California “Looks Like a 3rd World Country”
Viewing the aftermath of massive looting of packages from trains at a rail yard, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-Calif) professed himself “shocked that our state is starting to look like a Third World country. We owe it to our citizens to see that this doesn't happen. They deserve a clean and law-abiding environment in which to live.”
The first action Newsom took was to take off his suit jacket and shirt, put on a baseball cap and covid mask and pitch in with the clean-up effort at the rail yard. “This will show the voters that I'm more than just talking about the problem,” Newsom bragged. “It shows that I'm a doer.”
The Governor was less of a doer when it came to the looting, calling it “a more complicated problem. On the one hand, the official crime statistics have taken an encouraging turn since voters decriminalized robberies of under $1,000. Our 'no bail' release of arrestees de-stigmatizes the life style choices of those who must steal in order to survive. Our early release of incarcerated felons gives these victims an opportunity to get a fresh start. The distressing thing is that too many of them revert back to old habits. I am at a loss on what to do next.”
Newsom rejected Republican criticism that “his policies on crime present no significant deterrent,” and vowed “to resist pressure to go back to the old ways of relying on harsh punishment as the main method for discouraging the commission of offenses or the notion that putting criminals behind bars is a humane answer.”
State Senator Scott Wilk (R-dist 21) charged that “it is the Democrats' 'soft-on-crime' thinking that has unleashed the latest surge in offenses against persons and property that the Governor now laments has turned California into a Third World country. Democrats have gone overboard with their concern for those who prey upon the innocent. How humane is it to allow people to be assaulted or robbed? If those who commit these violations faced serious consequences some of them might stop—making our state a safer place for everyone else.”
