California GOP leader says Democratic policies ‘tone-deaf’ amid statewide crime wave affecting businesses

California’s top Republican in the state Assembly said residents and elected officials up and down the state are frustrated with increased levels of crime and Democratic-led policies critics say enable criminals to continuously offend without fear of repercussions.

Speaking with Fox News Digital, Assembly Minority Leader James Gallagher accused California’s Democratic-majority state Legislature of failing to provide law and order by introducing policies that ignore victims. He cited the introduction of Senate Bill 94, which would allow those serving sentences of life without the possibility of parole to petition for re-sentencing, with some provisions. 

He also noted a bill, SB 14, that would increase penalties for child traffickers and would add the crime to the list of serious felonies in California had bipartisan support in the state Senate before moving to the Assembly, where the Democratic-led Assembly Public Safety Committee chose not to advance the legislation because they opposed longer prison sentences and argued it isn’t a deterrent to crime.

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“They’re misplaced and totally tone-deaf with what’s going on here in California,” Gallagher said of the proposed policies.

An amended version of the bill passed the committee Friday following a public uproar that prompted Gov. Gavin Newsom to weigh in. SB 94 also advanced the Assembly Appropriations Committee as well. 

“California Democrats continue to send a crystal-clear message to all Californians: they would rather protect violent murderers than focus their efforts on true public safety and protecting victims,” said Jessica Millan Patterson, chairwoman of the California Republican Party.

Beginning with the COVID-19 pandemic, crime steadily increased in California as shootings, robberies and other quality-of-life offenses made headline news and occupied social media space. 

A surge in smash-and-grab robberies where groups of thieves ransack clothing and jewelry stores has gotten so out of control, law enforcement agencies the Los Angeles have formed a task force to combat the thefts. The problem has also plagued the Bay Area as well. 

In August, a mob ransacked a Nordstrom store in Los Angeles, and a Macy’s department store in the region was also targeted this week. Other stores in Orange County, Beverly Hills, Oakland and San Francisco have been hit as well, with thieves sometimes making off with hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of merchandise. 

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In an effort to prevent workplace violence, Senate Bill 553 initially prohibited employers from requiring retail workers to confront suspected shoplifters, in addition to requiring businesses to maintain a log of all violent incidents against employees as well as post-incident investigations.

The bill, as well as SB 94, is the brainchild of state Sen. Dave Cortese, a Democrat. The provision outing the confronting of shoplifters was taken out this week following outcry from small business owners, Cortese’s office told Fox News Digital, and the bill passed the Assembly’s Assembly Appropriations Committee.

The legislation still faces opposition from the business community who feel it doesn’t address rampant retail theft. That point was driven home this summer when a thief stealing from a 7-Eleven store in Stockton, California, had the tables turned on him. The man was filmed casually sweeping cigarettes and other behind-the-counter items into a rolling trash can as a pair of Sikh clerks watched before beating him to the floor. 

Jaskaran Sahota, 55, who owns multiple gas stations in Northern California, said laws that increased the dollar amount of stolen merchandise eligible to be charged as a felony have contributed to theft.  

“Theft is theft. Why would you increase it just because you’re being soft on criminals?” he told Fox News Digital. “You have criminals roaming around without any consequences.”

“How would you feel sending your wife to a convenience store? I don’t feel comfortable sending my wife or my kids to a convenience store by themselves,” he added. 

In a statement to Fox News Digital, Cortese said, “All employers, including retail employers, should have a plan in place to help prevent and respond to every type of violence.”

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“Furthermore, SB 553 sets a framework for a more collaborative process through Cal/OSHA (California Division of Occupational Safety and Health) to find more solutions that protect workers and business assets. After hearing from partners in many different industries, I will continue to explore ways to protect workers and businesses from the rise in workplace violence.” 

On Friday, Gallagher said he had not seen the amendment for SB 94 and 533, but that Democrats “are putting lipstick on a pig.” Both pieces of legislation advanced Friday. 

“These bills never should have passed the [appropriations] committee. Yet more evidence that the Democrat majority is in denial over its self-inflicted crime crisis,” he wrote on social media. 

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The Los Angeles region and Bay Area ranked as the top two most affected areas by organized retail theft, according to a 2022 survey by the National Retail Federation. 

Critics of the robbery trend point to several factors like zero bail policies and a reduction in criminal charges. However, many universally point to progressive district attorneys who have enacted what some see as a criminal justice reform agenda. 

Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon has come under fire and survived two recall attempts since taking office in late 2020 for issuing a number of directives that include zero bail and getting rid of criminal enhancements. 

Alameda County DA Pamela Price is also facing a recall effort over her restorative justice policies, despite only being elected in November 2022. She recently compared the effort to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. 

“These are election deniers,” she told Fox San Francisco in July. “We had an election. We won the election by an overwhelming majority. It wasn’t a small, close election and so the people who lost, they lost, and when you lose an election, you shouldn’t be able to overturn the will of the voters. That’s what happened during the insurrection on Jan. 6.”

Former San Francisco DA Chesa Boudin was ousted by voters in a June 2022 recall vote. 

The criminal justice agenda by Democrats goes back at least the past decade, Gallagher said. He noted that prison inmates were released or put in county jails and that penalties for certain crimes were either reduced or repealed altogether. 

“They like to call it criminal justice reform, but many people predicted exactly what would happen, which is it would make people even more brazen to commit crimes and that’s what’s transpired,” he said. “We now have people that will go into stores, raid stores, steal everything not nailed down and come out, and there’s little that can be done to stop them.”