects about 40,000 criminals to get a major break when it comes to sentencing and that is 40k a year…year after year…criminals get a break and what do get in return? Good chance you get to become a victim.
Let me conclude with this quote from an officer at the Oroville Police Dept. that I heard just today. “Immediately after Prop 147 and prisoner realignment began crime jumped! Its crazy over here.”
And you may wonder, what’s it like in quiet little Chico, especially since the bums, ex-cons and parolees started moving in and taking over? CHICO: Violent crime like homicide, rape, robbery and assault spiked by 15.5 percent; non-violent crime like burglary and larceny was up 14.3 percent year-to-year. Auto theft is up 54%. KRCR News.
As a paraplegic victim of a violent crime I can only say, never again. California is a disaster. Thanks to whom?
My bad. I am not a paraplegic due to violent crime. That came later, naturally, due to a bad spine. Sometimes I get confused. The violent crime is that I was shot in the shoulder, which split my brachial plexus nerves and sent me into a lifetime of chronic pain. Lucky me. I don’t even remember the criminal’s name.
I am very tired. Very tired of left wing lunatics who only serve to make me more tired. Jack and Tina are wonderful people. They have given me a gift I can never repay. The same gift that Anthony has given me.
Dag nab it. Wrong again! I am not paraplegic! I should have looked it up. I can still walk even though my legs feel like burning hell 24/7.
This is a terrible thing to say but I’m going to say it anyway.
You might as well be a paraplegic. If your pain is that great, what difference does it make how you refer to your condition? The disability is crushing to mind and spirit. My daughter is a paraplegic and she had a heck of a time convincing doctors that she was in pain. I have a lesser level of pain from my RA. Some days are better than others…the bad news is the disease is progressive (see how rotten that can be!)
I get it and I sympathize. If PS can be a spot of sunshine in your life, as it is in mine, then that’s indeed a wonderful thing! It may not matter to you, but I will say it anyway, God bless you.
Do you know what happened 165 years ago this summer, September 9, 1850?
California became a state!
A history lesson the California politicians need to be reminded of…..
165 years ago the need for ample electricity was in the future and still is, the state had no money, still doesn’t, and almost everyone spoke Spanish, still do.
There were gunfights in the streets, still are.
So basically little has changed.
Except for that spot of sunshine when the state was Republican you are exactly right Harold…what’s the line in that song about California…”California here I come, right back where I started from…”
We need a new song.
Add to the lousy progressive idea, prop 47, the further lousy progressive idea, sanctuary cities, and you’ve got a hot recipe for a disaster sandwich.
What the he77 is wrong with the left? They look at a bunch of people, mostly older, who join together in Washington to protest being taxed too much and they see the greatest threat that ever came down the pike. Those people were worse than rapists and thieves. But actual criminals? Oh man, they’re being treated unfairly. They are victims!
Lefty’s can’t all be that stupid. I struggle with the cause of this insanity and keep coming back to the same thing. When it comes to politics they have a tear in their moral fiber. They choose to do whatever it takes to win (power and control) rather than concern themselves with safe streets or slandering the names of fellow citizens.
Progressives make me sick.
Tina, sometimes I think lefties can’t be that stupid…then the evidence hits me right over the head and I think they really can be that stupid….over and over.
So, I google “KCRA crime statistics”, and I find a report a couple of weeks old, and I find the little proviso Jack left out:
“Police point out that despite this year’s increase, the crime rates are still much lower than a decade ago.”
Folk are yanking your chain, Jack. I don’t know why you let them.
Nice try Libby.
Crime rates have been generally down for decades, but so what? Crime rates still spike when idiot propositions let criminals off the hook. They spike when governors, more concerned with bullet trains and global warming than citizen safety, let prisoners out of jail to save money on the budget. They spike in particular in cities run by ignorant Democrats with very strict gun laws.
Jack gave you specific crime statistics by city and county.
How about you refute those numbers.