California governor signs a bill bringing back harsh penalties for smash-and-grab robberies

[Pelican Press 0]

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California governor signs a bill bringing back harsh penalties for smash-and-grab robberies

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill Thursday bringing back tough ********* penalties targeting large-scale stealing schemes and smash-and-grab robberies that have fueled voter frustration across the state.

The new law requires prosecutors to start imposing harsher sentences again for those who damage or ******** property valued at more than $50,000 while committing a felony. A similar law expired in 2018. The new law will sunset by 2030.

“California already has some of the strictest retail and property ****** laws in the nation — and we have made them even stronger with our recent legislation,” Newsom said in a statement. “We can be tough on ****** while also being smart on ****** — we don’t need to go back to broken policies of the last century.”

The decision to bring back tough penalties comes as Democratic leaders continue to work to prove that they are

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while trying to convince voters to *******

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that would bring even harsher sentences for repeat offenders of shoplifting and ***** charges.

While shoplifting has been a growing problem, large-scale, smash-and-grab thefts, in which groups of individuals brazenly rush into stores and take goods in plain sight, have become a crisis in California and elsewhere in recent years. Such *******, often captured on video and posted on social media, have brought particular attention to the problem of retail theft in the state.

The new law is part of

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of about a dozen bills aiming to ****** down on thefts, making it easier to go after repeat shoplifters and auto thieves and increase penalties for those running professional reselling schemes.

“Violent ‘sledgehammer *******’ and flash-mob attacks by organized gangs must stop now,” Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, who authored the bill, said in a statement. “Our business owners and workers should not have to live in ***** that these ******* will come to their doorstep.”

The measure is also supported by the California Retailers Association, which said the new penalties would serve as “a deterrent against ‘smash and grabs’ and retail ******.”

But opponents, including ********* justice advocates and public defenders, said the new law will result in more people behind bars for non-retail theft *******. The measure increases prison time for a wide range of felony charges, they said. That means a person could receive a tougher sentence for offenses such as damaging vehicles while driving under the influence under the new law.

They also criticized the new law for modeling after a plan proposed in

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, which Newsom and Democratic lawmakers spent months lambasting and unsuccessfully fighting to keep off the November ballot. The new law will expire in five years, while the ballot measure proposes a plan to make the harsher penalties permanent.

“If we’re opposed to it being permanent, why aren’t we opposed to it being temporary?” said Taina Vargas, executive director of Initiate Justice Action, about the new law. “This makes it apparent that, you know, certain individuals in the Legislature and the governor just want to give off the impression of doing something.”

How to tackle ******* in California has become increasingly difficult to navigate in recent years for state Democrats, many of whom have spent the last decade championing progressive policies to depopulate jails and prisons and invest in rehabilitation programs.

As the issue could even

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, some Democrats broke with party leadership and said they supported Proposition 36, the tough-on-****** approach.

Newsom’s administration has

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to help dozens of local law enforcement agencies increase patrols, buy surveillance equipment and prosecute more **********. Law enforcement across the state has arrested 6,900 people for retail theft ******* in the first six months of the operation, Newsom’s office said Thursday.

It is hard to quantify the retail ****** issue in California because of the lack of local data, but many point to major store closures and everyday products like toothpaste being locked behind plexiglass as evidence of a crisis. The California Retailers Association said it is challenging to quantify the issue in California because many stores don’t share their data.

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