Gavin Newsom signed a bipartisan package of 10 bills on Friday in an effort to reduce smash-and-grab robberies and property crimes, creating stricter penalties for repeat offenders and people running professional reselling schemes.
The Democratic governor was joined by a bipartisan coalition of state lawmakers, business leaders and local officials at a Home Depot store in San Jose.
“Let’s be clear, this is the most significant legislation to address property crime in modern California history,” Newsom said on Friday.
“I thank the bipartisan group of lawmakers, our retail partners, and advocates for putting public safety over politics.
“This goes to the heart of the issue, and it does it in a thoughtful and judicious way,” Newsom said of the package.
California Gov. A bipartisan package of ten bills, including harsher penalties for repeat offenders and those operating professional reselling schemes, was signed into law by Gavin Newsom on Friday in an attempt to curtail smash-and-grab robberies and property crimes.
At a Home Depot store in San Jose, the Democratic governor was accompanied by a coalition of state legislators, business executives, and local officials from both parties.
“This legislation, to be clear, is the most significant in recent California history to address property crime,” Newsom declared on Friday. “I commend the advocates, our retail partners, and the bipartisan group of lawmakers for prioritizing public safety over politics. The new laws offer a better way forward, making our communities safer and giving law enforcement useful tools to help them apprehend offenders and hold them accountable, despite some attempts to return us to the costly and ineffective policies of past. ****.
This occurs as the Democratic leadership tries to project a tough-on-crime image while simultaneously pleading with voters to reject Proposition 36, a ballot initiative that would subject repeat shoplifters and some drug offenders to felonies and impose harsher sentences for these offenses.
ASSAULTING MAN BY HIS LEG, A MOB OF TEENS FILMED SAYING, “THIS IS WHAT LA HAS COME TO”.
In recent years, large-scale smash-and-grab thefts—in which gangs of people break into stores and take items right out of plain sight—have become a major problem in California and other states. This is because many of these incidents have been caught on camera and shared online, drawing attention nationwide to the state’s rising retail theft rate.
The law enables prosecutors to apply harsher penalties for smash-and-grabs and large-scale reselling operations, and it helps meet the threshold for felony grand theft by combining the value of items stolen from multiple victims in different counties.
About the package, Newsom remarked, “It gets right to the heart of the matter, and it does so in a thoughtful and prudent manner.”. Here we have it folks. “.
Though the Legislature overwhelmingly supported the package, some progressive Democrats abstained from voting for it because they felt that some of the provisions were excessively harsh.
The law also requires online marketplaces like eBay to start collecting bank account and tax identification numbers from high-volume sellers. It also attempts to address cargo thefts and close a legal loophole that made it easier to prosecute auto thefts regardless of whether the vehicle was locked.
Retailers may also be able to get restraining orders against shoplifters who have been found guilty under one law.
After being punished for “misgendering” a child predator, the prosecutor is suing Los Angeles for retaliation.
Democrat state senator, “We know that retail theft has consequences, big and small, physical and financial.”. The bill on internet marketplaces was written by Nancy Skinner. And we are aware that in order to halt it without going back to the times of mass incarceration, the proper actions must be taken. ****.
Earlier this year, Newsom and other state Democrats spent months working in vain to remove the tough-on-crime initiative Proposition 36 from the ballot for the election in November. Democrats were concerned that the bill would target ringleaders who hire large groups of people to steal goods for them to resell online, rather than criminalizing low-income people and those with substance abuse issues.
In his statement on Friday, Newsom compared the proposed ballot measure to the ongoing War on Drugs, which seeks to reduce drug use by punishing offenders with harsher penalties and longer prison terms. He said that the measure would be “a devastating setback” for California.
He said, “That initiative is about going back to the War on Drugs and the 1980s.”. It has to do with mass imprisonment. “.”.
Since many state Democrats have spent the last ten years advocating progressive policies to reduce the number of people incarcerated and increase funding for rehabilitation programs, it has seemed that they are having difficulty managing the criminal issue.
In the meantime, the Newsom administration has also invested $267 million to support regional law enforcement organizations in stepping up patrols, acquiring surveillance tools, and bringing more criminal charges.
This year, the issue reached a breaking point due to growing criticism from Republicans and law enforcement. They cited viral videos of large-scale thefts in which gangs of people boldly break into stores and take items right out of sight. A major source of frustration for voters throughout the state is their perception of a lawless California, where drug abuse and retail crimes are rampant despite the state’s homelessness crisis.
Proponents of tough-on-crime policies point to significant store closures and the locking of common products like toothpaste and deodorant behind plexiglass as proof that the problem has escalated to a crisis. However, the California Retailers Association stated that it is challenging to measure the problem of retail crime in California because many stores do not share their data.
Shoplifting in Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area increased steadily between 2021 and 2022, according to a study by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California.
Since 2019, the California Highway Patrol has apprehended almost 3,000 persons and recovered $45 million worth of stolen property.
