Like many blue states, California has been suffering from a massive spike in crime since the George Floyd riots kicked off in the summer of 2020.
Vanessa Serna of The Epoch Times observed that California Governor Gavin Newsom has downplayed the crime wave. However, lower level officials such as Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert hold contrary views on California’s recent crime problem.
“You’ve got violent crime off the charts,” Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert tol The Epoch Times. “You’ve got this tsunami of things that are happening. Violent crime, illegal guns, and rampant theft.”
Back on July 21 in Los Angeles, Newsom was asked about California’s legislative measures and their potential connection to the state’s growing crime problem. Newsom resoundingly denied that his policies have contributed to the recent upswing in crime in the Golden State.
“The evidence doesn’t back it up. Last three decades we’ve actually seen a significant decline in crime in the state,” Newsom asserted.
According to data that the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) published in 2021, four major cities in California have experienced a surge in homicide and car theft incidents. Los Angeles, Oakland, San Diego, and San Francisco are the most prominent cities in the Golden State witnessing alarming increases in crime.
Data from PPIC demonstrated that in 2020, Los Angeles recorded a 40% increase in homicides compared to 2019. Oakland saw a 36% increase. Serna noted that “San Francisco and San Diego both witnessed increases from 41 to 48 percent and 50 percent to 55 percent, respectively.”
Schubert believes that the California government’s lax approach to violent crime is making the state less safe.
“You’ve got the Los Angeles DA who’s essentially doing everything you can do to dismantle the justice system,” Schubert declared. “You’ve got a legislature who’s consistently voted for bills that weaken accountability. You’ve got ballot initiatives that have misled the public, to the point that we’ve basically decriminalized left.”
At the moment, a controversial bill AB 333, which is making its ways through the California state legislature, would further compound California’s instability. This bill would take out burglary, felony vandalism, and identity fraud violations from gang-related crimes.
Rescue California campaign manager Anne Dundmore had choice words for Newsom’s policies, namely, Prop 47, for leading to California’s current crime dilemma. Under Prop 47, a number of drug possession and theft offenses are categorized as misdemeanors as opposed to felonies. After it was passed, a number of previous offenders who were serving sentences for felony offenses soon became eligible for resentencing thanks to the change in policy that Prop 47 brought about.
Newsom is also pursuing reforms to close two state prisons as part of his budgetary plan for 2029-2021.
Significant numbers of prisoners have been recently released in accordance with Prop 57. Back in May the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) announced that it would raise good conduct credit toward eligible inmates, allowing them to potentially be released early.
Of the inmates who are eligible to receive good credits, 63,000 are currently in jail for violent crimes, and 20,000 inmates are serving life sentences in prison without parole.
“You let a lot of felons out of prison, they’re on the streets, there’s a reason that crime is on the rise,” Dunsmore said. “They’re letting all these people out without any structure in place to monitor them, or even rehabilitate them.
California is a certified mess. It’s a harbinger of the social chaos that is to come if Red states are foolish enough to pass leftist policies.
Right now, the US is socially on the ropes. But this presents a golden opportunity for the Republican Party to step in and position itself as the party of sanity. If the GOP is actually serious about winning, its candidates would run unapologetic pro-law & order campaigns.
People are clamoring for some semblance of order, and whoever is able to fill that void will be rewarded handsomely at the polls.
