By Assemblyman Kevin Kiley – November 23, 2021
With California in the throes of a “State of Emergency,” Gavin Newsom is vacationing in Mexico for a week. You can see why he’d want to get away.
This last weekend, mobs of “smash and grab” looters wreaked havoc across the Bay Area. The new policy, apparently, is that either a vaccine card or a hammer is required to enter retail establishments.
Newsom’s bold response to the anarchy: “We cannot allow this to continue. Period. Full stop.” He then lamented his PlumpJack winery has been robbed four times. But Newsom has only himself to blame: he helped pass Prop. 47, the so-called “Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act.”
This was the measure that all but legalized retail theft. As a prosecutor, I saw the disastrous consequences. When I ran for the Legislature, I designed a “Prop. 47 Simulator” allowing voters to see those consequences by stepping into the shoes of a police officer.
As crime predictably rose, our efforts to fix the law were snuffed out by Newsom’s allies at the Capitol. But Californians have had enough. When the Legislature returns, I am introducing a Constitutional Amendment to fully repeal Prop. 47.
