Some are saying Gavin Newsom is too smart to try to be POTUS now. With the disaster that is the Democrat party, it would be foolish to get involved. On the other hand, Newsom’s arrogance, sense of entitlement and narcissism know no bounds. Why shouldn’t such a superior being be made president by acclamation? Look at everything he’s done for California!

There used to be something to the old “as goes California, so goes America” trope.

Now, however, Gavin Newsom’s California has gone bull goose loony, and the last thing any sane American should want is for their state to remotely resemble California. California, where theft is all but legal, so long as the dollar amount of any individual theft is less than $950. That’s inflation for you. And in Sacramento, reporting theft will provoke an unanticipated, but predictable, response from prosecutors:

Graphic: X Screenshot

This week, the Sacramento Bee reported that a Sacramento city attorney threatened to fine a Target store for calling 911 multiple times after it was hit by a spate of thefts.

Over the last year, the retail store in Land Park, Sacramento, has been targeted by thieves on several occasions.

Sacramento city attorney Susana Wood’s office responded by accusing the store of causing a public nuisance by calling the police.

If Target didn’t stop calling 911, the city office warned it would hit the retailer with an administrative fine, a source told the Sacramento Bee.

The letter threatening a nuisance violation, which would essentially dissuade staff from reporting in-store crime, was drafted but never sent, the source added.

A police spokesperson confirmed to the outlet that the warning concerned Target’s Land Park store.

Why wasn’t it sent? Probably because prosecutors threatening to fine merchants for reporting crimes is over the top, even for California, but only if a wider public becomes aware of it and California’s governor wants to be POTUS. It’s all a result of Proposition 47, passed in 2014, which all but decriminalized crime, and particularly theft. Local station KQED reports:

But today’s growing concerns over property crime and public safety have put a target on Proposition 47, even though state data show no significant increase in reported shoplifting or overall theft in California since the measure passed.

More about that shortly.

What has changed over the past decade is the likelihood that police will arrest someone for stealing. According to state data obtained by KQED, about 15% of theft cases resulted in an arrest in 2013, the year before Proposition 47 passed. In 2022, that number had dropped to 6.6%.

That means in more than 90% of reported cases of theft, no one is ever arrested.

Gov. Newsom has long claimed all manner of crime in California is down, down, down. If one relied solely on California’s official crime statistics, one might be tempted to believe him, but reality tells a different story.

Graphic: X Screenshot of an actual sign. Authorities quickly removed it.

Make theft of less than $950 dollars essentially legal, and thieves will do what they’ve been doing, steal $949 dollars, and return and do it again a half hour later. Done enough, long established businesses, particularly those serving “underserved neighborhoods” have no choice but to close their doors forever. No business can survive when their inventory runs out the broken front doors at a rate higher than any possible profit.

Defunded police agencies, with the few remaining officers harried by Soros prosecutors looking to prosecute them rather than criminals, can’t recruit. Surviving officers make rational choices. They respond only to the most serious emergencies and avoid making any arrest they don’t absolutely have to make, particularly arrests of criminals in politically protected racial classes.

It doesn’t take long in these conditions for merchants to stop reporting thefts altogether, and prosecutors like Wood, who threaten to fine merchants for reporting crimes add velocity to the downward spiral. Crime is still occurring -- it’s at record levels -- but the police aren’t keeping records anymore, nor are they accurately reporting crime rates. Their failure to combat crime is too embarrassing, and it’s a major political liability for politicians like Newsom with higher ambitions. Explaining why citizens, and the tax base, are fleeing California in droves is something of a damper on presidential ambitions. 

The only thing that might potentially spoil Newsom’s ambitions in 2024 is the Democrat party has painted itself into a diversity corner. How do they throw the potential first female sort-of-black president under the campaign bus for a white guy whose hair gel requirements will finish draining the strategic petroleum reserve, and who drags every horrific, self-created problem of California with him?

Perhaps we should look at everything he’s done to California?

Mike McDaniel is a USAF veteran, classically trained musician, Japanese and European fencer, life-long athlete, firearm instructor, retired police officer and high school and college English teacher. He is a published author and blogger. His home blog is Stately McDaniel Manor.