Sacramento, Calif. (KABC) — Several new bills aimed at fighting crime in California were announced Monday.
The new bill would target suspects involved in crimes across the state, including burglary and violent shootings. Videos of people committing crimes have repeatedly been posted on social media this year, which politicians say proves crime is on the rise.
“There’s no denying that crime in California is out of control,” said James Gallagher, who represents Assembly District 3 in the northern Sacramento Valley. “We’re seeing an increase in petty theft and retail theft but also an increase in violent attacks.”
The bills were announced Monday by a group of Republicans and law enforcement officials, including several from Southern California, at a news conference in Sacramento.
One would increase penalties for serial thieves, and the other would restore the mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years for anyone using a firearm in a violent crime.
“Elected leaders are more concerned with freeing criminals than protecting victims,” Assemblyman Bill Ethely said. “It’s wrong, it’s immoral, frankly, it’s immoral.”
The elected leader pointed to recent mass shootings across the state and also to the recent killing of two Riverside County sheriff’s deputies.
“Our Riverside County Sheriff’s Office has gone two decades without a death in the line of duty, and then we lost two deputies in two weeks. That’s unacceptable,” Essayli said.
Eyewitness News used our ABC7 Neighborhood Safety Tracker to take a closer look at state Department of Justice data for the five counties in our observation area.
Overall, violent crime will only rise by about 2 percent between 2017 and 2021. The homicide rate has soared, jumping about 40 percent over the same period.
“Crime is out of control in California, and we’ve come together with representatives of the law enforcement community to deliver a simple message that everyone, no matter where they live or who they are, deserves to feel safe in their communities,” Gallagher said. .”
The future of the Republican-sponsored legislation is unclear because Democrats have supermajorities in both chambers of the state legislature.
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