WHATS NEW AND WONDERFUL IN CALIFORNIA

by Bob Walsh

Several interesting but probably not real helpful laws will kick in in the formerly great state of California in the New Year.

Police are now legally prohibited from using choke holds or carotid holds on resistive criminals.

Persons who have been convicted of crimes can challenge either their conviction or their sentence by asserting some level of racial bias at ANY STAGE of the legal proceedings against them.

Parolees are now legally able to vote in CA.

The old California Youth Authority, now the Division of Juvenile Justice, is dead and stinking.  Effective 07-01-21 the Office of Youth and Community Restoration will operate at the county level to oversee the treatment and rehabilitation of youthful offenders, including those who are truly violent and dangerous.  As far as I can tell this "treatment" will essentially involve telling them repeatedly that they are victims of society and are not really bad people just because they are murderers, armed robbers and rapists.  

In addition newly passed AB2425 makes it pretty much impossible to unseal a juvenile police record.

It is now specifically illegal to ride a bicycle in a public swimming pool.

In San Francisco you can not now legally get naked at a public event unless that event has a legitimate police permit.  

Driverless cars are not allowed to drive faster than 60 MPH in California, and must have a licensed driver in the car who is financially liable for damage caused by the vehicle.

Also, though it is not a new law (in fact it is old) it is illegal in California to eat frogs that died during a frog jumping contest.  Really.