Patterico's Pontifications

11/1/2014

Proposition 47 Is a Disaster

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 4:06 pm



Speaking as a private citizen, I will guess that most prosecutors don’t much care whether their docket is clogged with a bunch of drug possession cases. Then again, it’s mostly not their neighborhoods that are populated by drug addicts and drug sellers. But making any theft $950 or less an automatic misdemeanor means people can steal as often as they like, and when caught, will serve a “year” (that’s about 30 days in actual time, folks) at most. Cost of doing business.

WalMart can maybe absorb the losses that will result. Mom and pop groceries are going to take it on the chin. And I suspect we will see even more reluctance than usual to locate businesses in high crime areas.

And some violent people, currently locked up for petty theft, will be released. For example, the second fellow mentioned in this post could be released under the proposition.

Unintended consequences.

I used to get wound up about this kind of thing. I wrote post after post about a long-ago attempt to water down Three Strikes. These days I more resigned. People are going to do what they’re going to do. When it turns out badly, I’ll be there to say I told them so. But I can’t waste my precious life force getting agitated about it. This is probably the only post I’ll write about this dog of a proposition.

Bad idea. Don’t say I didn’t tell you, because I just did.

UPDATE: A George Soros Production.

18 Responses to “Proposition 47 Is a Disaster”

  1. I am getting old.

    Patterico (9c670f)

  2. Inflation? In Illinois, general theft was $150.00 then it went to $300.00 and now it’s $500.00. For less than one year vs. up to three years.

    Retail theft is $300.00 for less than one year vs. up to five years. (Unless it’s motor fuel, that’s still $150.00.)

    Neither one affects Illinois’s burglary statute. It’s “commit therein a felony or theft”. You can walk into a Jewel, eat a 69 cent donut without intending to pay for it and at the prosecutor’s discretion be charged with either theft or retail theft under one year, or with burglary up to seven years.

    nk (dbc370)

  3. Why can’t they just repeal 3 strikes?

    DejectedHead (532aac)

  4. I’ve thought about making up some bumper stickers that say:

    WE TOLD YOU SO
    YOU DIDN”T LISTEN

    They’d seem evergreen here in CA.

    Meanwhile in my assembly district a thoughtful moderate longtime businessman who wants to work on saving the state is going to lose to the ne’er-do-well daughter of an old pol. Her message? We need diversity and everyone to have a meaningful green job. Her edge? The district includes Inglewood, she’s black and her last name is Burke.

    Kevin M (d91a9f)

  5. Why can’t they just repeal 3 strikes?

    Why can’t they just make it Two Strikes?

    Kevin M (d91a9f)

  6. I agree, Pat. Embrace the suck, California.

    Petty theft is now pretty much accepted. If you go to a banquet, the temporary catering staff will steal a camera or gifts that you leave on a table. If you’re at the library, somebody will steal your stuff when you get up to find a book.

    Why? There is no penalty. And this will make it all worse. I heard an idiot proponent though who assures us all the extra money from not prosecuting will be used for guiding criminals to new, trustworthy lives. Problem solved.

    Patricia (5fc097)

  7. True dat, Patricia. It’s finders keepers and found means not holding onto your cellphone tightly enough.

    nk (dbc370)

  8. WalMart can maybe absorb the losses that will result. Mom and pop groceries are going to take it on the chin

    Places like WalMart have losses but they don’t just sit around waiting to absorb the loss. They have Loss Prevention or Asset Protection departments making sure that people don’t get away with stealing. They do other things to prevent “shrinkage” but that’s one of them.

    And they’ll pursue civil recovery and make sure it costs the perpetrator as much as possible, although typically they outsource the civil recovery portion to specialists. Which can add up to a couple of thou for fifty bucks worth of shoplifted bras and panties. Yup, their little princess needed sexy underwear for prom night but didn’t want mom & dad to find out she was sleeping with her boyfriend. So she stole it. Mom & dad thought their day couldn’t get any worse when on top of getting that news they had to bail precious out of jail.

    Little do they suspect their day has just gotten rolling.

    Mom and pop stores don’t have that kind of muscle either in-house or on retainer.

    Steve57 (c1c90e)

  9. UPDATE: A George Soros Production.

    Patterico (9c670f)

  10. 2014 – JUST VOTE NO!

    askeptic (efcf22)

  11. California voted for term limits. We got Jerry Brown again, as we get all the liberal shibboleth, by a perverse twisting of the intentions of the electorate.

    Just like California voted to cut illegal aliens out of the grab bag of government handouts.

    California voted that marriage is a contract between one man and one woman.

    It was only dent of judge shopping for a fag in robes, on the cusp of being put out to pasture, and of our misery forever, that stole that happy outcome from us.

    I’m looking back over our states recent electoral history, there is no way the general public will vote to de-felonize heroin.

    Hell, there’s a big poster right next to the tellers window at the pharmacy, warning old people about the danger to their personal liberty if they are caught holding vicodin without a prescription.

    No way this passes. The Dems would have to cheat for it to pass, and they are too addicted to telling the rest of us what we can and can’t do to let go of this club.

    papertiger (c2d6da)

  12. When legislatures tinker with criminal law and penalties due to political pressures, the solutions address the politics and generally mess up the rest.

    When lax judges weren’t sentencing criminals properly, the solution isn’t to restrict judicial discretion with mandatory sentencing or ‘three strikes’ laws, it’s to reform the process to get better judges.

    But that would be hard and involves considerable political risk for the reformers.

    Estragon (ada867)

  13. Another interesting result of this prop would be that all those would be felons will now be mere petty criminals, which means they will still be eligible to vote.

    That explains the Soros and La Raza, et al. involvement.

    It’s interesting that the comments on these LAT articles are almost always conservative. Very few liberals there to defend the liberal action, whatever it may be.

    Patricia (5fc097)

  14. California already allows felons to vote after they have served both their prison and parole terms. Most states are like that. Only 13 states have disenfranchisement for life, with two (Vermont and Maine who else?) allowing voting from prison.

    nk (dbc370)

  15. WalMart can maybe absorb the losses that will result. Mom and pop groceries are going to take it on the chin.

    I nitpicked about WalMart not absorbing (relatively speaking) the losses that mom & pop corner stores will have to sit and take. But the larger point is valid.

    The amusing thing will be that the Occupy Wall Street left that despises corporations will blame WalMart for taking over from the mom & pop stores they’re hell bent on legislating out of existence with this kind of crap.

    The left sides with criminals, puts small local retailers out of business, then hates on WalMart and other similar large chains for being better suited to fill the vacuum their legislation creates.

    Sheer freakin’ genius.

    And I suspect we will see even more reluctance than usual to locate businesses in high crime areas.

    I used to believe that. But the same above geniuses have come up with a new strategy that’s bound to work.

    Vandalize and burn businesses until they rebuild and give the rioters jobs.

    I can’t wait to hire these Mensa members so they can move on to the next phase; assaulting the customers until they leave larger tips.

    Who needs to waste money on advertising with the kind of first-person reviews of your customer service that’s bound to lead to.

    Steve57 (c1c90e)

  16. Another DA agrees with Patrick.

    http://www.ocregister.com/letters/cars-640506-math-years.html

    Patricia (5fc097)

  17. Didn’t know that, nk, but under Prop 47 it still seems voting will be easier since so many felonies are reduced to misdemeanors.

    Patricia (5fc097)

  18. Small business owners also realize that $950 will buy an good firearm, ammunition, and training.

    LTMG (0ff302)


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