How political earthquake in California finally made crime illegal again after a decade of woke soft-on-crime policies

Californians revealed how a decade of liberal reforms to the criminal justice system faced an Election Day reckoning, with residents rejecting the state's soft-on-crime policies.

Accounts given to Fox News from a recovering addict, Los Angeles's deputy district attorney, and a fed-up neighborhood leader illustrate how voters in the Golden State finally pushed back on its progressive policies.

The group all agreed on one thing: Proposition 47 - which reduced five non-violent, low-level crimes from potential felonies to misdemeanors - was a failed experiment.

Voters overwhelmingly rolled back portions of the 2014 law earlier this year - with all 58 California counties, in a rare occurrence, agreeing.

That stands in stark contrast to a decade ago, when 58 percent of voters across the state elected to pass Proposition 47.

Thought by many to be soft on crime, the bill was championed by progressives like  LA County District Attorney George Gascón and San Francisco Mayor London Breed - both of whom were recently voted out of office.

The law had been centered around crimes like shoplifting and personal use of illegal drugs, and was further touted by California Governor Gavin Newsom. He fought desperately to keep a law off the ballot, to no avail.

In the presidential race, Democrats' failed bid were also felt, according to those interviewed said. They pointed to how the Bay Area's own Kamala Harris lost millions of California voters who Joe Biden counted on four years earlier.

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'I think people are angry. People are upset,' said activist Tom Wolf, a formerly homeless addict, of Harris's loss of voters in her own backyard.

'I think that they got tired of the virtue signaling, the control, the stranglehold that the progressive left has had on San Francisco politically, on our board of supervisors, our city council,' he said.

Wolf said he's '[seen] a rise in more moderate, pragmatic views,' adding that he believes 'there is a balance that can be struck.

'There's definitely a place there, for those progressive values, in California.'

He went on to publicly pan Proposition 47, which, at the time of its inception, had been referred to by supporters as the Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act.

Wolf and others interviewed said that ended up doing the opposite, while also being exacerbated by phenomena like the rise in fentanyl.

'[I] believe that progressive policy doesn't work unless you have a modicum of public safety,' he explained.

'And this whole entire argument, that decriminalizing and releasing people from prison and just giving them services is somehow going to make the community safer, was actually a false narrative.

'I don't want to call it a lie, because I think those people actually believe that,' he added.

'You throw in the whole Prop 47 thing, which reduced penalties on shoplifting and quality-of-life crimes, and then you add in the arrival of fentanyl around 2017-2018 into California, and it created this perfect, toxic storm.'

Soledad Ursua, a council member for the beachfront Los Angeles neighborhood of Venice, aired similar sentiments. 

'I think that Californians are very hopeful because crime is finally illegal again.'

First, though, she pleaded with members of public who stop short of accepting that forgiving policies like Proposition 47 are soft on crime.  

'I don't really think this is a "right-wing" issue - this is common sense,' said the resident of Venice, which saw its beach overrun with homeless encampments.

'Hopefully people are waking up and they realize that these progressive policies have devastated and destroyed neighborhoods.'

She proceeded to point to how members of the public voted to pass the new Proposition 36, a law that erased many of the amendments made by its predecessor.

'If you just look at what California did, every single county in California overwhelmingly passed Prop 36. 

'But what is Gavin Newsom doing? He's calling an emergency session to "Trump-proof" California,' she said, referring to the governor recently asking new lawmakers to work on a special session to 'safeguard California values.'

'He's focusing on illegal immigration and abortion,' Ursua said.

'What he should be doing is getting ready to, sort of, enforce this law again.'

Proposition 36 passed with 68.9 percent of the vote this month, making thefts of $950 or less a felony again for offenders with two or more past theft convictions. 

In addition, the proposition created a new 'treatment-mandated felony,' granting offenders with drug-related crimes the ability to complete treatment rather than going to prison. 

'This is what people want. They want a return to law and order, but [Newsom] is not listening,' Ursua said.

Another voice to offer insight was LA's new Deputy District Attorney Jon Hatami, who had first run for DA but stepped aside to allow federal prosecutor Nathan Hochman the opportunity.

'You know, there was a group of people in 2020 who, I think, you know, have been looking at trying to take over the Democratic Party - and they did," he said.

'And as a result of that, now we're in 2024, and I think most individuals have now said, "That that was not a good experiment. That was dangerous."'

Hatami added that Californians were 'sick and tired' of the status quo created by Proposition 47, which gave way to a rise in 'smash and grab' thefts and appeared to fuel San Francisco DA Chesa Boudin's 2022 ouster.

'We don't want laws that only help criminals, that doesn't make anyone safe,' he said.

'We need to have laws that help everyone, all individuals - including the vulnerable members of our society, children and families.

'We want laws that actually make sure everyone is safe. You shouldn't have laws that only help criminals.'

The reforms brought on by Proposition 47 were first spurred by a US Supreme Court order to thin out the state's then-overcrowded prisons.

Within two years, thefts jumped 9 percent across the state, before retail thefts would rise even more during the pandemic.

The nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California recorded a 28-percent increase in reported shoplifting of goods worth up to $950 after 2019, after which footage of masked marauders - often repeat offenders - ransacking stores became commonplace on social media.

Homelessness also got out of hand, with individuals setting up camps in places like Venice and all across San Francisco - often doing drugs in plan view of children. 

Ursua, in turn, concluded, 'Public safety is definitely the number-one concern for most people in Los Angeles, just because of the homeless crisis that we've had,'

'And you look at just what's going on on the streets - there's been serious acts of violence. 

'Especially on our metro, on our public transport system - people have been slashed, stabbed, murdered.'

Others agreed that Proposition 47, along with a shift in law enforcement that saw manpower put toward solving more serious serious crimes, effectively allowed crimes like shoplifting and drug use to intensify.

'Accountability is a cornerstone of recovery,' said Wolf, who was addicted and living on the streets in San Francisco as recently in 2018. 

'I think we have to start giving people harder choices.'

In October Harris appeared to hesitate when asked about the then-looming proposition.

'I’ve not voted yet and I’ve actually not read it yet,' Harris told reporters ahead of a flight from Detroit to New Jersey, in response to a question about the law. 'But I’ll let you know.'

It went on to become the only ballot measure out of the 10 initiatives that passed in every single county, as opponents remain concerned it will lead to mass incarceration and less funding for treatment programs.

Since 2014, Proposition 47 had generated nearly $1 billion in savings from reductions in incarceration

Major financial backers of Proposition 36 included a litanty of stores targets over the past several years, including Walmart ($2.5 million), Home Depot ($1 million), and Target ($1 million).