GOP blames coordinated retail thefts on prop. 47, 7 years old

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Allegedly coordinated on social media, last weekend’s wave of smash-and-grabs at high-end retail stores has put the Bay Area on edge. But what officials describe as organized retail madness aren’t the only orchestrated attacks taking place.

GOP politicians have opened the opportunistic playbook and launched their favorite attack: California is under siege and the left is to blame, in part because of Proposition 47, which voters approved in 2014. The initiative has increased the dollar amount by which theft could be prosecuted as a felony from $ 400 to $ 950.

So what does a 7-year-old initiative have to do with supposedly coordinated retail flights in the Bay Area? The right is using it as a smokescreen for a power grab, which seeks to turn California back into a Reagan-era police state. The first step is to take people’s rational fears about public safety and ignite them beyond reason.

The Republican leadership of the state tried to do so by repeating the same two-dimensional message.

More from Justin Phillips

In a comment this summer for the Daily Breeze newspaper in the South Bay, Los Angeles County area, failed Conservative gubernatorial candidate Larry Elder said Proposition 47 “gave thugs carte blanche to carry out calmly. whatever they want in any store “. In a November 22 fundraising email, the party said prop. 47 is an example of why Democrats “are the party behind crime and chaos, not law and order.” Most recently, Republican Assembly Member Kevin Kiley of Rocklin, Placer County, described Proposition 47 as a “disaster from the start” on Twitter.

Over the years, a few studies have tested claims that crime is on the rise as a result of progressive reform legislation, including Proposition 47. A 2017 study from the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice and a 2018 from UC Irvine School of Social Ecology have both determined this to be false. Any fluctuation in a local city’s crime rate was more likely to be the result of “local policies rather than state policy reform,” the 2017 study concluded.

So what are the lukewarm prop attacks really for. 47? They are not based on shoplifting data. According to an analysis by Chronicle, there isn’t enough data for people to be able to draw any drastic conclusions one way or another.

Consider that much of the criticism is directed at Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón, who co-authored the initiative and opposed by the more conservative California District Attorneys Association. The association has been suing Gascón ever since the former San Francisco district attorney won the Los Angeles election, even attacking him during his first month in office.

Similar conservative forces are behind the attempted recall of San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin and are campaigning to oust Attorney General Rob Bonta in next year’s election.

The intensity of debate increases during election cycles, said Lenore Anderson, founder and president of Californians for Safety and Justice, which wrote Proposition 47.

“I think part of the blame game when it comes to crime in California is motivated and politically motivated,” Anderson said. “When there is attention to local elected officials or state elected officials, then all of a sudden we hear more about prop. 47.”

This puts us – legitimately worried Californians – in the middle of an unsuccessful political war. Police departments believe now is the time to lobby against criminal justice reform by saying they are crippled by policies like Proposition 47.

But the last time I checked, nothing in Proposition 47 indicated that the police should be ready to watch a cannabis dispensary being broken into, which was apparently caught on security video in San Francisco on Last weekend.

And, as The Chronicle’s Rachel Swan reported, Proposition 47 didn’t stop San Mateo County District Attorney Stephen Wagstaffe’s office from “using conspiracy arguments to bolster a possession felony case. of stolen goods “against people who allegedly planned to participate in an organized robbery in a shopping center. Contra Costa County prosecutors took the same approach with a retail theft case in Walnut Creek, where police said shoplifters stole $ 200,000 in merchandise last weekend.

Other prosecutors may start to do the same. On Monday, Gov. Gavin Newsom said police presence would be immediately increased at high-traffic local retailers, and that his next budget proposal 2022-2023 in January would allocate more money to prosecutions for theft in retail stores. detail.

Residents and local business owners have every right to be angry about crime, especially when they are the victims. But the concerns they have deserve to be addressed by law enforcement and conservative politicians concerned with making the criminal justice system work, not just sit idly by and perpetuate the lie that it does. is falling apart.

San Francisco Chronicle columnist Justin Phillips appears on Sundays. Email: [email protected] Twitter: @JustMrPhillips

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