"Hey! Where the hell is everybody?"
"They all went home."
It's happened. The California State Senate voted yesterday to cut the state prison population by 27,000 through a variety of slick measures including outright release. By a vote of 21-19, almost strictly down party lines, the measure passed the Senate and is being taken up by the Assembly this afternoon.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5g66ATy0-KQp3GtE_L9adr4_0JaZQD9A6RTRG2
Only 4 Democrats voted against the measure, while almost all Republicans opposed it. It is expected to face an even tougher fight in the Assembly. Virtually all law enforcement groups are in opposition, but Governor Arnold Katzenjammer is in favor and is expected to sign the measure if passed.
In addition, and this is really the kicker, the measure, as it currently stands, would create a sentencing commission that would be able to circumvent the legislature in rewriting laws to define them as misdemeanors instead of felonies. This would effectively gut California's "Three strikes" law. Here's an example: If you steal a car that is worth less than $2,500, it is a misdemeanor. If you steal a car worth more than $2,500, it may be classified as a misdemeanor or a felony. It all depends.
But wait! This gets even better! That sentencing commission to be set up? Guess who it will consist of (as a non-voting member).
A convicted felon!!!!!
I'm not making this up, folks.
And that's just for starters. A three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco (the three most liberal members of the most liberal court in the land) has ruled that California must release 40,000 inmates in the next two years due to over-crowding. The Republicans in the legislature are appealing this to the US Supreme Court.
To add fuel to that fire (no pun intended), Governor Katzenjammer yesterday visited the smoky ruins of Chino Prison where black and Latino inmates went after each other last week, resulting in over 100 injuries and a building burned down. The clowns who run this state want us to believe overcrowding was the reason. Not so. The reason is that authorities had ruled that the prisons could not segregate black and Latino inmates from each other (even though they wanted to kill each other). So they put them together and Voila! But "Mox Nix" says Governor Katzenjammer. He went on to proclaim during his tour that this was "the reason we need to release these people."
So get ready. Twenty-seven thousand criminals are coming to your town or neighborhood courtesy of the Democrat-controlled legislature and our wonderful governor, who calls himself a Republican.
Our governor
"Upward and onward!"
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