SACRAMENTO, Calif. – A Democrat-backed bill working its way through the California Legislature would require judges in the state to essentially apply preferential treatment as they are told to consider a convicted criminal’s race when determining the length of sentence to be imposed.
In a low key manner, the Democratic chair of the California Assembly’s Public Safety Committee, Assembly Member Reggie Jones-Sawyer, introduced Bill 852 in February. The Assembly passed the little-known legislation in May. Now the proposed measure is being considered in the state Senate, Fox News reported.
The bill would add a section to the California Penal Code requiring judges, whenever they have the discretion to impose a prison sentence, to “rectify” alleged racial bias in the criminal justice system.
The proposed new section to the Penal Code reads, “It is the intent of the Legislature to rectify the racial bias that has historically permeated our criminal justice system as documented by the California Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans. Whenever the court has discretion to determine the appropriate sentence according to relevant statutes and the sentencing rules of the Judicial Council, the court presiding over a criminal matter shall consider the disparate impact on historically disenfranchised and system-impacted populations.”
As one political pundit said, “The state wants to require judges to give preferential treatment to criminals who were never enslaved after these same people victimized people who never held slaves in a state that never allowed slavery. Oh yeah, it makes perfect sense, right along with reparations.”
