California

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/51180550

Stoking crime fear for political gain is commonplace in American politics and is a tactic used freely by Democrats, Republicans, police, prosecutors, prison guards, and in fact pretty much anyone running for public office or pushing (or opposing) a ballot measure that could redirect public spending toward or away from law enforcement.

News outlets are in on the game. Programs that ordinarily wouldn’t report on anything as mundane as a committee hearing on a bill to lengthen criminal sentences often air stock footage of crooks ransacking store shelves. The constant replays turn an otherwise boring story into a fear-driven special report.

Newspapers sometimes present “true crime” features, replaying old stories of long-ago murders to keep the fear-fueled clicks coming.

Failing drug store chains blame their poor performance on exaggerated or purely imagined waves of shoplifting. Mayors and police chiefs feel pressure to respond by deploying more police, prosecutors promise longer sentences, lawmakers approve tough-on-crime bills — even if shoplifting has not, in fact, jumped, and even if it’s revealed that bad business decisions are the true reasons for the chains’ failures.

In California, where post-lockdown crime rose and fell variously in different cities but did not amount to a sustained statewide uptick, Democrats made a show of several “retail theft” hearings last year and the year before, and championed a package of tougher-on-crime bills that were geared more toward winning a strong turnout in congressional elections than in actually affecting crime rates. Voters passed Proposition 36, which chips away at historic reforms by turning repeat low-level property misdemeanors into felonies.

The paper is here

As a single mother and main breadwinner for six children ranging from three to 19, she feels a lot of pressure.

“We’re scared. When we go to the store to get groceries, we have the feeling that someone is following us. Sometimes we don’t want to go to the doctor or dentist,” said Lupe.

She depends on federally funded food assistance, healthcare and pre-school (which are all facing major cuts under the Republicans’ new budget bill), and fears this could make her an easy target for Ice agents to track down. She said: “They have all my information, but small kids have to go to the doctor and the dentist.”