Referendum to Amend Proposition 47 Qualifies for California Ballot, Despite Democrat Opposition

A ballot initiative to amend parts of Proposition 47, the 2014 “criminal justice reform” that many blame for a wave of crime and retail theft in California, has officially qualified for the November ballot, according to California officials.

As Breitbart News reported in April:

Prop 47 coincided with a rise in crime in many cities across the state, and many local law enforcement officials began to blame it for the surge as long ago as 2015. The referendum reduced many felonies to misdemeanors, and — most notoriously — raised the minimum value for felony theft to $950 worth of goods. That, critics say, encouraged a wave of shoplifting in major cities, as thieves knew there would be no serious consequences for thefts of lesser value.

Democrats have denied that Prop 47 has been responsible for the crime surge. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) recently proposed a package of legislative reforms aimed at reducing property crimes, but he notably left Prop 47 intact.

The ballot initiative is officially called the “Homelessness, Drug Addiction & Theft Reduction Act.” It proposes:

This measure will:

A. Provide drug and mental health treatment for people who are addicted to hard drugs such
as fentanyl, cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine.

B. Add fentanyl to existing laws that prohibit the possession of hard drugs while armed with
a loaded firearm.

C. Add fentanyl to existing laws that prohibit the trafficking of large quantities of hard
drugs.

D. Permit judges to use their discretion to _sentence drug dealers to state prison instead of
county jail when they are convicted of trafficking hard drugs in large quantities or are
armed with a firearm while engaging in drug trafficking.

E. W am convicted hard drug dealers and manufacturers that they can be charged with
murder if they continue to traffic in hard drugs and someone dies as a result.

F. Reinstate penalties for hard drug dealers whose trafficking kills or seriously injures a
drug user.

G. Increase penalties for people who repeatedly engage in theft.

H. Add new laws to address the increasing problem of “smash and grab” thefts that result in
significant losses and damage, or that are committed by multiple thieves working
together.

An activist group, Californians for Safer Communities, has spearheaded the initiative. They had gathered enough signatures by late April, but only officially qualified for the ballot this week.

Democrats in the state legislature, urged by Gov. Newsom, have been debating other measures to deal with crime, short of reforming Proposition 47.

They have been trying to negotiate to keep the new referendum off the ballot.

In addition, according to Bay Area NBC affiliate KCRA, Democrats have been considering adding “inoperability” clauses to their proposed crime bills, which would make the bills inactive if the new ballot initiative passes.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, “The Zionist Conspiracy (and how to join it),” now available on Audible. He is also the author of the e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.