Posted on 05/18/2016 7:52:47 PM PDT by MarvinStinson
Left-wing, conservative and libertarian pro-crime policies lead to a rise in crime. The left's insane propositions in California included Proposition 47 or the "Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act". That Orwellian name made as much sense as calling a bill to legalize arson the "Fire Prevention and Non-Torched Homes Act". Proposition 47 effectively decriminalized a bunch of crimes, including shoplifting.
And you'll never guess what happened next. Shoplifting. Lots and lots of shoplifting.
Perry Lutz says his struggle to survive as a small businessman became a lot harder after California voters reduced theft penalties 1½ years ago.
About a half-dozen times this year, shoplifters have stolen expensive drones or another of the remote-controlled toys he sells in HobbyTown USA, a small shop in Rocklin, northeast of Sacramento. "It's just pretty much open season," Lutz said. "They'll pick the $800 unit and just grab it and run out the door."
Anything below $950 keeps the crime a misdemeanor — and likely means the thieves face no pursuit and no punishment, say retailers and law enforcement officials. Large retailers including Safeway, Target, Rite Aid and CVS pharmacies say shoplifting increased at least 15 percent, and in some cases, doubled since voters approved Proposition 47 and ended the possibility of charging shoplifting as a felony with the potential for a prison sentence.
Shoplifting reports to the Los Angeles Police Department jumped by a quarter in the first year, according to statistics the department compiled for The Associated Press. The ballot measure also lowered penalties for forgery, fraud, petty theft and drug possession.
Here's how this works.
Caught in possession of drugs? That usually means a misdemeanor citation under Prop 47, or essentially a ticket. Caught stealing something worth less than $950? That means a ticket, too. Caught using some of that $950 to buy more drugs? Another citation.
“It’s a slap on the wrist the first time and the third time and the 30th time, so it’s a virtual get-out-of-jail-free card,” said Shelley Zimmerman, who became San Diego’s police chief in March 2014. “We’re catching and releasing the same people over and over.”
Thanks Proposition 47. This is how awesome sentencing reform is.
There was the thief in San Bernardino County who had been caught shoplifting with his calculator, which he said he used to make sure he never stole the equivalent of $950 or more. There was the “Hoover Heister” in Riverside, who was arrested for stealing vacuum cleaners and other appliances 13 different times over the course of three months, each misdemeanor charge followed by his quick release.
It wasn't just the left though, some prominent "conservatives" made this happen too.
U.S. Sen. and 2016 presidential candidate Rand Paul (R) praised Proposition 47 in June 2015. He said, "California’s actually done some good things. Proposition 47 about a year ago or six months ago took some of the minor drug felonies and made them misdemeanors and, from my understanding, you have more room in your prisons now for violent criminals. They’re not getting out early.
Even criminals have more common sense than Rand Paul.
There was also the known gang member near Palm Springs who had been caught with a stolen gun valued at $625 and then reacted incredulously when the arresting officer explained that he would not be taken to jail but instead written a citation. “But I had a gun. What is wrong with this country?” the offender said, according to the police report.
What's This? Proposition 47 was backed by George Soros money. Gingrich wrote an editorial in support of it.
It is time to stop wasting taxpayer dollars on locking up low-level offenders. Proposition 47 on the November ballot will do this by changing six nonviolent, petty offenses from felony punishments (which now can carry prison time) to misdemeanor punishments and local accountability.
Local accountability is a punchline. Like restorative justice. You're supposed to laugh.
Here's how Gingrich's utopia works in real life.
“The ideal example of a Prop 47 case,” a public defender had written in a motion to delay sentencing, because Rabenberg had no history of violence and had never been convicted of selling drugs.
Rabenberg, who just weeks after being released because of Prop 47 was caught breaking the law again.
He was arrested for possession of meth on Jan. 2 and released from jail Jan. 3.
He was arrested for having drug paraphernalia on Feb. 6 and issued a citation.
He was arrested again for having drugs on Feb. 19. And then again on March 1. And then again on March 8. And then again on April 1.
By April 26, he had been arrested for six misdemeanors in less than four months and been released all six times, so he was free to occupy a table outside Starbucks when a man named Kevin Zempko arrived to have coffee with his wife. Zempko sat at a table next to Rabenberg, who was picking apart the seams of his coat and dumping the contents of his pockets onto the table: some nickels, two $1 bills, a few scraps of paper, a dingy plastic cup and a lighter. Zempko watched for a few seconds and concluded that Rabenberg was probably a vagrant and an addict. “I just felt bad for him,” he said.
Rabenberg noticed Zempko looking his way and began to stare back, mumbling, gesturing, standing up and now pulling something new from the pocket of his coat. It was a small wooden steak knife. Rabenberg slammed it down on the table. He picked it up again, jabbed at the air and started moving with the knife toward Zempko, who stood up and placed a chair between them.
But the police never called. The arrest had been for possession of drugs and brandishing a deadly weapon — both misdemeanors. Rabenberg was booked into jail and released three days later.
Next time any "conservative" activist tries to sell you on sentencing reform and nonsense about non-violent offenders, remind him what that looks like in real life.
Anyway Proposition 47 has ushered in a glorious new age where it's okay to steal from small businesses as long as you take less than 950 bucks.
A man released from prison because a prior felony conviction was reduced to a misdemeanor under Proposition 47 was arrested last week for allegedly stealing a cash box from a Yuba City restaurant.
Local prosecutors critical of the initiative passed by voters in 2014 said the defendant is an example of a reoffending criminal who shouldn't be out of custody.
Adding to the frustrations of local officials, Austin Willis Jr., 53, was charged with misdemeanor shoplifting for the new crime, which Sutter County District Attorney Amanda Hopper said would have been charged as a felony prior to Proposition 47. He was also charged with a misdemeanor for possession of a drug pipe.
"This just goes to show you what a disaster Proposition 47 is for our community," Hopper said Tuesday.
"Prop 47 has really tied our hands and put violent criminals back on the street. Mr. Willis is just one example of these violent criminals returning to our community and re-offending."
On March 2, Willis was allegedly seen running out the back door of The Corner American Bistro on Plumas Street after a cash box was stolen. Video surveillance captured by a neighboring business also provided evidence pointing to Willis, court documents indicate. Yuba City police arrested Willis the next day and allegedly found him in possession of a glass methamphetamine smoking pipe.
His prior convictions were logged in Los Angeles and Kern counties. Willis had 14 felony convictions for robbery, burglary, and drug-related crimes when he was last incarcerated, beginning in 1997.
This is what "sentencing reform" actually looks like. Next time some "conservative" activist tries to sell you on it, ask him if he'd object to having 800 bucks stolen out of his pocket.
“Aren’t we lulling him into a sense of security?” Goldsmith said. “How does it end? There’s no more incremental punishment. We let the behavior continue. We let the problems get worse. And all we can do is wait until he does something terrible, until he stabs somebody or kills somebody, and then we can finally take him off the street.”
Pro-crime policies. They really work. For criminals.
I agree there needs to be decriminalization of private property protection.
Not just in California, but all across the country we need to build more prisons. Sadly we have wimpy politicians and judges who stand in the way. Thus instead of building prisons to lock away those who are detrimental to a healthy society, we waste trillions of dollars on wasteful projects like Green Energy programs from local communities all the way to the national level.
Instead of building more prisons our upside down society is trying to reduce the number of inmates by reducing the penalty for the crimes people commit. Thus crimes that were considered harmful to societies are now ignored, which escalates the number of perpetrators who commit those crimes, because criminals know they will not pay for their crime.
Another effect of this idiocy will be the children who grow up knowing they will not be punished for certain crimes against humanity, so they too will not learn right or wrong. You do not reduce crime by confusing generation after generation of what is moral and good for society.
While not all immoral behavior is criminal, immoral behavior does reduce a persons ability to distinguish between what is good or bad for society. After all, the word “immorality” is just a word meaning “Crime against human nature”. The more we allow those teaching our children to twist the meaning of what is and is not moral, the more we allow crimes against humanity to be explained away as harmless to society.
Thus I come to California’s Proposition 47 the voters of the state passed a few years ago. The left has successfully convinced a large portion of our society that we have too many people locked up in prisons and not enough prisons to handle them all.
So, instead of building more prisons, we decide to explain away the harm some crimes cause. Which has lead to the non-inforcement of laws the vast majority of citizens have learned to live by for thousands of years. In every society since the beginning of time humans have learned the destruction certain immoral behavior has on their society.
All this to reduce the number of people incarcerated. Soon children grow up learning that something which was once considered so bad that you could lose tour freedom over now gets a slap on the wrist.
I could go down the list of things children are involved with today that their parents and grandparents never would have even considered doing, but this is a comment not an article. The point being, the more we reduce the penalty of immoral behavior, the more children will grow up to commit crimes against humanity without understanding the full ramifications they cause all of society.
When was the last time any of those Lilly White liberals defending these stupid propositions walked into the hood to see how badly these measures have destroyed whole neighborhoods. Every time we allow the left to reduce the stigma of another immoral act, we put up another barrier for the poorest of society to crawl over in their attempt to better their life.
Winner winner chicken dinner.
Only a liberal couldn’t see that coming.
So the criminals are now carrying CALCULATORS to add up items so as to reduce their penalty!! I can’t take it. I’m done with these effing corrupt politicians!! Jerry Brown should be hung from the HOLLYWOOD sign!
Ron Paul was a nut and Rand Paul inherited some of his father’s characteristics.
Libertarians are often just as dangerous as progressives and Marxists because they don’t see the unintended consequences of their stupidity.
>>Where have our Churches Gone? The Sheep are not going to Church anymore.
They never were the sheep. The effect of becoming a post-Christian society is that people who aren’t Christians do not feel social pressure to pretend to be so. That’s a very bad thing, but it’s not the churches’ fault.
There will be a great falling away and people will become lawless. California is a great cesspool, but it is also the model for the future of American culture.
I wonder if rape and drug use would go down if decriminalized?
It is a cultural vacuum, not a culture. Basic animal behavior...
>>It is a cultural vacuum, not a culture. Basic animal behavior...
We have a collection of tribal cultures now. The melting pot became the salad bowl until a collection of toddlers threw the salad on the floor. So no one gets the nutritious stew that was the melting pot and no one even gets the salad. All we are is a bunch of separate pieces of salad lying on the floor rotting.
If Trump can get loyal Americans to denounce and publicly ridicule politically correct thought, then he will have won a great victory.
California, here I come!
Hey Impy..........what’s in YOUR wallet?
The same could easily be said for many conservatives.
Very true, but I don’t ascribe any culture at all (don’t consider a piece of any salad) the “culture” of rape, theft, murder, etc. that is identical to lions on the Serengeti...
Even the gang member see's the problem..............
/s
>>Very true, but I don’t ascribe any culture at all (don’t consider a piece of any salad) the “culture” of rape, theft, murder, etc. that is identical to lions on the Serengeti...
I would never insult lions by comparing them to California. It’s actually identical to most human cultures prior to the introduction of the Holy Spirit. Slavery, rape, theft, oppression, etc were the norm in those days, not the exception. Like Islam, California is a culture that worships the Natural Man, the utterly depraved person that is the core of all people who have no other voice that counsels them.
A piece of tape to hold it together and a 3 year old stick of gum. ;p
LOL!
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