SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA FOCUS
FOR RELEASE: TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2023,
OR THEREAFTER
EDITORS:
AS LEGISLATORS GET SET FOR THEIR USUAL SEPTEMBER BILL-PASSING FRENZY, TODAY’S
COLUMN SPOTLIGHTS POORLY THOUGHT OUT LAWS. THIS WEEK’S SECOND COLUMN WILL COVER
ONE CURRENTLY PROPOSED LAW.
BY THOMAS D. ELIAS
“NEW LAWS: INADEQUATE ANALYSIS YIELDS
UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES”
Here’s a reality that needs to soak into the consciousness
of California lawmakers, the governor and voters who put them in office: This
state needs far better analysis and vetting of new laws if it’s to avoid negative
unintended consequences.
And when we get solid analysis and reliable predictions of
some consequences, we need to pay heed, not ignore reality.
These facts of life are perhaps best illustrated by the
2014 Proposition 47, which ended felony status for thefts and burglaries involving
less than $950 worth of goods and reduced some other felonies, like stealing a
gun, to misdemeanors.
One unintended consequence has been closure of some stores,
notably Walgreen’s and Whole Foods outlets that suffered constant shoplifting
and no penalties for thieves caught red-handed. That’s an inconvenience making
life more complex from San Francisco to San Diego.
This was predicted right in the ballot arguments on Prop.
47 mailed to all voters. “Reducing penalties for theft, receiving stolen
property and forgery could cost retailers and consumers millions of dollars,”
wrote Bill Dombrowski, president of the California Retailers Assn. Whether many
voters noticed his analysis is questionable, considering the initiative passed
by a 59-41 percent margin.
That’s just one example of a law supported by politicians –
including then-Gov. Jerry Brown, who wanted to cut prison populations – having
severe consequences. For Prop. 47, these also include a major contribution to
inflation, as many stores now factor losses from frequent and brazen shoplifting
into prices and store closure decisions.
At the same time, increased rates of rape and human
trafficking have followed the 2016 passage of Proposition 57, which allows
early releases of rapists, child molesters, hostage takers and those convicted of
hate crimes.
So…hate crimes last year reached record levels in
California, and there is every indication that trafficking of prostitutes is
also more common than before. Ballot arguments against 57 predicted both increases,
but the measure, also backed by Brown as a prison-clearing measure, passed by
64-36 percent.
State legislators and the governors who sign their bills
into law have been just as derelict as the voters.
Take last year’s Senate Bill 357, sponsored by Democratic
state Sen. Scott Wiener of San Francisco, currently angling for the
congressional seat of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, if she retires. The
openly gay Wiener’s bills often are expressly aimed to further his perception
of an LGBTQ+ agenda.
When SB 357 decriminalized loitering with the intent to
commit prostitution, his aim was to let gay men and women hang out on street
corners trying to entice one another. It’s too soon for statistics, but police
around the state say that the moment Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the measure, old-fashioned
pimp-driven prostitution increased markedly.
“On social media, the pimps were saying, ‘You better get
out there and work because the streets are ours,’” one Los Angeles vice
detective told the magazine City Journal. The pimps were right, the detective reported:
Once the bill was signed, cops ceased arresting virtually anyone for this
former crime, even before the law took formal effect.
Police also reported pimps became more visible, often
standing on nearby side streets as their “girls” worked streets long known as hooker
hot spots. “It took away an enforcement tool,” said one Oakland
anti-trafficking activist.
The reported near doubling in numbers of young women
loitering in fish-net dresses over skimpy g-strings was surely not Wiener’s intention,
but it’s reality, as drivers can see when passing through vice-ridden parts of
California cities. It’s an unintended, very foreseeable, consequence that many
feel outweighs new rights for seekers of gay partners.
Wiener and his allies have also produced unintended
consequences with housing density bills they’ve pushed through: California now
sports myriad new apartment buildings, most carrying large “vacancy” signs
because rents remain too high for large numbers of those who need housing most.
Wiener and fellow density advocates like Newsom, state Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta and
state Senate President Toni Atkins didn’t intend that, but those thousands of
signs are mute testimony to the emptiness within many new buildings.
That’s another very predictable scene lawmakers didn’t
notice ahead of time, and further evidence that rushed, minimally analyzed laws
often work poorly.
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