By Ebenezer Mamo
SACRAMENTO, CA – California State Senate pro Tempore Mike McGuire (D-North Coast) released a statement last week focusing on retail theft legislation, stating, “Making our communities safer is a top priority for all Californians.”
McGuire added, “That’s why the Senate and Assembly are moving with speed to pass common sense, effective laws that will blunt retail theft and local crime. These bills are supported by law enforcement, firefighters, retailers, store owners, and trusted local leaders. These 14 bills…aren’t about partisan politics, they’re about keeping the people of California safe.”
One of these bills, according to Jeannie Nguyen in an ABC news article, is the California Retail Theft Reduction Act, and would “target serial retail thieves with a penalty of up to three years behind bars and provide rehab and diversion programs.”
In the same article Nguyen quotes Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur, who said the lawmakers are making sure “we’re not doing things that are going to result in people being put in prison for stealing a sandwich. I mean, we’re focusing on these retail crime rings that are hitting stores over and over again.”
Another of these bills titled AB 3209 “would allow retailers to get a restraining order for up to two years following a conviction or more than two citations for a theft offense,” said Nguyen.
AB 1972 would give more resources to California Highway Patrol officers to help fight cargo theft by giving them the right to investigate those types of issues and letting them have authority over it, according to Republican Assemblymember Juan Alanis (R-Modesto) in the ABC article.
There has been difficulty between Democrats and Republicans in the California State Legislature in passing the bills because the amending of the retail theft bills would be voided if voters approve a ballot measure changing portions of Prop. 47, wrote Lindsey Holden of the Sacramento Bee.
According to Holden, these Prop. 47 changes have stricter penalties for retail theft and requirement of drug treatment for those charged with simple drug possession.
Called “The poison pill amendments — specifically, an urgency clause and the automatic repeal of retail theft bills should voters adopt the (ballot) initiative — undermine these efforts,” and McGuire notes, “These amendments set a dangerous precedent, forcing our constituents into a false choice between legislative reforms and necessary modifications to Prop. 47.”
According to Holden’s story, “some of the bills in the retail package mirror aspects of the ballot measure,” but a key difference is a provision in the initiative that would increase penalties for someone convicted of shoplifting who has two or more prior theft-related convictions.
This, Holden writes, would help head off the ballot measure by immediately enacting their policies, which may satisfy some groups clamoring for increased theft penalties, such as the California Retailers Association.
“The repeal amendments could also push those who support the retail legislation over the initiative to lean on proponents to remove it from the ballot,” wrote The Bee’s Holden.
