A California sheriff blasted Gov. Gavin Newsom of pedaling ‘false’ crime statistics as a way to protect progressive policies that have failed to address rampant crime, homelessness and drug deaths gripping the Golden State.
Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco accused the democrat of allegedly lying as a way to protect Proposition 47, a law approved by California voters in 2014 that reduced penalties for drug and property crimes.
Bianco said Newsom has resisted changing the law to save face, while the state continues to struggle with the ramifications of rolling back stiffer penalties against criminals and drug addicts.
‘Right now, they are against it because, in elementary terms, I guess they’re going to have to admit that Prop 47 was a disaster that they have tried to defend for years since its passing,’ Bianco told Fox News in an interview.
‘The reality of a leader, a true leader, is someone that can say, ‘Look, we had good intentions of something, but, we had some unintended consequences that now we have to fix.”
The sheriff added, ‘That would have been a leadership way for our government to come out of this ahead. but but instead for the past 10 years, they have completely defended Prop 47. They have lied to the public.’
Bianco is among a group of top brass who are pushing for a new ballot measure called the Homeless, Drug Addiction and Theft Reduction Act, which would reverse parts of the highly contentious Prop 47.
Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco blasted Gov. Gavin Newsom over woke policies he said has contributed to the uptick in crime and homelessness across the state
The democrat governor signaled he opposes changes to Prop 47, which lowered narcotics possession and other crimes from felonies to misdemeanors
The proposed measure, which could be on the ballot in November, will not only roll back drug and theft offenses from misdemeanors to felonies, but also would allow judges to order drug rehab for offenders.
Bianco said the Golden State has long suffered the after effects of Prop 47 and is now seeing its blaring negative impacts.
Newsom has resisted calls to reverse Prop 47. Earlier this year, he asked local lawmakers to instead create new categories of crimes that would target ‘professional’ offenders.
‘I think it’s important to level with people,’ Newsom said. ‘Again, not to say everything about [Prop] 47 is hunky-dory and perfect. We want to fix some of the ambiguities, but we can do it without reforming or going back to the voters themselves.’
Since 2019, Newsom has poured about $1.1 billion of the state’s coffers to combat organized retail theft and other crimes under his Real Public Safety Plan.
As part of his plan to address soaring crime in Oakland, the governor announced last month 480 new high-tech cameras would be installed along busy streets to help identify criminals.
According to Oakland police, robberies were up by 32% in March compared to the same time last year.
Police put out an alert warning Oakland residents of the uptick in smash-and-grab robberies, even while the drivers are still in their cars.
Oakland’s break-in problems made national headlines after the city’s only In-N-Out burger location decided to shutter its doors on March 25 after 18 years at 8300 Oakport Street.
Oakland’s only In-N-Out had to close because customers and employees were being victimized by robbers
Denny Warnock, In-N-Out’s chief operations officer, wrote in a statement: ‘Despite taking repeated steps to create safer conditions, our Customers and Associates are regularly victimized by car break-ins, property damage, theft, and armed robberies.’
Newsom’s high-tech camera plan, however, backfired and drew criticism as residents and privacy advocates said the governor was turning their city into a ‘surveillance state.’
Cat Brooks, founder of the Anti-Police Terror Project, criticized Newsom’s surveillance plan. She said the money would’ve been better used to address the city’s growing homeless population.
‘We are concerned by both a state and city in massive budget deficits and the largest homeless population in our city and across the country,’ Brooks said in a statement. ‘When we decide to deploy 480 new cameras, we should be asking how many people could be housed with the money we spend on this, how many people could be trained to do living wage jobs.’
Volunteers help to clean up belongings at an encampment of homeless people near the Nimitz Freeway in Oakland after the city issued an order to remove and clean up the area where between 30 to 40 people live in cars, RVS, tents, and other makeshift structures
She added, ‘The approach is adopting the same failed strategies we’ve taken for decades. We’ve never stopped sending people to jails, yet crime keeps rising because it’s an approach that doesn’t work.’
DailyMail.com has previously reported cities such as San Francisco continue to experience a ‘doom loop’ economic collapse and stand to lose millions of dollars because of businesses leaving the Bay area and other parts of the state.
Pedestrians walk by Macy’s iconic flagship store in Downtown San Francisco’s Union Square, which has been earmarked for closure. The once thriving downtown area has seen more than a dozen stores shutter because of lack of foot traffic, crime and rampant drug use in the area
San Francisco Mayor London Breed in December proposed a 10% spending cut for 2024 as the city grapples with homelessness, overdoses due to fentanyl and other drugs and an exodus of downtown businesses.
Nathan Hochman, a former U.S. assistant attorney general, said California voters are ready for a change and are tired of feeling unsafe.
Hochman, who is an independent, is running in November against democrat LA County District Attorney George Gascon, who is the co-author of Prop 47.
He said over the past year, shoplifting has increased by about 81% in LA County.
Most of the people who are detained for non-serious and non-violent crimes could be cited and released at the scene, or booked and then released from jail with orders to appear in front of a judge if charges are filed.
However, many never bother to show up to court, Hochman said.
Under Gascon’s policies, prosecutors also are instructed not to ask the judge for a bail hold on non-serious and non-violet offenders.
‘Right now you can commit 800 misdemeanors and it will never become a felony charge,’ Hochman told DailyMail.com. ‘So in LA County, you have a combination of these Prop 47 laws with a prosecutor [Gascon] who refuses to prosecute certain types of crimes. It leads up to a situation where many criminals throughout Los Angeles County believe that they have a license to steal, and often.’
Hochman added while Newsom and other supporters of Prop 47 were ‘looking for short-term fixes,’ the current law has not stopped repeat offenders.
Nathan Hochman, an independent candidate who is running against LA County District Attorney George Gascon, said voters are ‘fed up’ with rising crime and homelessness
‘Mayors in California are looking around and are pulling their hair out saying that the laws are weak,’ Hochman said. ‘And even if they are enforced, the criminals understand them better than the legislatures because they keep committing these crimes and have almost no punishment exacted even if they do get caught. They go back and do it again.’
‘I think California voters are incredibly fed up, frustrated and are looking for elected officials and propositions to support that go a long way towards reestablishing safety in their communities.’
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