By Bob Walsh
The focus is Proposition 47. It was passed by voters in
2014 who didn't bother to read the actual language and only read the
title, which promised a huge degree of wonderfulness. What it ACTUALLY
did was make commercial shoplifting in CA more-or-less legal.
Eventually
the business community got tired of it. Also real people got tired of
stores closing down in response to rampant in-your-face shoplifting,
which essentially became a traffic ticket as long as the actual haul was
limited to less than $950.
So,
the people fired up a ballot proposition for this coming November that
would repeal many of the more egregious problems of Proposition 47.
Trouble is the legislature is angry that the actual voters are actually
trying to do something to make their lives better.
One
of the things they are doing is fighting like hell to keep the ballot
initiative off of the ballot for fear it may pass and be held to be
constitutional.
Another
thing they are trying is a poison pill. The legislature is attempting
its own modification-reform of Proposition 47 in an effort to keep the
new proposition off the ballot. Kind of like they did, admittedly
half-heartedly, when 3-strikes passed. They are proposing changes that
would be positive but which would also be cancelled if the ballot
initiative in fact passes. They will then of course fight like hell to
have the new proposition invalidated by the courts. It is kind of a
"Fuck you peasants, go away. We are smarter than you and better able
to direct your lives than you are."
The
legislature is still fighting to have the court throw the voters
initiative off the ballot. If that move is successful then I have the
strange feeling that the legislative attempts to reform Prop 47 may
simply fade away.
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