Smolens: Democrats scrambling to get ahead of crime concerns

Mayors London Breed of San Francisco and Libby Schaaf of Oakland. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Gov. Gavin Newsom. Former Gov. Jerry Brown.

That list of political progressives might typically be identified with criminal justice and police reforms. Now they have essentially become a “tough on crime” coalition.

Amid growing concerns about organized smash-and-grab retail robberies and increasing violent crime, California Democratic leaders are scrambling to crack down on criminals across the state.

Given those politicians each spoke out about going after criminals within a few days of one another, you’d have thought a memo went out. With the high profile of the robberies in the media, it’s no surprise this has become a top public safety concern. That means it also has become a top political problem, as one tends to follow the other.

The governor said a Smash and Grab Enforcement Unit operated by the California Highway Patrol aimed at organized retail, auto and rail theft will coordinate with local law enforcement agencies in the San Diego region, San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles and the San Joaquin Valley.

The governor vowed to distribute more than $300 million in an overall anti-crime package over the next three years, most of it in grants to local law enforcement.

The videos are dramatic and the increase in crime, particularly violent crime, is real. But in many areas, including San Diego County, the crime rate is still far lower than it was decades ago.

The smash-and-grab and organized retail crimes have been getting a lot of attention, but the loss estimates from the California Retailers Association were challenged in a recent article by the Los Angeles Times. The association said in San Francisco and Oakland, businesses lose $3.6 billion to organized retail crime each year.

That would amount to nearly a quarter of total sales in San Francisco and Oakland combined, which totaled around $15.5 billion in 2019, according to the Times, citing data from the state agency that tracks sales tax.

“Can that be right? In a word: no,” wrote Sam Dean of the Times.

He noted the country’s largest retail industry group, the National Retail Federation, estimated that losses from organized retail theft average $700,000 per $1 billion in sales — or 0.07% of total sales — an amount roughly 330 times lower than the California association’s estimate.

A representative of the California group ultimately told the Times “there’s no way of knowing exactly” how much organized retail crime affects the bottom line of businesses.

As he unveiled his anti-crime package, Newsom gingerly hinted that the perception may be worse than the reality.

He said “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.”

The governor and other Democrats vowed to take strong action, sometimes in strong language, to curb the shootings, other violence, open drug use, as well as thefts.

“It’s time that the reign of criminals who are destroying our city, it is time for it to come to an end,” said Breed, who launched emergency police action to combat crime in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district. “And it comes to an end when we take the steps to be more aggressive with law enforcement … and less tolerant of all the bull---- that has destroyed our city.”

Pelosi, also from San Francisco, decried what she called an “attitude of lawlessness.” “It must be stopped, and it’s not just San Francisco,” she said. “It’s in our entire country.”

In a letter seeking aid from Newsom, Schaaf said, “This year, Oakland has experienced more combined shootings and homicides than we’ve seen in over a decade.”

Oakland had planned to divert funding from police to social services, but Schaaf pushed to reverse those cuts. The City Council has voted to end a freeze on police officer positions and fund two more police academies to bring the department staffing back to 737 officer positions, according to KPIX TV.

Brown said there needed to be more consequences for criminals.

“You’ve heard about the redistribution of wealth. We need a redistribution of incarceration,” he told Elex Michaelson of Fox 11 in Los Angeles. "... We’ve got all these people committing break-ins, snatch and grab, shooting up heroin on the street, and they just walk out. So if we got the long-termers and got them out a little quicker and we took the short-term risk … put them in and give them some drug treatment and training.”

He added: “But you got to have the carrot, but you got to have the stick and the stick is, you go steal a car or something, you do spend some time. You don’t have to spend 10 years, put it in for a month and they do it again, put them in for three.”

Not surprisingly, the focus on crime has reignited debate over Proposition 47, the 2014 ballot measure that reduced certain crimes from felonies to misdemeanors, including drug possession and thefts of less than $950.

Critics say the measure should be repealed, while Newsom and California Attorney General Rob Bonta say such crimes can and should be prosecuted under the law, especially organized retail operations.

“Those are felonies. There are more than enough tools in the California criminal justice toolbox to charge them as such and hold the folks accountable,” Bonta said during a Sacramento Press Club forum earlier this month.

GOP leaders have been turning up the heat on Democrats over crime, which could become a major campaign issue next year. No one seems to be accusing the Republicans of being alarmists, at least publicly.

Right now, Democrats themselves are ringing the alarms plenty loud.

Michael Smolens is a columnist for the San Diego Union-Tribune.

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