Gavin Newsome Speaking

Gavin Newsom, the Democrat Governor of California has recently proposed a bill that would provide over $300 million as a countermeasure for law enforcement and small businesses to better handle themselves after a recent surge in news-making smash and grab crimes. Newsom’s plan, which will happen over the span of three years, the $300 would be focused on stopping organized rings of criminals, the purported masterminds of these smash and grabs.

Newsom remarked that crime and violence has been in an elevated place within the minds of Californians, and Americans in general, especially after a string of high-profile thefts occurred within his state. These remarks came as Newsom spelled out that this $300 million would be packaged with his overall plans for California’s budget for the year of 2022. He went on to express that the concerted effort on the part of the criminal mobs had profoundly impacted feelings of security within the nation for the worse.

Here is a breakdown of how those $300 million in Governor Newsom’s budget will be divided

  • Local law enforcement agencies of all stripes would receive $255 million in funding over the span of three years. The goal of this funding would be to provide stores with more officers as a deterrent toward theft.
  • $30 million would be channeled into district attorneys in an effort to help them better prosecute robberies of retail and automotive goods.
  • $18 million would be dedicated to an “organized theft special unit.” This specialty team would report to the state attorney general and be comprised of investigators and prosecutors focused on uncovering or even infiltrating organized crime rings and apprehending the leaders of such groups.
  • $20 million would be granted to small businesses that had been impacted by such thefts in order to help them recover from their losses and bolster anti-theft measures.
  • As illegal drugs are considered tangentially related, $20 million would be granted to the California National Guard in order to better stop the illegal drug trade.
  • $25 million would be used to establish a project that Governor Gavin Newsom described as the “largest gun buyback program in America.” Newsom has proposed legislation that allows private citizens to sue vendors of assault weapons, which are illegal, and “ghost guns” that lack any sort of paper trail for transactions. Rather than something concocted out of thing air, Newsom found inspiration for the law by examining Texas’ recent abortion law; it is now legal for private citizens to sue anyone who assists a woman in seeking an abortion after it becomes possible to sense a heartbeat in the fetus.

Republican Scott Wilk, a state senator and leader of California’s Republican party, chastised Newsom’s leadership as being the reason why so many criminals feel like the state is a sanctuary for criminality. Newsom responded to Wilk’s remarks by stating that his advocacy for prison alternatives was not in conflict with the highlighted focus on combating criminals contained with his recent budget mentions.

Newsom reaffirmed that there would be no walking back of his desire to reform California’s penal system. He was quoted as saying that there would be no “walking back…to right the wrongs of the past.” He went on to affirm that these measures were not intended as a means of upend what the voters of California chose as the rules and regulations of their land and Newsom added that he believes those decisions to all coming from a place of sound mind and certitude.

Regardless of when or if all of Governor Newsom’s plans will be able to come to fruition, the money dedicated to his budget will have to wait until June of 2022 before it can materialize. June of next year is when California’s state legislature will vote “aye” or “nay” regarding the allocation of funds for their home state and all the departments and programs that operate within it.