Sacramento, California – California Governor Gavin Newsom is proposing more than $300 million to help law enforcement and small businesses address a recent rash of high-profile smash and grab thefts. The three-year plan would finance a crackdown on organized crime rings, which are believed to be carrying out the crimes according to Fox News.
“The issue of crime and violence is top of mind all throughout not only the state of California but across the United States, highlighted recently by some high-profile retail theft operations,” Newsom said, announcing the money would be part of his proposed state budget in January.
“These organized retail mobs … (have) a profound impact on our feelings of safety here in this state, this region and as I note, this country,” he said.
Local law enforcement agencies would receive $255 million over the next three years to place more officers in stores to deter theft and another $30 million would go to district attorneys in the prosecutions of retail and auto robberies.
Another $18 million would go to create a new “organized theft special unit” under the state attorney general, with investigators and prosecutors dedicated to pursuing organized crime ringleaders; $20 million would go to small businesses victimized by smash and grab thefts and the California National Guard would receive $20 million to combat illegal drug smuggling.
An additional $25 million would fund the “largest gun buyback program in America,” he said, reiterating his proposed law to allow private citizens to sue people who sell illegal assault-style weapons and untraceable ghost guns. The proposed law is modeled after the Texas abortion law that allows private citizens to sue those who help a woman get an abortion after a fetal heartbeat can be detected.
State Senate Republican Leader Scott Wilk in a statement after Newsom’s speech claimed the “Democrats’ relentless push for their ‘criminals first’ agenda has turned this once-majestic state into a sanctuary for criminals,” according to the Los Angeles Times.
