Proposition 36 introduces common sense back into California

by Zain Jaffer

The people have spoken. A new President takes his oath in January 2024. In California, the hotbed of liberal thought, voters also passed Proposition 36, which will undo the negative impacts caused by Proposition 47 [https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/nov/05/california-prop-36-results]. Proposition 36 will put forth stricter penalties for retail theft, crimes against property, and drug offenses, and reclassify these as felonies from misdemeanors.

It does not mean that US police forces do not have problems with racial discrimination, but the pendulum over the past few years had swung forth to the other extreme, leading for calls to “defund the police” after the George Floyd incident. Definitely police forces have to remove their abusive cops, but the cure that Proposition 47 brought was worse than the disease. Even African American leader Rev. Al Sharpton agreed on MSNBC [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OstJFEtu7usAfrican].

The result? Swarms of young men and women barging into stores, grabbing items left and right with impunity. Luxury stores like Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Apple, and others in Los Angeles and San Francisco were frequently the scene of smash and grabs. Employers instructed their employees not to resist or fight back, and instead put their goods, even in groceries and small stores, under lock and key. Some even tried appointment shopping [https://retailwire.com/discussion/should-more-luxury-retail-be-appointment-only-like-saks-fifth-in-san-francisco/].

Finally Proposition 36 restores sanity back into our local laws by recriminalizing retail theft, drug dealing, and property crime. Hopefully the rest of America has the same types of laws on their books.

In particular, the downtown real estate sector has been challenging these past few years to say the least. The triple whammy of high debt interest rates, low office occupancy due to Work from Home (WfH) and Artificial Intelligence (AI), and low downtown retail store occupancy due to elevated crime, homelessness, and drug use, has turned many of our once glamorous downtown areas like San Francisco Union Square into places for people to avoid.

There was no good incentive to fix up our city real estate until this problem had been fixed. Right now the situation in our downtown areas is still unsafe, but hopefully this is the first step to reclaiming back our cities and our property values.

Even in his late night talk show, host Bill Maher quipped, “Even liberal L.A. said, ‘Here’s an idea — instead of locking up the toothpaste, how about we lock up the shoplifters?’” [https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/bill-maher-trump-win-get-the-cat-high-vote-1236205200/].

It is time to bring back the splendor of our great American cities by bringing back proper policing and laws to make our downtown areas safe and secure once again.

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