Instead of scapegoating Prop. 47, let’s tackle crime and addiction

When 2 highly coordinated groups of radical robbed vacation shoppers and store owners successful San Francisco and Walnut Creek past period successful brazen acts, they drew attraction to a superior nationalist problem: organized retail theft.

Sadly, alternatively than bringing unneurotic an all-hands-on-deck strategy to analyse and prosecute these outrageous acts, and to forestall aboriginal ones, immoderate politicians and justness leaders decided, instead, to play politics.

Defying some logic and the law, they are baselessly blaming these crimes connected transgression justness betterment and calling for a instrumentality to harsher penalties and punishment. Serious-minded instrumentality enforcement leaders would person alternatively acknowledged that these crimes are portion of a increasing improvement that demands astute caller strategies to support Californians safe.

The “boosters” who smashed windows and looted stores past period correspond a immense postulation of radical who, nationally, bargain arsenic overmuch arsenic $45 cardinal from retailers annually.  According to the Wall Street Journal, these individuals are often cause addicts targeted by transgression rings, who acquisition their stolen goods for good beneath the retail worth and parlay them into handsome profits by selling them anonymously online. It’s a murky, clandestine process that prompted 1 Colorado constabulary authoritative to speculate that Amazon “may beryllium the largest unregulated pawnshop connected the look of the planet.”

People superior astir stopping these transgression networks admit that instrumentality enforcement actions indispensable absorption connected some organisation and street-level theft. Identifying the vendors of these stolen goods is key.  Because arsenic agelong arsenic they spot profits from selling stolen wares, they volition proceed to find idiosyncratic hopeless capable to support their supply—no substance however galore we nonstop to prison.

California’s caller reforms person thing to bash with immoderate of this. If they did, the improvement would not beryllium occurring crossed the nation, from Massachusetts and Florida to Colorado and beyond.

The elemental information is that California’s transgression justness strategy has much than capable tools to code the street- and store-level crime. With existing conspiracy and retail theft statutes prosecutors tin bring felony charges against astir anyone who is arrested for carrying retired these thefts. It is worthy noting, moreover, that our state’s threshold for charging shoplifting arsenic a felony alternatively of a misdemeanor is little than successful galore different states, including places that person “tough-on-crime” reputations, similar Georgia, Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi and Texas.

The harder portion is bringing the shadowy distributors to justice.  But, if immoderate authorities should beryllium capable to fig retired however to clasp online fencers of stolen goods accountable, it should beryllium ours, the cradle of net technology.  In fact, San Mateo County precocious secured 5 blameworthy pleas to felony charges resulting from a two-year probe of a web that was reselling astir $8 cardinal successful stolen goods.

We should besides end, erstwhile and for all, the distracting, mendacious allegations being made astir California’s caller reforms, particularly Proposition 47.  Every survey done connected Proposition 47 has recovered that reducing transgression penalties for idiosyncratic cause usage and raising the threshold for prosecuting shoplifting arsenic a felony had small to nary interaction connected transgression rates.

What it did bash is reallocate  much than $500 cardinal successful savings from reduced incarceration backmost to section communities to statesman gathering a healing and prevention infrastructure that California has needed for generations. As a result, dozens of programs are providing cause treatment, intelligence wellness services, occupation training, lodging enactment and trauma betterment services — signaling what could beryllium imaginable if we stopped spending much than $14 cardinal each twelvemonth connected prisons.

These reallocated funds are particularly urgent for addressing the captious occupation of cause use, which past twelvemonth claimed much than 100,000 lives crossed our nation—a astir 30 percent summation implicit the twelvemonth before. The occupation has been peculiarly vexing successful California, though our cause overdose rates are comparable with a fig of states with stiffer cause laws.

Most experts property these increases to reduced entree to attraction and greater levels of isolation owed to the pandemic, arsenic good arsenic the circulation of unsafe thoroughfare drugs similar fentanyl.  “If you privation to spot deaths travel down,” 1 researcher told the New York Times, “you person to marque it overmuch easier for idiosyncratic who is addicted to opioids to entree treatment….”

Proposition 47 offers anticipation that this whitethorn someday beryllium possible. Blaming Prop. 47 for causing the problem, arsenic galore instrumentality enforcement officials are disingenuously doing, defies logic.

Californians person repeatedly demonstrated their committedness to astute transgression justness policies. They merit leaders who are consenting to prosecute this caller benignant of transgression conspiracy thoughtfully and strategically, and who are consenting to follow new, much effectual strategies for longer-standing problems.

Thomas Hoffman is the erstwhile lawman constabulary main of the West Sacramento Police Department and the retired manager of CDCR’s Division of Adult Parole Operations.