Way back in 2014 B.C. (before covid), the state of California passed something called Proposition 47. The ballot measure had good intentions. Which paves the way to you-know-where.
Proposition 47 was supported by liberal politicians, the ACLU, and good-hearted people who wanted to see reform in the judicial system even before 2020, the year of our American discontent.
Stories had circulated in the papers, and elsewhere, about folks who were thrown under the jail for decades for crimes that probably didn't deserve serious jail time. But repeat offender laws, mandatory sentencing, and the practice of stacking charges had made some cases ridiculous. So the pendulum swung.
It may be swinging again.
Some Californians, albeit not all Californians, are sick of the increase in crime these several years later. Critics of Proposition 47 tell the papers that shoplifters and thieves basically aren't prosecuted for taking anything less than $950 in value. Criminals on the streets know going above that would mean a felony charge, so they simply walk out of stores with $949 of clothes, jewelry and/or food--keeping things on the misdemeanor level.
Over the weekend, a wire story in this paper said when these shoplifters are caught, the "cases are usually settled on the first day [of court] with a mandated rehabilitation program, probation or community service."
You can imagine the message that sends. And you can imagine the results.
Instead of freeing up cops and prosecutors to focus on violent crimes, Proposition 47 has caused a spike in property crimes and thefts. Among the country's 20 largest cities, San Francisco is now No. 1 in property crimes (which includes theft, shoplifting and vandalism).
Dispatches say that organized rings of people walk into stores, stuff goods down their pants, then walk out to sell the merchandise right there on the streets.
"They know what they're doing," the president of the California Retailers Association told Fox. "They will bring in calculators and get all the way up to the $950 limit. One person will go into a store, fill up their backpack, come out, dump it out, and go right back in and do it all over again." She used the phrase "completely insane" to describe what's happening. We'd call it completely predictable.
But something called Proposition 20 is on the ballot for this election, which could reverse some of the insanity. For example, Prop 20 would lower the threshold for a felony theft in California to $250, and create new laws on the books to combat serial crime and Organized Retail Theft. The Los Angeles Times reports that several big grocery stores and retailers have given money to the campaign for its passage. And who can blame them?
Actually, some people can blame them, and have. An outfit called California Safety and Justice, which apparently values neither, is running ads saying the new proposition, if passed, would put more people behind bars. What it might do, however, is make the possible punishment for crimes real enough that fewer people would steal in broad daylight. It's called a deterrent.
Last year, the National Retail Federation said stores lost $61.7 billion in theft--what it calls "shrink." That was an all-time high.
A $950 limit on shoplifting can't help.
Once again, California gives the rest of these several states an example. In this case, an example to beware.