{"id":1485586,"date":"2024-08-23T19:45:00","date_gmt":"2024-08-23T23:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/?p=1485586"},"modified":"2024-08-23T19:45:00","modified_gmt":"2024-08-23T23:45:00","slug":"ten-years-after-prop-47-california-goes-full-circle-and-starts-fighting-retail-crime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/ten-years-after-prop-47-california-goes-full-circle-and-starts-fighting-retail-crime\/1485586\/","title":{"rendered":"Ten Years After Prop 47, California Goes Full Circle And Starts Fighting Retail Crime"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ten Years After Prop 47, California Goes Full Circle And Starts Fighting Retail Crime<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

It’s called blowback: several years after California passed Proposition 47, which reclassified felony theft offenses as misdemeanors and effectively greenlit shoplifting of items below $950, the retail industry had had enough, and the same state that idiotically tried to give minorities a back-handed reparation by encouraging their petty theft (with the tongue-in-cheek promise of not prosecuting it), the state has seen countless retailers flee, social cohesion collapse, crime explode and after a decade of Prop 47, the circle is complete as California just enacted a package of bills to fight the very same retail crime it initially encouraged.<\/p>\n

As RetailDive reports<\/a>, with governor Gavin Newsom\u2019s signing of a package of 10 bills<\/a> last week, California has a new suite of tools to fight organized retail crime and other property theft, while holding on to criminal justice reforms that the governor says have clamped down on recidivism and saved the state billions.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

According to Newsom, the California Retailers Association was instrumental in developing the package and getting it to his desk, or, more accurately, a makeshift work surface set up at a Home Depot location in San Jose. CRA President Rachel Michelin, speaking alongside the governor and several other stakeholders, said work on the legislation was cooperative, but that the problem was brought to legislative leaders and law enforcement by retailers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe worked collaboratively. And I\u2019ll say I was able to rethink the way I approach this issue, and I think I was able to have them rethink how they approach this issue,\u201d Michelin said.\u00a0\u201cRetailers have never been about mass incarceration or that type of mentality. We\u2019ve always wanted to be part of the solution.\u201d<\/p>\n

The new legislation tackles not just retail theft<\/a>, but also other property theft and damage, including auto theft. Broadly speaking, related to retail crime, the law focuses on online marketplaces and repeat offenders, gives law enforcement and prosecutors more leeway and puts cargo theft <\/strong>in focus.<\/p>\n

The National Retail Federation and Retail Industry Leaders Association, which have both focused on retail crime in recent years, declined to comment on the new laws, referring Retail Dive to the CRA.<\/p>\n

Specifically, per a fact sheet from the governor\u2019s office<\/a>, under the legislation:<\/p>\n

Prosecutors can bundle the value of stolen property from different retailers or jurisdictions to reach the $950 \u201cfelony grand theft\u201d threshold. Thefts and related offenses from different counties can be tried together.
\n\tA person can be arrested for shoplifting even if an officer didn\u2019t witness the act.
\n\tProbation for shoplifting or petty theft is extended from one year to two.
\n\tCourts can issue \u201cretail theft restraining orders\u201d that would ban anyone \u201cconvicted of organized retail theft, shoplifting, theft, vandalism, or assault of a retail employee from entering the establishment for up to two years.\u201d
\n\tRetailers can\u2019t be cited or fined for repeated theft reports.
\n\tAnyone \u201cpossessing more than $950 of stolen goods with intent to sell, exchange, or return the goods\u201d now faces up to three years in jail, and prosecutors needn\u2019t prove the defendants knew those goods were stolen.
\n\tSentencing is enhanced for \u201clarge-scale resale of property.\u201d
\n\tOnline marketplaces must collect information on \u201chigh-volume third-party sellers.\u201d
\n\tThe state\u2019s existing organized retail theft law and its regional property crimes task forces, which were scheduled to sunset, were made permanent.
\n\tCargo theft, as related to retail crime, now includes railroads, according to Michelin.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of these things in this package is going to help retailers, law enforcement and district attorneys be able to provide the consequences for the behaviors that we need to make sure people don\u2019t continue doing this behavior, which is what we\u2019ve always needed,\u201d Michelin said.<\/p>\n

The new legislation doesn\u2019t go as far as Prop 36,\u00a0a referendum that California voters will consider in November<\/a>,\u00a0in stiffening penalties for retail theft.<\/p>\n

The detail gaining the most attention \u2014and even some notoriety in the 2024 presidential election \u2014 is that California now categorizes thefts of goods worth less than $950 as misdemeanors.<\/p>\n

And the punchline: Prop 36 would recategorize lower-level thefts<\/a> as a felony for people with prior convictions and allow for more extensive prison sentences.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nFri, 08\/23\/2024 – 15:45<\/span><\/p>\n

\u200bhttps:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/economics\/ten-years-after-prop-47-california-goes-full-circle-and-starts-fighting-retail-crime<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ten Years After Prop 47, California Goes Full Circle And Starts Fighting Retail Crime It’s called blowback: several years after California passed Proposition 47, which…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1485587,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1485586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1485586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1485586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1485586\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1485587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1485586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1485586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1485586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}