Comments
ALPERN AT LARGE - A normal, functioning society requires positive incentives to follow the law, and negative incentives to discourage breaking the law. It’s that simple.
Democrats in Sacramento who are overseeing major cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles, and other neighboring cities and counties become havens for criminals who get slapped on the wrist are themselves abetting crime.
(And, of course, the same can be said for any Republicans who do the same).
Kicking out non-California funding influences (i.e., the Koch brothers) from California politics makes sense, but not including George Soros and his ilk in that out-of-state ban is simply…criminal!
Having all kinds of funds from Soros and his wild-eyed, anti-law-and-order cabal to enable the election of leftist, chaos-creating faux-Attorneys General like George Gascón and destroy the quality of life in L.A. was…criminal!
Denying that Soros and his family are trashing and thrashing our nation’s cities, and being apologists for their devastating influence in our cities remains…criminal!
Having to lock up everything in our stores because of rampant crime and shoplifting (which now goes jaw-droppingly unprosecuted) is…criminal!
Passing Proposition 47 over the objections and warnings of California law enforcement that caused our collective chaos was…criminal!
And boy did we all pay dearly.
Maybe those who voted for Proposition 47 didn’t really know what it was all about, and maybe they just hated the police and/or the GOP so much they’d be happy to punch themselves in the throat and cut off their nose to spite their face.
I mean, does any of us think that our stores closing down, or locking up all their goods if they didn’t close down, was “kewl”?
Is shopping becoming a scarier and/or more tedious experience… “kewl”?
Is watching our neighborhoods become just one big, crime-ridden “mean street”… “kewl”?
Fortunately, law enforcement and responsible voters who recognize the need to have BOTH compassion AND the need for enforcement, and when they’re each needed, have done a great deal to gather the signatures needed to reform Proposition 47.
Flash mob robberies? Retail thefts en masse? A threshold of $950 for shoplifting to be a felony instead of a mere misdemeanor? Not OK.
Gathering more than 600,000 valid petition signatures to allow the state to restore some semblance of law and order this November? Definitely OK.
A great thing, really.
I frankly wish we didn’t need to lock ANYONE up. But as we saw with “Three Strikes”, and even when we allowed for some leeway on establishing what would credit these strikes, we saw a wonderful improvement in the quality of life for the rest of us when career criminals and repeat offenders got put away for long periods of time.
We want everyone to be rehabilitated…but not everyone can. Sad, but terribly true.
But throwing in a slew of poison pills to a bipartisan public safety bill package if the horrendous Proposition 47 is reformed and rolled back, and thrown in by those Democrats who purport to be a sort of “criminals’ lobby” is, well…criminal!
State Attorney General Rob Bonta revising the name of the Prop. 47 Reform Bill with language to deceive lesser-educated/aware voters into opposing this popular reform bill is also, well…criminal!
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: it’s not the average California Democrat who’s OK with the pro-homelessness, pro-lawlessness, pro-chaos of our present day.
But it IS the anti-law enforcement Democratic cabal in Sacramento who’ve been elected to the Legislature who are the root cause of the problem.
Hence we’ve got so many voters, confused and dispirited by the chaos among us, and either staying at home or voting in the same clowns as before, who must be confronted.
We all require education and informed voter awareness more than ever.
And for those who would vote in Adolf Hitler if he was a Democrat, over Mother Teresa if she were a Republican, well, that’s just criminal in more ways than can ever be counted. But those Democratic mega-partisans exist for a variety of reasons, and in very large numbers, in our state.
So let’s just hope there are enough voters, be they Democrat or Republican or Independent, who’ve had enough of lawlessness and locked-up store products and flash mob shoplifting, and who want to restore a semblance of order in our state come this November.
Because we’ve just GOT to restore some sanity into our day to day lives.
And because to NOT restore this sanity would be…criminal!
(Kenneth S. Alpern, M.D, is a dermatologist who has served in clinics in Los Angeles, Orange, and Riverside Counties, and is a proud husband and father. He was active for 20 years on the Mar Vista Community Council (MVCC) as a Board Member focused on Planning and Transportation, and helped lead the grassroots efforts of the Expo Line as well as connecting LAX to MetroRail. His latest project is his fictional online book entitled The Unforgotten Tales of Middle-Earth, and can be reached at [email protected]. The views expressed in this article are solely those of Dr. Alpern.)
