Make Crime Illegal Again

While less prominent than the red sweep of the nation’s electoral map and the triumph of President Donald Trump, another telling development following the 2024 elections was the number of Californians in ultra-progressive strongholds who showed that they had had enough, finally, of the far left’s worse-than-useless criminal justice agenda and the havoc it wreaks on public safety. 

In Oakland, California, for example, crime has surged since the COVID-19 pandemic. “Oakland’s overall 2023 crime rate was higher than at any time in the past two decades, … up 65 percent since 2020;” the 2023 violent crime rate was up 33 percent since 2020, and the 2023 property crime rate increased by 74 percent since 2020. Unhappy residents reacted with separate recall petitions to get rid of Oakland’s mayor and the Alameda County District Attorney, Pamela Price, whose district includes Oakland.    

The crime spike was a major motivator in the movement to recall Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, described on the city’s website as “one of the Bay Area’s strongest and most effective progressive leaders.” Proponents of the recall claimed that Thao had created a “public safety crisis” by “systematically dismantling the Oakland Police Department, leading to the city’s reputation as one of the most dangerous in America,” “unjust terminat[ed]” police chief LeRonne Armstrong, resulting “in a surge of serious and violent crimes,” admitted to missing the deadline to apply for millions of dollars in state grants to combat retail theft, and “failed to implement Oakland’s Encampment Management Policy, leading to open-air drug markets and chop shops, making Oakland a national leader in stolen cars.”

The same resentment likely fueled the recall of District Attorney Pamela Price, just two years into her term. Shortly after taking office in 2023, Price had implemented new sentencing and case disposition guidelines for prosecutors, pursuant to which the presumptive sentencing offer would be probation for all cases that were probation-eligible; otherwise, the sentencing offer would be the low term. Almost all felonies, including those that were serious or violent, would be probation-eligible. In short, “[b]arring ‘extraordinary circumstances’ and approval by District Attorney Pamela Price herself, the penalty for most crimes in Alameda County [would] be restricted to probation or the lowest-level prison term.”

Price’s recall, supported by the Alameda County Prosecutors’ Association and all the police unions in the county, was the first ever of a District Attorney to appear on the ballot in Alameda County, while Thao’s removal was historic, too, reportedly being the County’s first successful mayoral recall. The election results currently show overwhelming support, with almost 65% of the electorate sending the progressive duo the message, “You’re fired!”

Across the bay in San Francisco, Mayor London Breed was voted out of office, defeated by a challenger with no previous political experience but who pledged to “bring accountability back to public safety.” During Breed’s six years in office, San Francisco became a byword for urban decay, with homeless encampments, abandoned storefronts, open-air drug use, and rampant retail theft and other crimes. In a precursor of the electorate’s changing mood, two years ago a sizeable majority of voters approved the recall of the “poster child for the progressive prosecutors’ movement,” San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin.

Significantly, half of the new mayor-elect’s 13-point campaign plan focused on addressing crime in San Francisco – to “get serious about public safety” by increasing police staffing, improve 911 response times, “take action to stop smash and grabs, car break-ins, and retail theft,” “shut down open-air drug markets,” and “prevent crime from happening” through mental health and substance abuse treatment. “It is time to end the perception that lawlessness is an acceptable part of life in San Francisco,” he said, as “criminals must know that they will be caught and there will be consequences.” 

Elsewhere in the Golden State, another eminent progressive also failed to hang onto his job. Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón – “one of the most progressive in the nation” – lost his bid for re-election after withstanding two previous attempts to recall him.

Gascón had co-authored California’s controversial Proposition 47, a 2014 ballot measure that, among other things, reclassified certain property crimes from felonies to misdemeanors, triggering endemic shoplifting and organized theft crimes. As the L.A. County D.A., Gascón “barred prosecutors in his office from seeking the death penalty and various sentencing enhancements, stopped the prosecution of juveniles as adults and ended cash bail for misdemeanors and nonviolent felonies.” His successful challenger, Nathan Hochman, had campaigned on Gascón’s public safety failures and promised to end his soft-on-crime policies. “George Gascón has miserably failed to protect our residents, leading to a spiral of lawlessness … It’s time to stop playing politics with people’s lives. It’s time we had a DA who fights for victims—not criminals.” 

In a broader strike against the radical left’s criminal justice reforms, citizens across the state appalled by the explosion in property and drug crimes overwhelmingly supported the passage of Proposition 36. This ballot measure would undo, in part, Proposition 47’s changes by increasing penalties for criminals who repeatedly engage in theft, and adding new laws to address “smash and grab” thefts that result in significant losses and damage or that are committed by organized theft gangs. It would add fentanyl to the existing laws that prohibit the possession of hard drugs while armed with a loaded firearm, and allow judges to sentence drug dealers to state prison instead of county jail in some cases.

Although Proposition 36 was supported by the California District Attorneys Association, the California Chamber of Commerce, the California Republican Party, and major retailers like Target, Walmart, and Home Depot, it was opposed by the California Democratic Party and Governor Gavin Newsom. Regardless, the latest results show that millions of California’s voters supported the measure as well, with just a hair short of 70% ticking “yes” to Proposition 36 and the hope of safer communities.

The downfall of so many prominent anti-gun progressives signals a long-overdue day of reckoning over their disastrous, revisionist criminal justice experiment, marked by undermined law enforcement, lenient prosecution, reduced or no consequences for criminal behavior, and the escalating victimization of honest citizens. It is likely too soon to expect a similar enlightenment to occur with respect to the state’s gun laws, but it is a welcome indicator of what happens when residents demand public safety, political accountability, and law and order.