Opinion: They destroyed California… This policeman's words are giving us sleepless nights

Chad Bianco's appeal to the people of Rivers County

We are here today because California's public safety is in crisis. Crime is on the rise and our public safety policy is among the worst in the nation. I wish I hadn't misspoken. The crime rates are no coincidence. The driving force behind our crisis is a radical, progressive agenda fraudulently called criminal justice reform. It is nothing short of a sick and twisted social experiment where law enforcement is bad and criminals are portrayed as victims of social evil. Therefore they are not accountable to their actions, their crimes, or the victims of their criminal activity. This agenda began with the passage of AB 109, the so-called Public Safety Realignment Act. As prisons became overcrowded, the state did not build new prisons. Instead, it forced county jails to house state prisoners while simultaneously releasing thousands of offenders prematurely. It has brought our county jails to the point of near collapse and released countless offenders prematurely. Thousands of offenders are being released from custody early, crime is on the rise, and our governor is closing prisons instead of building new ones. This is a defiance of common sense.

In 2014, a major fraud took place in the name of reform in California. The so-called Safe Streets and Safe Schools initiative introduced Proposition 47. The new law made many serious crimes into minor misdemeanors, essentially legalizing drug use and making thefts up to $1,000 petty theft. In 2016, voters were fed another lie through the naming and wording of Proposition 57. In reality, voters were deceived into approving the release of thousands of violent criminals onto our streets and neighborhoods. That is why we are here today. Everyone knows Propositions 47 and 57 were a disaster, and yet the governor touts it as a success and lawmakers flatly refuse to fix their mistakes and the problems they created. When a crime is made a misdemeanor by law, it is no longer a crime, the governor and attorney general simply cite numbers and say crime is not happening.

The people of California are now suffering the consequences of a failed social agenda. We are on the verge of collapse. The people of California have had enough. The lies of Proposition 47 have been exposed, and the progressive love affair with criminals at the expense of victims has exhausted the patience of law-abiding Californians. While we suffer daily from rampant theft, our small businesses are closing, and our big box stores are moving out of state, most of our lawmakers are relaxing in safe havens, oblivious to what is happening in their communities. Crime, especially violent crime, is on the rise.

Over the past five years, we have not been able to convince our progressive left-wing majority in law enforcement to consider a single new law or amendment to an existing law that would increase penalties for serious crimes or send people to prison more often. The reality is completely the opposite, as our governor, our lawmakers and our attorney general refuse to prosecute criminals, including gun crimes. Instead they have focused on dismantling and removing the constitutional protection of self-defense from law-abiding Californians.

We are in a very important election year and political stupidity is visible everywhere. The same majority leftists who have been flatly refusing to pass any tough laws to curb crime for the last several years are running for re-election. They are now claiming that if they win this time, they will solve our public safety crisis with new anti-crime laws. The problem is that every bill they pass is full of hypocrisy and hollowness. For example, one bill claims to curb theft by raising the theft limit to $400. If you examine the bill, you will find that it gives these career criminals three more chances to steal and be convicted before they go to jail. This means that these criminals will be able to murder at least three more victims before they go to jail.

Whether we watch the news on TV, read the newspaper, go to the grocery store or go to work, we face crime because criminals are being encouraged in the name of leniency. A system has been created in which criminals are treated with leniency and citizens are left to become their victims. Imagine a governor blaming store employees for failing to prevent a criminal from escaping, rather than honestly assessing the failed social experiment that is responsible for the theft. It is time to wake up and hold our politicians accountable for their bills, laws and policies.

It's time to return to a common sense approach to crime, time to understand and accept that there are evil people who do not want to conform to civilized society and instead make their living by stealing our property, robbing our stores, flooding our streets with drugs, including fentanyl, breaking into our homes, killing our children, and robbing our justice system in an effort to make the rest of us suffer. Californians deserve a better environment than this. I'm proud to support Bill Asle and the many other lawmakers who believe criminals are responsible for their actions and must be held accountable. Thank you.