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Jan. 15, 2021 - Epoch Times
26:20
What’s Causing an Increase in Crime in California? | Steve Cooley
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So basically, they've greatly reduced theft offenses.
And that's a reason all over California, but particularly in urban areas, thieves are committing more and more low-level crimes.
Theft in neighborhoods, theft from garages, shoplifting, retail theft.
It's dramatically increased because the penalties have been greatly reduced.
So that's a real problem.
Because when you have an atmosphere of a lot of smaller crimes, not the most serious crime, but you have a lot of it, and that creates an atmosphere where the more serious crimes are going to be committed.
Because those people who would otherwise be in jail or prison are still out committing crimes.
They're out there.
Crime is on the rise in California.
Crime is on the rise in California.
My next guest is Steve Cooley.
He has served as District Attorney for Los Angeles County and has published two books on the challenges of law enforcement.
He will tell you everything you need to know about the recent changes in California law that have led to this increase of crime.
Steve, you've been an elected prosecutor in California.
We're excited to have you on the show.
Well, I'm glad to be here, and actually, I was a career prosecutor.
I served as Los Angeles County District Attorney, the elected prosecutor for 12 years, three terms.
But before that, for 27 years, I was a deputy district attorney for Los Angeles County.
So I've got four decades of experience in the prosecution world.
We're very excited to have you on the show because we want to talk about crime.
And we want to learn about crime in California.
It's a big topic.
So tell us how we're doing with crime here in California.
Terrible.
Terrible.
Crime rates was at an all-time low.
It was at a 60-year low, basically between 2000 and 2010.
The lowest ever in terms of measurable Part 1 crime.
Part 1 crimes are the most serious crimes.
All-time low.
Which, coincidentally or not, was at a time when the incarceration of criminals was at an all-time high.
We've moved away from that successful time into a time where crime rates are going to go back up.
Especially property crimes.
Those are well documented as increasing dramatically.
And that will eventually be reflected in the most serious crimes.
Why did we move away from that?
Misguided policies, generally advanced by Governor Brown with AB 109.
It was not helped at all by Kamala Harris, the Attorney General, who put a misleading title on Prop 47, which reduced a whole lot of felonies involving drugs and theft, straight misdemeanors.
Prop 47 has been a disaster.
And then Prop 57, Which essentially eviscerated the Determinant Sentence Law and allows the early release of individuals who have been sentenced to state prison.
So you got three strikes, 47, AB 109, Prop 57, and they essentially gutted the criminal justice system as we knew it just until 2010.
It's quite frankly, it's a train wreck that's going to happen.
So tell us, what are these laws and props mean for our audience?
Well, AB 109, which was pushed by the California State Legislature and Governor Brown, essentially said, if you're sentenced as a felon to state prison and the crime Is non-violent, non-serious, or non-sexual, you will be housed in the local county jail system, not the state prison system.
Okay?
So, a lot of people who a judge determined belongs in state prison We'd sentence them to state prison, but they wouldn't go to state prison.
They would go to the county jail system, the local county jail system, which put a tremendous burden on those systems, causing them to release individuals who were otherwise sentenced to county jail for misdemeanors or as a condition of probation.
So that was a disaster.
I see.
Blame Governor Brown for that one.
He was told.
He was warned.
But he wanted to reduce the state prison population because of budget reasons and because there was a Supreme Court decision saying state prisons of California were overcrowded.
Prop 47 was pushed by George Soros, who I guess perceived himself as some sort of criminal justice reformer.
The ballot title suggested it would make people safer.
Well, that was a fraud.
So people voted for it.
But that essentially reduced all drugs, except for drug sales, to misdemeanors, deprioritizing...
All drugs.
All drugs.
Heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine.
They're all misdemeanors now.
Possession.
So, that means you don't have the opportunity to at least file a felony charge and tell someone you've got to get rehabilitation, you've got to get therapy, you've got to deal with your drug problem in the context of felony probation.
So take all those drug offenses, they're all misdemeanors, deprioritized, change the rules for law enforcement in terms of arresting them, prosecutors in terms of prosecuting them, And the criminal justice system in terms of dealing with that criminal element.
And also, it changed, redefined, and eliminated a tremendous number of felony theft offenses.
I see.
Burglary from auto vehicle.
The amount for theft went from $400 value to $950 value.
You can't be arrested for petty theft even with a prior theft.
So you could be stealing almost $950 a day and get away with it?
It's not a felony unless it exceeds a value of $950.
So there are thieves who will steal 10, 12 times a day, but just under $950.
So you can't go after them?
No, you can't accumulate.
You can't sort of say, at 8 o'clock you got arrested for $800.
Oh, and at 10 o'clock you got arrested for $900.
We add it together, that's a felony.
No, it's each individual theft.
So basically, they've greatly reduced Theft defenses.
And that's a reason all over California, but particularly in urban areas, thieves are committing more and more low-level crimes.
Theft in neighborhoods, theft from garages, shoplifting, retail theft.
It's dramatically increased because the penalties have been greatly reduced.
So that's a real problem.
Because when you have an atmosphere of a lot of smaller crimes, let's say, not the most serious crime, but you have a lot of it, and that creates an atmosphere where the more serious crimes are going to be committed.
Because those people that would otherwise be in jail or prison are still out committing crimes.
They're out there.
So there's no consequences whatsoever if you're doing that every day?
Well, it's nominal.
But law enforcement, they're smart people.
Logically, they say if the legislature says it's not important, if the people of the state of California in Prop 47 say it's not important, Well, then maybe it's not that important for us, and we'll focus on something else.
San Francisco has literally thousands and thousands of car break-ins, and the police only solve maybe 1% of the cases.
It's so bad, in San Francisco, people do not lock their cars.
They do not close the windows to their cars, and they just take everything of value out, but they don't want their windows to be broken by someone trying to break in to steal something.
You can blame just these series of laws put forth by certain elements and certain politicians.
And you mentioned Soros.
How do we know that he was involved?
It's well documented.
George Soros funds a number of groups and entities and organizations who in turn Engage in, spend money on certain political campaigns, initiatives and candidates.
As a matter of fact, George Soros has been involved in California alone.
At least five district attorney races, maybe six in the last election and now the current election.
He spends millions and millions and millions of dollars through his groups to promote left-wing, radical, so-called progressive candidates.
He is trying to gain influence over the criminal justice system by getting...
District attorneys into his fold who will advance his way of thinking, which is inconsistent with public safety in California.
He's already done it in Philadelphia.
He's done it in Chicago.
Look at those two district attorneys.
Two losers.
Losers.
Crime is going up.
This Fox person in Chicago, you saw her with that Jessie Smollett case.
She's a joke.
The guy in Philadelphia, the U.S. Attorney had to step in and start going after murderers, which is not their role normally, but because the local district attorney, who's basically a defense attorney, Soros Puppet, came in and changed things around Philadelphia.
My advice to you and your listeners is, don't go to Chicago.
Don't go to Philadelphia, and don't go to San Francisco, where they have another Soros guy in, someone who's basically an admitted communist in San Francisco DA. And what is their perspective?
They want to just relax the laws on crime, and they just...
They feel, and I think they genuinely believe that incarceration is not a solution or a truly valuable tool to achieve public safety.
They just...
They want to de-emphasize incarceration.
They're kind of social justice warriors.
They want to try other stuff.
Rehabilitation or restorative justice or whatever.
But they don't like incarceration.
And that's where I think the public at large disagrees with them.
The public at large want the bad guys to be away and not hurting them.
Well, these social justice warriors, these Soros-supported individuals, they don't believe in incarceration as a valuable tool to protect the public.
It's a great divide and it's occurred only in the last decade.
So how can the public do something about it?
Our audience...
Well, the public so far has rejected almost all of the Soros-backed district attorney candidates.
But now the public in Los Angeles County is going to have a Soros-backed candidate or two running for Los Angeles County DA. And the public has to know who they are.
And one of them is George Gascon, the former district attorney of San Francisco.
He's now down in Los Angeles.
He'll be supported by Soros.
Big money.
And the people have to realize that George Gascon is one of these social justice warriors that does not believe in incarceration.
Check out his website.
No death penalty, no prison, no this, no that, no Jackie Lacey.
Well, you know what?
Jackie Lacey's a thoroughgoing professional.
George Gascon's a Soros-backed radical.
I see.
Okay, so that's what they have to watch.
Who's running for office and who's supporting them.
I see.
So that's a recommendation.
And then how about themselves, about their own safety, their cars, the public?
How would they go about doing that?
Well, I think the public has to realize that they're now in an era where crime is going to be on the rise and they're going to have to do more just to protect themselves, whether it be just security systems at home, I see.
Cracking systems on your car.
They just have to deal with it.
They have to basically deal with it and be very alert and realize that they have more exposure now because there's more criminals out there.
And the laws are allowed.
And the laws are weak.
The laws are weak.
What about the law enforcement officers?
Well, by and large, they're great people.
And they sacrifice a lot.
By and large, and I say pretty much across the board, they enjoy what they're doing because it's exciting, it has a good purpose, they know they're accomplishing something, they know they're helping people, they know they're saving lives.
And I think they feel pretty good about their role.
I don't think they feel very good about the laws in California right now because it restricts them and they don't get what they think is an appropriate result for solving crimes.
Does it make it a lot more difficult on them when they see they can't arrest someone or they can't?
Oh yeah.
It makes it a lot more difficult.
They can't do it.
They have to give someone a citation rather than putting handcuffs on them and taking them to jail.
Yeah, it's a lot more difficult.
And that's the reason they lessen their priorities, and these crimes then start growing, growing, growing, and spreading around through, you know, from the city where it happens, all the way to the suburbs and other areas, crime's going to increase.
It's just so easily predictable.
So easily predictable.
And now you have written multiple books, and we want to get into that.
I've written two books and I'm very proud of them.
They're non-fiction.
They document in great detail the facts and the court proceedings surrounding the murders of police officers in Los Angeles County.
I see.
Which I have read one and actually I really like.
Yeah, one of them is called Blue Lives Matter.
The other one is called Blue Lives in Jeopardy.
The most recent one is Blue Lives in Jeopardy.
And the website is bluelivesinjeopardybook.com.
But it focuses on murders of police officers in Los Angeles County that are effectively assassinations of police officers and situations where officers...
The suspects, the killers get an advantage over the officer and then execute the officer.
So I've had to summarize that book.
It's the tragic tales of assassinations of police officers and executions of police officers.
It's not a happy topic, but it's a story that has to be told to memorialize their heroism, and two, by telling their stories, and two, by trying to learn from those incidents.
What happened?
What went wrong?
At the end of each chapter, there's lessons learned.
There's a recommendation of what to do.
And it says, look, here's what went wrong.
Here's what should have been done.
Here's a better tactic.
Here's how not to get killed in that situation.
And so it has a textbook quality, and we're hoping that police academies and criminal justice programs and colleges see the value of the book as sort of a textbook, almost, but drawn from real-life experiences.
Yeah, actually, by reading it, I learned a lot about just what the police officers go through.
Well, good.
Then you're going to enjoy the second book, Blue Lives in Jeopardy.
Well, I'm going to give you a copy today.
Thank you.
Actually, I saw what they deal with every day and how hard this role is.
And what good people they are.
That's what we've found.
We've found these are just such good people and they come from good families and they leave behind children and spouses and grieving parents.
It's a tremendously tragic situation when a law enforcement officer is murdered needlessly by the criminals that are out there.
Terrible.
And there are some people that may challenge and say Blue Lives Matter might have a negative connotation.
What do you think?
There may be.
But the fact of the matter is, Blue Lives, as a concept, has been around for Four decades.
It started back east when law enforcement groups formed to raise money for the widows and the orphans of law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty.
And they have chapters and groups And they raise money for that very cause.
There's a Blue Lives radio station based in Las Vegas.
So anyone says, you took the name of somebody else.
No.
Blue Lives has been around forever.
And that's the reason it's a good title for our various books.
And our third book, which we're writing, is called Blue Lives Under Fire.
And that deals with a number of shootouts involving LAPD. We're writing that book to commemorate LAPD's 150th anniversary.
Another non-fiction book.
I see.
Similar to the other books.
Yeah, it's a Blue Life series.
Which, for our audience, it's good to read this because you get first-hand knowledge of what officers go through.
I've had people tell me they start reading this book and they can't put it down.
Yeah, it's hard to, I couldn't picture criminals being the way they are.
Yeah, it just tells a story.
Just one basic, you know, a police officer pulling somebody over, it could be somebody that threatened their lives.
The thing is, you have to always remember, the bad guys know they're the bad guys.
And the bad guys are armed sometimes.
The law enforcement officers may not appreciate that they're dealing with a real criminal here, a real bad guy, who is armed.
So the bad guy has an advantage over the police officer.
And that is a repeated situation in many of our chapters.
The bad guys know they're the bad guys.
The bad guys are armed.
They have an advantage over the officer who may just think it's a routine traffic stop or a routine contact.
And that's how oftentimes the bad guys get the drop on the officer and then the officer gets killed.
And so the officer has to always think that this could be a potential bad guy and their life is on the line.
They have to think back up.
They have to think, do I just wait for more people to get here?
They have to know to always call their location in.
Even if it's a traffic stop, call in your location.
We have a couple chapters here where the officers, one was off duty, one was on duty.
They didn't call in their locations.
And so, therefore, the help couldn't get to them.
Or help went to the wrong place.
So there's lots of lessons like that.
And also for our audience, uh, individuals, They should have a lot of patience when they are in a traffic stop.
They're being pulled over by the police.
They should understand what the police officers...
Law enforcement officers should have patience and show courtesy to anyone that they encounter.
And I think they generally do.
And the public should realize law enforcement officers have concerns That they know about based upon some tragic circumstance that's happened to someone else.
So it's really a matter of mutual respect and just respecting each other's role.
And I think that the law-abiding public gets it, that they have to sort of be patient with the officer.
And good officers know they have to be understanding and patient with the citizens they encounter.
Do you think that certain recent events have caused the public and officers to lose their strong relationships?
Well, I think it depends on the community being served.
Depending upon the communities being served, there is a tight bond.
There is a tremendous reliance and respect for law enforcement by the community.
Some communities are not cooperative with law enforcement.
They'll see a murderer, they'll witness a murderer, maybe even a friend or relative of theirs, and they won't come forward and be a witness.
Well, that's not going against law enforcement.
That's going against cultural norms where you're expected as a citizen to testify and help law enforcement.
But I think that's...
It's more...
Community by community by community, city by city, area by area in terms of who's being served, and of course the professionalism, the training of the officers in terms of how they deal with the public.
You know, and something that we should really appreciate here, I've lived in multiple countries, and in certain countries you're afraid of asking the police a question because, you know, they're so corrupt that you could get in trouble.
No, that's true.
And here we have a police body that's, for the most part, It's very diligent.
Very diligent, very honest, very professional.
And you're right.
Some people come to this country from corrupt countries where the police are totally out of control, abusive, corrupt.
They sort of have this impression of, that's the way police are.
Well, they have to realize, you come to America, it's different.
It's better.
Police aren't that way.
Do you have any remarks for our audience?
Any final thoughts?
Besides getting the book and reading the book?
Well, get the books.
Blue Lives in Jeopardy is our most recent book.
Blue Lives Matter in the Line of Duty is our first book.
They both have websites, bluelivesmatterbook.com, bluelivesinjeopardybook.com.
They can get a feel, they can buy it on Amazon, they can buy it in stores.
I think if they read it, they will learn a lot, and they will, in their hearts, be very understanding of the sacrifices that our law enforcement officers are exposed to on a daily basis.
Which I learned a lot from your book, and actually I got to connect, understand this profession in a different way.
Good.
And then the public has to get out and vote and make sure they don't get deceived by certain candidates who do not have their best interests at heart when it comes to public safety.
Look at the candidates in terms of are they good for public safety or not.
Philadelphia got deceived.
Chicago got deceived.
We don't want to have Los Angeles residents be deceived by heavily funded candidates where George Soros is paying the bill.
So people that are promoting being not tough on crime, those are the people that you don't recommend, in your opinion?
Well, yeah, it depends on...
Relaxing...
Well, you know, the system already has a lot of ways To protect people.
To help people.
Get put on probation.
As a condition of probation, get treatment for your drug problem.
Be diverted.
You can be diverted from the entire criminal justice system for a whole number of crimes if it's a first offense or not likely to recur.
There's all kinds of ways to get out of the criminal justice system so the criminal justice system is left Basically, for the chronic offenders, the most violent offenders.
And those people should be locked up.
It's just that simple.
If you don't, you're going to pay the price.
The public's going to pay the price.
So that's what they have to watch out for.
The system's already very fair.
The system is judged.
You're saying the system is fair.
And we don't need to add more laws to make it...
Well, we don't need to give up on it.
And that's what George Gascon will do in Los Angeles County.
He'll be a revolutionary.
He'll change as best he can.
And the public, the law-abiding public, they're going to suffer.
They're going to pay a huge price if they go for any one of the progressive candidates.
So that's something we have to watch out for.
Definitely.
Thank you so much for being here today.
It's great to have you on the show.
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