Time to Place a Terror Status on Drug Cartels

President Trump has long pledged to sign off on declaring drug cartels as terror organizations going back to at least March of 2019.

Mexican security forces on Sunday killed seven more members of a presumed cartel assault force that rolled into a town near the Texas border and staged an hour-long attack, officials said, putting the overall death toll at 20.

The Coahuila state government said in a statement that lawmen aided by helicopters were still chasing remnants of the force that arrived in a convoy of pickup trucks and attacked the city hall of Villa Union on Saturday.

The reason for the military-style attack remained unclear. Cartels have been contending for control of smuggling routes in northern Mexico, but there was no immediate evidence that a rival cartel had been targeted in Villa Union.

Earlier Sunday, the state government had issued a statement saying seven attackers were killed Sunday in addition to seven who died Saturday. It had said three other bodies had not been identified, but its later statement lowered the total deaths to 20.

Death toll put at 20 for Mexico cartel attack near US ...

The governor said the armed group — at least some in military style garb — stormed the town of 3,000 residents in a convoy of trucks, attacking local government offices and prompting state and federal forces to intervene. Bullet-riddled trucks left abandoned in the streets were marked C.D.N. — Spanish initials of the Cartel of the Northeast gang.

Given the recent deaths in two attacks, momentum is building and what is taking so long? Frankly, it comes down to the trade deal(s) between the United States and Mexico which has been approved by Mexico, Canada and the Unites States but not ratified yet by our own Congress.

For some context on how easy it is to apply sanctions regarding ‘countering narcotics trafficking’ there is a law titled the King Pin Act. Recently updated this past June, The Foreign Narcotics King Pin Designation Act has 32 pages, two columns of named individuals or organizations.

In part of this law for reference includes:

THE KINGPIN ACT

On December 3, 1999, the President signed into law the Kingpin Act (21 U.S.C. §§
1901-1908 and 8 U.S.C § 1182), providing authority for the application of
sanctions to significant foreign narcotics traffickers and their organizations
operating worldwide. Section 805(b) of the Kingpin Act blocks all property and
interests in property within the United States, or within the possession or
control of any U.S. person, which are owned or controlled by significant foreign
narcotics traffickers, as identified by the President, or foreign persons
designated by the Secretary of the Treasury, after consultation with the
Attorney General, the Director of Central Intelligence, the Director of the
Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Administrator of the Drug Enforcement
Administration, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of Homeland Security,
and the Secretary of State, as meeting the criteria as identified in the Kingpin
Act.

On July 5, 2000, OFAC issued the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Sanctions
Regulations, 31 C.F.R. Part 598, which implement the Kingpin Act and block all
property and interests in property within the United States, or within the
possession or control of any U.S. person, which are owned or controlled by
specially designated narcotics traffickers, as identified by the President, or
foreign persons designated by the Secretary of the Treasury, after consultation
with the Attorney General, the Director of Central Intelligence, the Director of
the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Administrator of the Drug Enforcement
Administration, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of Homeland Security and
the Secretary of State, as meeting the following criteria:

• Materially assists in, or provides financial or technological support for or
to, or provides goods or services in support of, the international narcotics
trafficking activities of a specially designated narcotics trafficker;

• Owned, controlled, or directed by, or acts for or on behalf of, a specially
designated narcotics trafficker; or

• Plays a significant role in international narcotics trafficking.

III. PROHIBITED TRANSACTIONS

E.O. 12978

E.O. 12978 blocks the property and interests in property in the United States,
or in the possession or control of U.S. persons, of the persons listed in the
Annex to E.O. 12978, as well as of any foreign person determined by the
Secretary of the Treasury, after consultation with the Attorney General and the
Secretary of State, to be a specially designated narcotics trafficker.

The names of persons and entities listed in the Annex to E.O. 12978 or
designated pursuant to E.O. 12978, whose property and interests in property are
therefore blocked, are published in the Federal Register and incorporated into
OFAC’s list of Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons (SDN List)
with the OFAC program tag “[SDNT].” The SDN List is available through OFAC’s web
site: http://www.treasury.gov/sdn.

THE KINGPIN ACT

The Kingpin Act blocks all property and interests in property within the United
States, or within the possession or control of any U.S. person, of the persons,
identified by the President, or foreign persons designated by the Secretary of
the Treasury, after consultation with the previously identified federal
agencies.

So, what is the problem? Actually it is likely the top government officials of Mexico would be sanctioned and the government itself would fall. The other suggestion is U.S. domestic banks would be implicated as well as some city officials in the United States including Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, Newark and Miami.

The consequences are huge but it is time.

250 Arrested Due to Fake University

The University of Farmington in Michigan is fake. The sting operation was called Paper-Chase. We have all kinds of channels on this one. Recruiters from India, visa fraud and lots of money and no classes to attend. The school had an estimated 600 students, where are the rest of them? All the enrolled students were foreign. The Federal government concocted the school.

Federal agents used a fake university in Farmington Hills to lure alleged phony foreign students who were trying to stay in the United States illegally.

The University of Farmington had no staff, no instructors, no curriculum and no classes but was utilized by undercover Homeland Security agents to identify people involved in immigration fraud, according to federal grand jury indictments unsealed Wednesday.

The University of Farmington's headquarters was in this office building on Northwestern Highway north of Inkster Road in Farmington Hills. The University of Farmington’s headquarters was in this office building on Northwestern Highway north of Inkster Road in Farmington Hills. (Photo: Google Maps)

Eight student recruiters were charged with participating in a conspiracy to help at least 600 foreign citizens stay in the U.S. illegally, according to the indictments, which describe a novel investigation that dates to 2015 but intensified one month into President Donald Trump’s tenure as part of a broader crackdown on illegal immigration.

Most of the recruiters and students involved are originally from India, according to prosecutors.

“It’s creative and it’s not entrapment,” said Peter Henning, a Wayne State University law professor and former federal prosecutor. “The government can put out the bait but it’s up to the defendants to fall for it.”

Those charged include:

• Bharath Kakireddy, 29, of Lake Mary, Florida.
• Aswanth Nune, 26, of Atlanta.
• Suresh Reddy Kandala, 31, of Culpeper, Virginia.
• Phanideep Karnati, 35, of Louisville, Kentucky.
• Prem Kumar Rampeesa, 26, of Charlotte, North Carolina.
• Santosh Reddy Sama, 28, of Fremont, California.
• Avinash Thakkallapally, 28, of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
• Naveen Prathipati, 29, of Dallas.

“These suspects aided hundreds of foreign nationals to remain in the United States illegally by helping to portray them as students, which they most certainly were not,” said Steve Francis, special agent in charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations office in Detroit.

The eight defendants have all been arrested.

Starting in 2015, the university was part of an undercover operation dubbed “Paper Chase” and designed to identify recruiters and entities engaged in immigration fraud, according to the indictment. Homeland Security agents started posing as university officials in February 2017.

Immigration crimes alleged in the indictment continued until this month and involved Homeland Security agents posing as owners and employees of the university. The university had a professional website, a red-and-blue coat of arms, a Latin slogan meaning “knowledge and work” and a physical location at a commercial building on Northwestern Highway.

“… the university was being used by foreign citizens as a ‘pay to stay’ scheme which allowed these individuals to stay in the United States as a result of foreign citizens falsely asserting that they were enrolled as full-time students in an approved educational program and that they were making normal progress toward completion of the course of study,” the indictment reads.

The recruiters helped foreign citizens fraudulently obtain immigration documents from the university and helped create phony student records, including transcripts, according to the government.

“We are all aware that international students can be a valuable asset to our country, but as this case shows, the well-intended international student visa program can also be exploited and abused,” U.S. Attorney Matthew Schneider said in a statement Wednesday.

The recruiters didn’t know the university was fake, however, and operated by federal agents.

The recruiters helped hundreds of foreign citizens fraudulently maintain non-immigrant status as students and stay in the U.S. illegally, prosecutors allege.

In February 2017, Sama called the university and inquired about enrolling as a student “without attending classes in order to fraudulently maintain his immigration status,” according to the indictment. During the phone call with an undercover agent, Sama also requested a tuition reduction for bringing students to the university.

Within weeks, Kandala, Kakireddy and Thakkallapally contacted undercover agents with identical requests, according to the government.

In late 2017, the recruiters started getting paid for recruiting the phony students.

Sama and Kandala met with an undercover agent at the university in January 2018 to collect $20,000 for recruiting students, prosecutors allege.

Sama collected another $20,000 in June 2018, according to the indictment.

The fake university is a new chapter in a long history of federal agents creating phony entities to thwart crime.

In the late 1970s, the FBI ran an investigation code-named ABSCAM that utilized a phony company in Long Island to crack down on public corruption and organized crime. And the 2012 film “Argo” was inspired by the work of a Central Intelligence Agency operative and involved a phony science-fiction movie.

The Farmington case isn’t the first time federal agents have used a phony university.

In 2016, Homeland Security agents used the fake University of Northern New Jersey to charge 21 people with student and work visa fraud.

Federal agents deployed several tactics to make the University of Farmington appear to be a legitimate school.

The main photo of University of Farmington students on the school’s website is nearly identical to a commercially available picture on the stock photograph website Shutterstock.

The University of Farmington has its own Facebook page, too, with a calendar of events, including one scheduled for next week with non-existent university officials.

But after The Detroit News revealed the indictment Wednesday, the university’s Facebook page started featuring memes, including one of Admiral Ackbar from “Return of the Jedi” shouting “It’s a trap.”

As part of the alleged Farmington scheme, recruiters intended to help shield and hide the students from immigration authorities, according to the indictment.

Those charged included recruiters who collectively received $250,000 in cash and kickbacks to find students to attend the university, the government alleges.

The University of Farmington operated out of the basement of the North Valley office complex on Northwestern Highway, north of Inkster Road.

The office is across the hall from a café for people who worked in the complex.

Matt Friedman, co-founder of the Tanner Friedman strategic communications firm, works in an adjoining building and was puzzled by the university’s name and office.

There were no classrooms and the university’s name seemed peculiar, he said.

“I was like ‘what is this?'” Friedman said Wednesday. “I’d never heard of it before and never saw anybody there. The whole thing was just odd.”

He posted a joke on Facebook in April 2017 with a snapshot of the entrance to the university’s office suite.

“Just because I’m now in the same office complex, it doesn’t mean I can suddenly get you tickets to the rivalry games against West Bloomfield Tech or Southfield State,” Friedman wrote.

 

It is Bigger than Burisma and the Bidens, Trump Knows

Speaker Pelosi held a press conference after the first day of the open impeachment inquiry hearing declaring that she is the smartest when it comes to intelligence and she will defend and protect the whistle-blower with all her might. HPSCI Chairman Adam Schiff said at least twice that he does not know nor has he spoken to the whistle-blower. Sheesh really? REALLY?

Pelosi and Schiff are for sure covering for something much larger and it is in Ukraine and likely at least a few other countries. There was a historic theft from PrivatBank a few years ago that was in excess of $5 BILLION. Then Ukraine was forced to nationalize the bank until such time the monies were tracked, found or recovered, which still has not happened. The country was financially suffering and the reputation of corruption in Ukraine continued to fester.

Seems our own U.S. State Department was enlisted to step up operations in Ukraine using several government agencies and non-government agencies known as NGO’s.

The matter of the whistle-blower is but one piece of all things Ukraine even while 2 State Department officials, George Kent and William Taylor provide testimony in the first round of the public hearing. (BTW, Kent’s wife is of Crimean-Tatar ancestry) Kent and Taylor are in the thick of all things Ukraine and beyond even while responding in open testimony they were unaware of key political events stateside.

Our not so favorite nefarious operator George Soros is very much at the center of much of the chaos in Ukraine, the Hillary Clinton/John Kerry State Department and some of those NGO’s.

List below are some bullet items for reference. It is difficult to piece together the whole mess but the facts below may help the reader with the long game plot against President Trump because his handful of phone calls with Ukraine President Zelensky regarding investigations into corruption(s) has struck a nerve that the power-brokers in DC are driven to stop and protect.

  • To boost legitimacy of Ukraine and Burisma, the Obama administration partnered Burisma with USAID.
  • USAID was enlisted to prepare for a new generation of Ukrainian politicians.
  • From the U.S. Ukraine Business Council: Briefing by Vadym Pozharskyi, Advisor to the Board of Directors, Burisma Holdings Ukraine’s largest independent gas producer, 30% market share by gas output volume in 2015

    Vadym Pozharskyi currently serves as an Advisor to the Board of Directors at the Burisma Holdings. He is also in charge of the Holding’s overseas expansion, GR & PR block. Prior to that, he worked for 4 years in the public sector, inter alia, on positions of the Head of the International Relations Department at the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Ukraine and the Deputy Head of the State Environmental Investment Agency of Ukraine.

    During these engagements he extensively cooperated with international organizations, led the negotiations group to UNFCCC on the restoration of Ukraine’s status in Kyoto protocol. From 2010 until 2014, Mr. Pozharskyi was the Global Environment Facility (GEF) Focal point in Ukraine.

    Burisma Holdings, www.BURISMA.com, since its launch in 2002, has rapidly become the largest gas producer in Ukraine.  Burisma Holdings consists of 4 operating companies, engaged in exploration and production of hydrocarbons (dealing with hydrocarbon production).  Burisma Holdings has expanded its operations beyond Ukraine and now operates in Germany, Mexico, Italy, and Kazakhstan.

    Burisma Geothermal is a new branch of Burisma Holdings.  It is a 100% owned subsidiary which specializes in geothermal energy development and electricity production from renewable and environmentally friendly energy sources in Europe.  Burisma Holdings has purchased equipment and technologies from such USA companies as Halliburton and Caterpillar.

  • Several U.S. government agencies were tapped to provide financial assistance to Ukraine and President Trump is right to ask harder questions as there is no Inspector General assigned to Ukraine to track that spending for legitimacy. Remember the legacy of corruption in Ukraine and Trump has a duty to see if he can trust a brand new leader in Zelensky who was never a politician.

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • William B. Taylor is the executive vice president at the U.S. Institute of Peace. Earlier, he was the special coordinator for Middle East Transitions in the U.S. State Department. He oversaw assistance and support to Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and Syria. He served as the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine from 2006 to 2009. Ambassador Taylor became chargé d’affaires ad interim for Ukraine in June 2019. In picking through some of the other names in the membership of The American Academy of Diplomacy  (NGO) which includes Taylor, they are: Madeleine Albright, Hillary Clinton, Jon Huntsman Jr., John Kerry, Victoria Nuland, Thomas Pickering, Susan Rice, Wendy Sherman, Strobe Talbott and Kent Volker.
  • Willam Taylor as part of the U.S. Institute of Peace, not only was USAID a deeper partner in Ukraine but Google is also. USAID was/is a sponsor of RADA. RADA and the USAID program that launched in November of 2013 collectively took to the streets in Ukraine for what is known as the Revolution of Dignity coordinating with Members of Parliament and civil society organizations and other international experts.
  • President Trump mentioned Crowdstrike in the phone call. Crowdstrike was hired by Perkins Coie to investigate the hacking of he DNC server. Perkins Coie was the law firm of record for the DNC and hired Fusion GPS. Trump has the notion that Crowdstrike also may have operated out of Ukraine that clues point to Crowdstrike was part of foreign interference into our 2016 elections. It should be noted that a independent group of journalists based in Britain are seeking a UK report of Russian/Ukraine interference their Britain’s election. As a matter of fact, Crowdstrike has an office in London.

 

  • With all this political power and international resumes, how was it that Russia was allowed to annex Crimea and invade Ukraine in the first place? Where was Taylor, Nuland, Kerry, Rice or Obama? Too busy with the Iran nuclear deal it seems. The United States needed Russia’s cooperation with the Iran JCPOA so Obama did not grant the request of Ukraine for military aide other than to ship MRE’s and blankets. Congress (read Democrats) never complained until President Trump was in a phone call and approved the eventual shipment of real military aide.

So, back to the beginning, where does this whistle-blower fit in? Seems he was/is the Ukraine expert assigned to VP Biden who was assigned by Obama to be the leader of the envoy for all things Ukraine. At least 6 emails obtained from a FOIA list the Ciaramella in the email chain. Others include Victoria Nuland, George Kent and Kathleen Kavalec. There are other names in the email discussion(s) dated June 2016.

This is a larger operation that has a genesis in Ukraine. There are known quantities of moving parts but it is clear that Pelosi, Schiff and perhaps many others at NGO’s, the State Department, the previous members of the Obama White House are in fact just a little nervous that Trump and his lawyer Rudy Giuliani are treading in waters made dark by operatives they are working to hide, defend and protect.

 

US Intel Tips Forced China to Prosecute Fentanyl Operation

A trial continues as fentanyl drug traffickers are sentenced in court, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2019, in Xingtai, north China’s Hebei Province. The court sentenced at least nine fentanyl traffickers Thursday in a case that was a culmination of a rare collaboration between Chinese and U.S. law enforcement to crack down on global networks that manufacture and distribute lethal synthetic opioids. (Jin Liangkuai/Xinhua via AP)

XINGTAI, China (AP) — A Chinese court sentenced nine fentanyl traffickers on Thursday in a case that is the culmination of a rare collaboration between Chinese and U.S. law enforcement to crack down on global networks that manufacture and distribute lethal synthetic opioids.

Liu Yong was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve, while Jiang Juhua and Wang Fengxi were sentenced to life in prison. Six other members of the operation received lesser sentences, ranging from six months to 10 years. Death sentences are almost always commuted to life in prison after the reprieve.

Working off a 2017 tip from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security about an online drug vendor who went by the name Diana, Chinese police busted a drug ring based in the northern Chinese city of Xingtai that shipped synthetic drugs illicitly to the U.S. and other countries from a gritty clandestine laboratory. They arrested more than 20 suspects and seized 11.9 kilograms (26.2 pounds) of fentanyl and 19.1 kilograms (42.1 pounds) of other drugs.

In form, the enterprise resembled a small business, with a perky sales force that spoke passable English, online marketing, contract manufacturing, and a sophisticated export operation, according to U.S. and Chinese law enforcement.

But the business had grave implications. Police photographs of the seizure show a dingy, chaotic scene, with open containers of unidentified chemicals and Chinese police in rubber gloves and breathing masks.

Liu and Jiang were accused of manufacturing and trafficking illicit drugs. The others were accused of trafficking.

Chinese officials said the Xingtai case was one of three fentanyl trafficking networks they are pursuing based on U.S. intelligence, but declined to discuss the details of the other cases, which are ongoing.

Austin Moore, an attaché to China for the U.S. Homeland Security Department, said the Xingtai case was “an important step” showing that Chinese and U.S. investigators are able to collaborate across international borders.

Moore said Chinese police identified more than 50 U.S. residents who tried to buy fentanyl from the Xingtai organization. Those leads prompted over 25 domestic investigations and have already resulted in three major criminal arrests and indictments in New York and Oregon, he said.

Scrambling to contain surging overdose deaths, Washington has blamed Beijing for failing to curb the supply of synthetic drugs that U.S. officials say come mainly from China. In August, President Donald Trump lashed out at Chinese President Xi Jinping for failing to do more to combat illicit opioid distribution in China’s vast, freewheeling chemicals industry. U.S. officials have reportedly moved to link Beijing’s efforts on fentanyl to U.S. trade talks.

Yu Haibin, deputy director of the Office of China National Narcotics Control Commission, on Thursday called allegations that Chinese supply is at the root of America’s opioid problem “irresponsible and inconsistent with the actual facts.”

“Drug crime is the public enemy of all humankind,” he added. “It’s about the life of human beings. It should not be related with the trade war or other political reasons.”

Chinese officials have been at pains to emphasize the efforts they have made to expand drug controls and crack down on illicit suppliers, even though synthetic opioid abuse is not perceived to be a significant problem in China.

But prosecuting cases against a new, rising class of Chinese synthetic drug kingpins has remained a challenge. Profit-seeking chemists have adroitly exploited regulatory loopholes by making small changes to the chemical structure of banned substances to create so-called analogs that are technically legal.

U.S. officials have been hopeful that China’s move earlier this year to outlaw unsanctioned distribution of all fentanyl-like drugs as a class will help constrain supply and make it easier to prosecute Chinese dealers.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 500,000 Americans died of drug overdoses in the decade ending in 2017 — increasingly, from synthetic opioids like the ones sold by the Xingtai network.

The American opioid crisis began in the 1990s, when the over-prescription of painkillers like OxyContin stoked addiction. Many people who became hooked on pain pills later moved to heroin. Fentanyl — an even more potent lab-made drug that raked in profits — then entered the U.S. illicit drug supply, causing overdose deaths to spike.

*** China sentences 9 to jail for smuggling fentanyl to U.S ...

The question of what, if any, responsibility China should bear for fuelling a deadly opioid crisis in the United States has been a bitter source of contention between the two superpowers.

China’s jailing of nine people Thursday for trafficking and selling fentanyl to US buyers following a rare joint probe with US law enforcement would suggest Beijing is moving to address the problem.

But experts warn that while the case is a big step, it is not enough to stop the drug from pouring into the United States — from China and increasingly from Mexico as drug cartels pick up the slack.

Here is a look at the opioid crisis and the tensions it has caused between China and the United States:

What’s fentanyl?

Fentanyl was introduced to the US market in the 1960s as an intravenous anaesthetic to manage severe pain. It is used for cancer patients or those receiving end-of-life care.

The drug is 50 times more potent than heroin, with only a few milligrammes — equivalent to a few grains of sand — enough to kill someone.

It is trafficked into the United States, primarily from China and Mexico, in the form of powder or tablets, and is sometimes mixed with heroin and cocaine.

Fentanyl and other synthetic opioids killed 32,000 people in the US last year according to government data.

The drug can be bought online and shipped to the United States via regular mail, posing a major challenge for postal inspectors sifting through mountains of packages.

What’s China doing about it?

Trump has long urged China to crack down on fentanyl.

It has even become a bargaining chip in the trade spat between the world’s two largest economies.

“High-level officials continue to blame China for the failure to stem the flow and that might be impacting the trade negotiations,” Bryce Pardo, a policy researcher at RAND Corporation, told AFP.

When Trump and President Xi Jinping declared a trade war truce at a summit in Argentina in December 2018, the Chinese side said it would designate all variants of fentanyl as controlled substances.

Trump hoped the move would be a “game changer” because China applies the death penalty against drug dealers.

It was not until five months later, in May, that China finally designated all fentanyl analogues as a controlled substance.

Before the ban, smugglers could skirt the law by changing the formula to make fentanyl-like drugs.

But three months later, Trump complained that China was still not doing enough.

Then came the news on Thursday that a court in northern Hebei province had handed a suspended death sentence to a smuggler and jailed eight others for terms ranging from six months to life after the first successful joint US-China investigation against a fentanyl operation.

Is it enough?

“It’s one case. You can count it as a success and it is,” Mike Vigil, a former head of international operations at the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), told AFP.

“But there is much more to be done. That’s a very tiny tip of the iceberg,” Vigil said.

Experts say China lacks the manpower to inspect all laboratories that produce fentanyl.

“The big problem is that there are so many laboratories and they have about 2,000 inspectors, which is not nearly enough,” Vigil said.

Scott Stewart, a security analyst at US intelligence consultancy Stratfor, said the flow of fentanyl and its precursor chemicals will not stop until China addresses “deeper problems” such as going after “powerful players” and lifting tax credits companies get for selling certain chemicals.

Is the ban working?

While the US welcomed China’s ban on all types of fentanyl, the move appears to have shifted production to Mexico, where drug cartels have quickly adapted to new law enforcement actions.

Chinese labs also produce the chemicals needed to make fentanyl and Mexican drug traffickers are importing them to produce the narcotic themselves, Vigil said.

“Precursor chemicals are fuelling the rise in the manufacture of fentanyl in Mexico by the major drug cartels,” Vigil said.

The DEA said Monday the cartels were making “mass quantities” of fentanyl-laced drugs.

China, for its part, continues to deny it is the source of the problem.

Following Thursday’s court case, Yu Haibin, a Chinese anti-drug official, pointedly said American deaths from overdoses had continued to rise after Beijing cracked down on all types of fentanyl.

CA Prop 47 Made Theft out of Control

Clean out your cars every night, watch shoplifters with calculators and stop UPS deliveries to your home.
Swell huh? Speaker Pelosi must be proud…same with Senator Dianne Feinstein.

Overview

Proposition 47 implemented three broad changes to felony sentencing laws. First, it reclassified certain theft and drug possession offenses from felonies to misdemeanors. Second, it authorizes defendants currently serving sentences for felony offenses that would have qualified as misdemeanors under the proposition to petition courts for resentencing under the new misdemeanor provisions. Third, it authorizes defendants who have completed their sentences for felony convictions that would have qualified as misdemeanors under the proposition to apply to reclassify those convictions to misdemeanors.

Felony convictions resentenced or reclassified as misdemeanors under the proposition are considered misdemeanors for all purposes, except that such relief does not permit the person to own, possess, or have in his or her custody or control any firearm.

Early Impacts of Proposition 47 on the CourtsPDF file type icon

California superior courts received more than 200,000 petitions for resentencing or applications for reclassification during the first 13 months after voters approved Proposition 47. A report prepared by Judicial Council staff, highlights the impacts of the ballot measure on the courts during the first year of implementation.

***

Since the passage of the infamous Prop 47 five years ago, then marketed by California Democrats as the “Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act,” theft has increased across the state, as organized crime rings have transformed ordinary shoplifting into a lucrative and sophisticated operation. It’s likely no coincidence that San Francisco now has the highest rate of property crime of America’s twenty largest cities.

Passed in 2014, Prop 47 was allegedly designed to emphasize rehabilitation and keep non-violent offenders out of the state’s already packed prisons by reducing certain non-violent felonies to mere misdemeanors. For instance, a thief can now steal twice as much as he or she formerly could before facing a felony charge. But thieves and organized crime gangs capitalized on this loophole. In other words, Prop 47 is now a mechanism for gangs to immunize themselves from felony charges.  In cities like Vacaville, CA, just outside of the state’s capital, theft has more than doubled, and police believe Prop 47 is to blame.

According to the National Retail Federation’s 2018 survey on Organized Retail Crime (ORC), this jump is in petty theft as a result of relaxed laws is common (and given its ubiquity, should now be expected).

In states where the felony threshold has increased, over half report an increase in ORC case value. None reported a decrease. It appears that ORC criminals understand the new threshold and have increased their thefts to meet it.

Rachel Michelin, who currently serves as President of the California Retailers Association, explained to Fox News the crude savviness of the latest generation of shoplifters. “[Shoplifters] know what they’re doing. They will bring in calculators and get all the way up to the $950 limit.” She continued. “One person will go into a store, fill up their backpack, come out, dump it out and go right back in and do it all over again.”

The relaxation of penalties, combined with selective enforcement to focus on more “serious” crime, has seemingly been disastrous for the state’s larger cities. Although Prop 47 was championed by the state’s Democratic overlords, as well as by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), many attribute California’s growing property crime problem to lax initiatives like this one.

As Del Seymour of the non-profit Code Tenderloin emphasized to Fox News, the theft patterns in the city are a mix of international gangs, usually from Mexico or Guatemala, as well as homeless addicts looking to secure enough money to finance their next fix. The stealing and handoffs often take place in broad daylight and ironically, right in front of San Francisco City Hall. When I lived in San Francisco, City Hall was infamous for being a beehive of illicit activities and an area best avoided at all times of day.

Oddly enough, unrelated measures, like the additional charge for plastic bags, have made it more difficult for store owners to spot theft, given the frequency with which shoppers now simply throw items into their purses or backpacks after purchase. As Michelin noted, this type of behavior now allows shoplifters to “fit in” with the paying customers.  Michelin predicts that stores will increasingly turn to locking up their products for fear of theft.

The jump in retail theft is just one part of the picture when it comes to property theft in the state. According to the San Francisco Police Department, there is a car break-in every 22 minutes in the city, resulting in the formation of neighborhood “vigilantes” devoted to stopping break-ins. A 2018 study from the Public Policy Institute found evidence that Prop 47 was a contributing factor in the almost 20 percent-increase in car break-ins from 2014 to 2016.  It seems the rampant property crime in the city is creating a dystopian hellscape that the cops haven’t been awarded the authority to address.

CHAOS: California’s Prop 47 Gives ‘Green Light’ to ...

California voters may have had enough. In 2020, California residents will vote on whether to rollback the reforms implemented under Prop 47 in the hopes of reinstating the deterrents that fell by the wayside under the auspices of the state’s Democratic leadership.

When I lived in San Francisco’s fabled Bernal Heights, I was instructed to empty my car each night to discourage thieves from smashing my windows. There were some evenings I would forget after a long commute home, and I would hold my breath walking to my vehicle in the morning, always relieved to see that the windows were still intact (I detail my San Francisco trials here). If California voters are smart, perhaps San Francisco’s next generation of residents won’t have to feel terrorized by the constant barrage of petty crime. Hat Tip Federalist