The theft laws opened the door for serial and organized gangs and theft rings who prey on retail businesses selling high-end jewelry and electronics to drug stores selling high-priced goods such as razor blades and alcohol. Prior property crime felonies labeled “Petty Theft with a Prior, Receiving Stolen Property, and Burglary provisions associated with retail theft” (entering a building with the intent to commit theft) were all reduced to misdemeanors under Proposition 47.
Some white-collar crimes of counterfeiting and passing bad checks were changed to misdemeanors as well.
Think about that a minute, considering what amount of Rohypnol could be deemed for “personal use” that could be used to drug and incapacitate others.Įven worse, the law raised the amount needed to cross the threshold for a theft to be declared a felony – including theft from the immediate area of a victim, shoplifting and other thefts – from $400 to $950. Even Rohypnol, the so-called “date rape drug,” was reduced to a misdemeanor for possession, under Prop. Most all drugs, including heroin, LSD, cocaine and other drugs fell under the new law. Passed into law in November 2014, California’s Proposition 47, also known as the Safe Neighborhoods and Safe Schools Initiative, reduced a variety of amounts of personal possession of narcotics from a felony to a misdemeanor. (Yes on Measure 110 Campaign via AP)Ĭalifornia’s cautionary tale of Proposition 47 This Jfile photo shows volunteers delivering boxes containing signed petitions in favor of the measure to the Oregon Secretary of State's office in Salem.