California Voters Overwhelmingly Say ‘No’ to Soft-on-Crime Policies and Prosecutors

California Voters Overwhelmingly Say ‘No’ to Soft-on-Crime Policies and Prosecutors

I do not often have good news from the State of California to share after a big election.

However, 2024 is a little different.

My colleague Mike LaChance reviewed the resounding defeat of Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón at the hands of Nathan Hochman (who promises to be substantially tougher on crime).

It looks like Hochman will have the wind at his back in terms of salvaging public security for Los Angeles. Voters in the state also reversed course after previously supporting a measure that lightened penalties for theft and otherwise gutted crime-control efforts in this state. California Proposition 36, also known as the “Allows Felony Charges and Increases Sentences for Certain Drug and Theft Crimes” measure, passed with over 70% of the vote.

Proposition 36 would walk back much of the decade-old Proposition 47, turning some theft misdemeanors into felonies, requiring a warning about a possible murder charge for selling or providing drugs, and creating a new “treatment-mandated felony,” according to the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office.

…[T]he Family Business Association of California has called Proposition 47 “catastrophic” for the state, saying homelessness has gone up by 51% and smash-and-grab crimes have cost businesses nearly $9 billion a year. It says Proposition 36 will fix a loophole in Proposition 47 that allows thieves to take less than $950 in property from different stores and remain a misdemeanor.

Under Proposition 36, theft would be classified as a felony offense if the suspect has two or more past convictions for certain theft crimes, such as shoplifting, burglary and carjacking. The sentence would then be up to three years in county jail or state prison.

We have been following the outbreak of crime in Oakland, California. It has been so devastating that Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao and its District Attorney, Pamela Price, will face a recall vote in November. The last time we reported on the subject, thieves boldly stole the jaws of life from the local fire department during a response.

Based on the early election results from Alameda County, California, it appears that voters are strongly supporting the recall efforts for both Thao and Price.

East Bay campaigns to recall Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price and Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao were both winning in early results on Wednesday morning. The latest results from the Alameda County Registrar of Voters showed 65.19% of voters approving the Thao recall and 35% against it.

The numbers were very similar for Price, with 64.79% calling for her removal. The Associated Press reported that as of 6 a.m. Wednesday, 28% of ballots have been counted in the county.

There is even more good news. Legal Insurrection readers may recall that San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins charged all of the protestors who were arrested after halting traffic on the Bay Bridge during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference in November of last year.

Jenkins, who Mayor London Breed initially appointed in July 2022 after the recall of her Soros-backed predecessor, Chesa Boudin, had previously won a special election in November 2022 to finish Boudin’s term.

In this race, she faced Ryan Khojasteh, a progressive attorney and former prosecutor who Jenkins fired shortly after taking office.

Jenkins, running on a platform that emphasizes public safety and higher conviction rates, has highlighted her efforts to reverse the policies she claims “weren’t working for this city.” She has raised the office’s conviction rate for the first time in eight years and is credited with a crackdown on drug crimes and retail theft.

Khojasteh, however, is rallying progressive supporters, many of whom backed Boudin’s policies, and has framed his campaign as a return to reformist justice.

She has decisively won her next term in office. According to the preliminary results, Jenkins received 136,685 votes, which accounted for 67.70% of the total votes cast.

Clearly, Californians have had enough of the consequences of soft-on-crime policies. Hopefully, the era of the Soros-backed prosecutors and their failures is over.

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