This week, Governor Gavin Newsom and Democrat lawmakers continued their anti-democratic battle against a citizen-led initiative – the Homelessness, Drug Addiction & Retail Theft Act – by introducing Senate Bill 1381, which would place a weaker crime measure on the ballot this November. After failing to convince proponents to withdraw the people’s initiative by threatening poison pill amendments, Democrats are pursuing a backup plan that undermines our democratic initiative process. Democrats’ election interference is intended to confuse California voters at the ballot box.
In an opinion piece published today in the Sacramento Bee and four other McClatchy newspapers in California, Senate Minority Leader Brian W. Jones (R-San Diego) stated:
“[Newsom’s new proposal] pays lip service, at best, to the needed reforms in our public safety systems. It will have little impact beyond increasing soft-on-crime judges’ discretion.
“It is an insidious maneuver to split the voters and protect the failed policy that led us to lawlessness in the first place. Newsom’s legislation—Senate Bill 1381—would do nothing more than confuse voters who want their communities to be safer.”
Click here to read Leader Jones’s entire op-ed.
Senate Republicans did a breakdown of the differences between the citizen-led Homelessness, Drug Addiction & Retail Theft Act and SB 1381:
What California needs to rein in crime: | Citizen-led initiative | Democrats' deceptive Senate Bill 1381 |
1. Adds a mandated state prison term for carrying a loaded firearm and a substance containing fentanyl. | Yes | No |
2. Adds fentanyl to the existing list of hard drugs that carry sentencing enhancements depending on volume. | Yes | No |
3. Creates the new crime and program of “treatment-mandated felony.” | Yes | No |
4. Mandates that the existing sentence enhancement of 3, 4 or 5 years for a conviction of carrying a firearm during a drug crime be served in state prison (vs. local jail). | Yes | No |
5. Restores the sentencing enhancement for high-value theft. | Yes | No |
6. Creates a “theft in concert” enhancement of 1, 2 or 3 years for theft or destruction of property during a felony while acting in concert with 2 or more persons. | Yes | No |
7. Changes the definition of “Great Bodily Injury” to include the crime of selling or providing a controlled substance where the user suffers significant or substantial physical injury. | Yes | No |
While the governor’s and Democrat lawmakers' new proposal does include some aspects that were advanced in the citizens’ initiative, these aspects are watered-down with significantly softer penalties that are less likely to be imposed because of greater discretion provided to soft-on-crime judges.