Also serving the communities of De Luz, Rainbow, Camp Pendleton, Pala and Pauma

The 95% has to take back our state from the 5%

Julie Reeder

Publisher

In the article, “Legislature failed to protect citizens, Sheriff says at Legislative Summit” beginning on the front page of this week’s Valley News, Sheriff Chad Bianco talking specifically about crime says, “The current legislative agenda is that absolutely no bill will be passed if it adds any type of punishment to any crime. The only bills that are being passed through public safety committees are bills that let people out of jail early or take away consequences for their criminal behavior.”

Specifically referring to the 2014 and 2016 voter approved Prop 47, “Safe Schools and Safe Streets Act” and Prop 57, “The Public Safety and Rehabilitation Act,” respectively, Bianco pointed out how important it is for voters to read the fine print.

“Your government lies to you every single day,” he added.

Using Prop 47, as an example, Bianco talked about how the legislation fails to keep California residents safe.

Prop 47 reclassified certain theft and drug possession offenses from felonies to misdemeanors and authorized defendants currently serving sentences for felony offenses that would have qualified as misdemeanors under the proposition to petition courts for resentencing under the new misdemeanor provisions. It also authorized defendants who have completed their sentences for felony convictions that would have qualified as misdemeanors under the proposition to apply to reclassify those convictions to misdemeanors.

“There is not one thing in Prop 47 … Not one thing made you safe, your neighborhoods safe, your streets safe. Not one,” Bianco said.

He went on to explain that Prop 47 caused retail theft as many thieves were emboldened knowing they could steal up to $950 of merchandise and still avoid a felony under the law.

Changes to the law under Prop 57 also reclassified many crimes from violent to non-violent.

“Thanks to the 2016 voter approval of Proposition 57, more than 20 clearly violent crimes are no longer classified as violent, including rape of an unconscious person, trafficking a child for prostitution, assault with a deadly weapon and domestic violence,” Bianco said.

How messed up is that? How hard is it to figure out that if you lower the bar, more criminals are going to take advantage of that? And then when we let them out of jail early, as San Diego DA Summer Stephen talked about last week, we just encourage criminal behavior. Especially when politicians and Hollywood actors raise bail money for criminals who burn down cities and victimize neighborhoods to get out of jail.

And it doesn’t stop there, as far as the legislature, I would take it a bit further. Other bills introduced are so radical that they would allow abortion to be legal even after the child is born, which is clearly infanticide. Other bills make the California taxpayers responsible to pay for all abortions and even seek to make California an abortion tourism state. This would encourage women from other states where abortion may be illegal, especially for late term abortions, to travel to California to abort their babies.

Many of those elected officials are also interested in increasing their own power and control. Not truth, not justice, just pure power and control. This is why Governor Gavin Newsom, who granted himself emergency powers, has not rescinded them yet, in spite of the state’s recovery following COVID-19 shutdowns in 2020. This is why the courts have had to rule against him time after time over the past two years, because he was wrongfully taking away our constitutional rights. And as the legislature tests those limits, they will just grow their power and control in the future.

While the courts have slowed the legislature’s quest for authoritarian control, mandates and medical tyranny, unless they are replaced with new politicians who believe in constitutional freedoms, we will need to continue to fight for those freedoms. They will continue to try and compel speech, rather than allow free speech and well meaning people will continue to sheepishly avoid talking about “politics and religion” which is ridiculous and just plays into the politician’s hands.

Sheriff Bianco made the point about our need to talk about religion and politics, for these are the two of the most important things influencing our day to day lives and freedoms and he was after all, right, when he said, “There are ethical and moral values that come with religion, regardless of what religion it is,” and “You have to start talking about politics and what laws and rules are supposed to benefit us, not an individual person and not an ideology that we all don’t agree with.”

We need to stop self-censoring. Religion and politics are exactly what we need to be talking about around the kitchen table and in the public square.

It seems to me that the other part of the problem is people are so uninformed on issues. They don’t have any idea what is going on politically, which is frustrating for me. Especially since Valley and Village News spend over a million dollars a year creating information 24/7, information that includes explainers of legislation on the ballot every election year.

Our busyness and lack of motivation as a society works for the people who want to control you. It seems we tolerate and tolerate until things get so bad that we can’t tolerate it anymore, that’s when we have the time and courage to start talking about politics.

When gas prices double, when the murder rate in LA County doubles from the previous year, when we have literally millions of illegal aliens coming across the border, including criminals, drug dealers, human traffickers and people from over 150 different countries, whom we have no idea who they are or why they are here. When our streets are so filled with fentanyl that our young people are dying at record numbers. When we have a governor who grants himself emergency powers and doesn’t remove them in the time appointed through The Emergency Services Act. When that governor along with his supermajority democratically controlled legislature takes away our constitutional rights, including shuttering our businesses, churches, schools, weddings, funerals, etc.

Bianco said, “Your government lies to you every single day,” and he was right. Truer words were never spoken. We have to be vigilant. We have to do the hard work of being informed citizens and investing in our own democracy and fighting for our Constitutional rights. We have to not just read the titles of bills proposed on our ballots, but study both sides and talk to our kids and neighbors.

We have to be vigilant, informed, skeptical and not believe everything we are being told, even by our leaders and the media. We have to openly discuss politics, sans the drama and emotion whenever possible. We need to discern the ideologies that are killing our society and culture and then vote against those who are pushing for those ideologies, power and control.

California is, after all, our home and we all need to stand up to protect it and our way of life.

 

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