Top California Democrats announce ballot measure targeting retail theft

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Top California Democrats want to advance legislation to crack down on retail theft, announcing they plan to send the measure to voters in November despite a tough-on-crime initiative already backed by retailers and law enforcement.

The lawmakers' plan, led by Gov. Gavin Newsom, seeks to put fewer people behind bars for stealing compared to the other plan. Newsom and lawmakers negotiated the plan behind closed doors over the weekend after failing to convince the coalition of law enforcement and business groups to drop their initiative.

Both proposals would make shoplifting a felony for repeat offenders and increase penalties for fentanyl-related charges. But the lawmakers' plan is narrower in scope.

Under the retailers’ plan, any prior theft-related convictions, even if they happened years ago, would count toward a three-strike policy for increased sentences. Lawmakers also are proposing harsher punishment for repeat thieves, but the convictions would have to happen within three years of each other.

Prosecutors could aggregate the amount of all stolen goods within three years to charge harsher offenses under the Democrats’ plan.

State Senate President Pro Tem Mike McGuire said Monday it’s “unfortunate” and “frustrating” that lawmakers have to put a crime-focused measure on the ballot. He said the coalition of district attorneys and business groups refused to work with state leaders on a compromise.

“Why are we advancing this measure? Because I’m worried about the draconian measure that’s been advancing by the DAs,” McGuire said at an event. “We need to be able to provide voters with a choice.”

Lawmakers will vote to advance the plan and deliver it to Newsom for his signature before the deadline on Wednesday.

They hope to place the measure as the first item on the ballot in November. With two competing measures on the ballot, the one with more votes would prevail.

Republican lawmakers blasted the Democrats’ plan, calling it “ a sham ” to confuse voters. The coalition of businesses and law enforcement said lawmakers refused to provide them with written proposals, which ended any possibility for negotiation.

“There can be no reason for this other than to stifle any thoughtful debate and jam an inferior measure through the Legislature,” the coalition said in a statement Monday.

The last-minute plan is an attempt by top California Democrats to override another initiative cracking down on shoplifters and drug dealers, which is backed by a broad coalition of businesses, district attorneys and local officials. The coalition and state leaders have clashed over how to crack down retail theft crimes.

District attorneys and business groups want roll back parts of Proposition 47, the progressive ballot measure approved by 60% of state voters in 2014 that reduced certain theft and drug possession offenses from felonies to misdemeanors to help address overcrowding in jails. In recent years, Proposition 47 has become the focus of critics who say California is too lax on crime.

Their proposal would also make possession of fentanyl a felony, and authorize judges to order those with multiple drug charges to get treatment. Proponents said the initiative is necessary to close legal loopholes in existing laws that has made it challenging to prosecute shoplifting and drug-related charges.

But lawmakers said the retailers’ proposal is too broad. They worry those changes would disproportionately incarcerate low-income people and those with substance use issues rather than target ringleaders who hire large groups of people to steal goods for resale online.

State leaders, including Newsom, had repeatedly rejected calls to unravel Proposition 47 or to go back to voters for crime reforms.

Democratic lawmakers were fast-tracking a legislative package of 13 bills that would go after organized online reseller schemes and auto thieves and provide funding for drug addiction counselors. State leaders planned to enact the proposals into laws as soon as this month and void the package if voters approve the business groups’ proposal in November. They abandoned that plan Saturday night.

Democrats also are concerned the retailers' tough-on-crime proposal would drive more Republicans and conservative voters to the polls in contested U.S. House races that could determine control of Congress.

Crime is shaping up to be the major political issue in California’s November’s election. San Francisco Mayor London Breed and Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón face tough reelection bids against challengers who have criticized their approaches to crime and punishment.

FILE - California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks during a news conference in Sacramento, Calif., May 10, 2024. Top California Democrats announced Sunday, June 30, that they will ask voters to approve a plan cracking down on retail theft. Lawmakers hope to place the measure on the ballot in November. They will vote to advance the plan and deliver it to Newsom for his signature before the deadline on Wednesday, July 3. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli,File)

FILE - Tubby, the dog of former state Sen. Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles, sits during a news conference organized by the Californians for Safer Communities Coalition, April 18, 2024, in Culver City, Calif. Top California Democrats announced Sunday, June 30, they will ask voters to approve a plan cracking down on retail theft. The retailers’ proposal would make stealing a felony for repeat offenders and increase punishment for fentanyl dealing. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun, File)

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Attorneys for the last two remaining survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre asked the Oklahoma Supreme Court on Tuesday to reconsider the case they dismissed last month and called on the Biden administration to help the two women seek justice.

Viola Fletcher, 110, and Lessie Benningfield Randle, 109, are the last known survivors of one of the single worst acts of violence against Black people in U.S. history. As many as 300 Black people were killed; more than 1,200 homes, businesses, schools and churches were destroyed; and thousands were forced into internment camps overseen by the National Guard when a white mob, including some deputized by authorities, looted and burned the Greenwood District, also known as Black Wall Street.

In a petition for rehearing, the women asked the court to reconsider its 8-1 vote upholding the decision of a district court judge in Tulsa last year to dismiss the case.

“Oklahoma, and the United States of America, have failed its Black citizens,” the two women said in a statement read by McKenzie Haynes, a member of their legal team. “With our own eyes, and burned deeply into our memories, we watched white Americans destroy, kill, and loot.”

“And despite these obvious crimes against humanity, not one indictment was issued, most insurance claims remain unpaid or were paid for only pennies on the dollar, and Black Tulsans were forced to leave their homes and live in fear.”

Attorney Damario Solomon Simmons also called on the U.S. Department of Justice to open an investigation into the massacre under the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act of 2007, which allows for the reopening of cold cases of violent crimes against Black people committed before 1970. A spokesperson for the DOJ declined comment.

The lawsuit was an attempt under Oklahoma's public nuisance law to force the city of Tulsa and others to make restitution for the destruction. Attorneys also argued that Tulsa appropriated the historic reputation of Black Wall Street “to their own financial and reputational benefit.” They argue that any money the city receives from promoting Greenwood or Black Wall Street, including revenue from the Greenwood Rising History Center, should be placed in a compensation fund for victims and their descendants.

FILE - In this 1921 image provided by the Library of Congress, smoke billows over Tulsa, Okla., during the Tulsa Race Massacre, one of the worst single acts of violence against Black people in U.S. history. Attorneys for the last two remaining survivors of the massacre asked the Oklahoma Supreme court Tuesday, July 2, 2024, to reconsider the case they dismissed last month and called on the Biden administration to help the two women seek justice. (Alvin C. Krupnick Co./Library of Congress via AP, File)

FILE - Tulsa Race Massacre survivor Viola Ford Fletcher gestures while speaking during an interview with The Associated Press, June 16, 2023, in New York. Attorneys for Fletcher and Lessie Benningfield Randle, the last two remaining survivors of the massacre, asked the Oklahoma Supreme court Tuesday, July 2, 2024, to reconsider the case they dismissed last month and called on the Biden administration to help the two women seek justice. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)

FILE - Lessie Benningfield Randle, a Tulsa Race Massacre survivor, is pictured during the House General Government Committee meeting at the Oklahoma Capitol, Oct. 5, 2023. Attorneys for Randle and Viola Ford Fletcher, the last two remaining survivors of the massacre, asked the Oklahoma Supreme court Tuesday, July 2, 2024, to reconsider the case they dismissed last month and called on the Biden administration to help the two women seek justice. (Doug Hoke/The Oklahoman via AP, File)