Sacramento, California —
To combat property crimes and smash-and-grab robberies, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a ten-bill package representing bipartisan efforts.
The measures would enhance penalties for individuals involved in professional resale schemes and make it easier to pursue repeat offenders in the retail and automotive industries. This comes as the Democratic leadership tries to show that they are serious about combating crime by attempting to dissuade voters from supporting a ballot initiative that would impose heavier penalties on recurrent drug and shoplifting offenders.
While stealing is an issue, the recent surge in large-scale smash-and-grab thefts—in which gangs openly enter businesses and steal products while they’re on display—has been a major concern in states like California and others. These kinds of crimes, which are frequently recorded and shared online, have highlighted the issue of retail theft in the state.
According to the Democratic governor, this bill contains the most substantial revisions to combat retail theft in recent memory. It enables the utilization of video evidence or witness accounts to assist law enforcement in apprehending shoplifters and imposing tougher punishments based on the combined worth of stolen goods from many victims.
The package, according to Newsom, “goes to the heart of the issue,” and it does so carefully and prudently. Wow, this is legit.
While the majority of lawmakers supported the package, a small number of progressive Democrats abstained due to worries that it contained too harsh of provisions.
The bill also makes it simpler to prosecute vehicle thefts, tightens restrictions on cargo thefts, and mandates that online marketplaces like Nextdoor and eBay begin gathering bank details and tax IDs from sellers with a lot of sales. Convicted shoplifters would also be able to get restraining orders under one of the legislation.
State Senator Nancy Skinner, who was the sponsor of one of the legislation, stated last Friday, “We know that retail theft has consequences, big and small, physical and financial.” “And we are aware that we must act responsibly to halt it, so that we do not regress to the era of mass imprisonment.”
Earlier this year, Democratic lawmakers, spearheaded by Newsom, fought for months in vain to remove a tougher-on-crime measure from the November ballot. Repeat shoplifters and those facing certain drug crimes would be subject to the harsher penalties outlined in Proposition 36, an initiative on the ballot.
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Democrats were concerned that the bill would unfairly punish those with low incomes or substance abuse problems, instead of going after the organized crime enterprises who employ huge gangs to steal things and resell them online. Instead, lawmakers are proposing new laws that would make it easier to prosecute multi-location thefts as a single felony case and would make it harder to pull off smash-and-grabs and large-scale resale.
Even more so, Newsom considered adding a rival initiative to the June ballot but scrapped the idea the very next day. San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan is among the local politicians and businesses who have banded together to support Proposition 36.
The ballot proposition would be “a devastating setback” for California, according to Newsom, who was accompanied by a bipartisan coalition of state lawmakers, business executives, and municipal authorities at a Home Depot shop in San Jose. A month ago, Newsom stated his intention to oppose the bill.
He compared the program to the “war on drugs” in the 1980s. The topic at hand is “mass incarceration.”
The Democratic Party in California has had a tough time combating crime in the last several years. A lot of people have spent the last ten years fighting for progressive policies that would reduce the prison population and put more money into rehabilitation programs. Additionally, scores of local law enforcement agencies have received $267 million from Newsom’s administration to assist with increased patrols, surveillance equipment purchases, and criminal prosecutions.
Republicans and police enforcement have been increasingly critical of the issue this year, citing viral recordings of heinous store raids in which gangs of people openly seize merchandise. This has brought the matter to a head. Many Californians are angry about the state’s alleged lack of regulation, which they say has led to an increase in drug usage and shoplifting even as the state struggles with a housing shortage.
Some Democrats defied party leadership and declared their support for Proposition 36, the tough-on-crime proposal, because of the potential impact on the composition and control of Congress.
There has to be more local data to put a number on the retail crime problem in California. Nonetheless, a lot of people think there’s a problem because major stores have closed or because common items like toothpaste are behind plexiglass. Many retailers in the state are required to exchange data, making it difficult to quantify the problem, according to the California Retailers Association.