The California Retailers Association (CRA) announced a new statewide coalition last week that aims to dismantle, disrupt, deter and divert smash and grab robberies.
“It's not going to solve this problem overnight but at least it's something proactive that we think can bring some much-needed changes to hopefully help our small businesses, our communities, and protect our employees and customers from this rampant retail theft we see across the state of California,” said CRA President Rachel Michelin.
Californians for Safe Stores and Neighborhoods is advocating for the passage of Senate Bill 301, introduced by Sen. Nancy Skinner (D), to disrupt the online market where stolen goods are thought to be sold.
“Senate Bill 301 will help disrupt these organized crime rings by putting guardrails around the online marketplaces so that these thieves cannot immediately pop these up on marketplaces, which actually do a lot of harm to our small, legitimate sellers on the marketplaces, and to make sure that law enforcement and retailers have the ability to stop stolen goods from being sold there,” Michelin told Fox 11 Los Angeles.
A UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies and Los Angeles Times poll found that more than 50% of registered voters believe Gov. Gavin Newsom is doing badly around crime and public safety and more than 60% of voters think that crime has increased, according to media reports.
However, attorney Rex Parris, the Republican mayor of Lancaster, located in Los Angeles County, said that SB 301 is a quick fix on a problem that needs a long-term solution.
“You're talking about young people who certainly have some malicious intent but not the intent of the organizers and you're treating them as if they were an organizer,” he said. “This bill will undoubtedly be approved and it will result in kids who really shouldn't be in prison. They should be accountable but they shouldn't be going to prison.”
Part of the solution that Californians for Safe Stores and Neighborhoods is promoting is diversion programs and job training for repeat offenders who have been apprehended however Parris questions where the job training for defendants will take place.
“They are really talking about incarcerating people and giving them job training in prison and we’ve seen how well that works,” Parris told the Southern California Record. “These people come out of prison unemployable. They don't even have the social skills to get employed and then we're wondering why we have so many homeless people on the streets. There really are good solutions but you’ve got to think them through and ask what will be the effect of SB 301 ten years from now?”