{"id":1002,"date":"2013-02-08T10:26:35","date_gmt":"2013-02-08T18:26:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klaaskids.org\/blog\/?p=1002"},"modified":"2018-04-03T10:31:46","modified_gmt":"2018-04-03T17:31:46","slug":"more-evidence-of-rising-crime-under-realignment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.klaaskids.org\/blog\/more-evidence-of-rising-crime-under-realignment\/","title":{"rendered":"More Evidence of Rising Crime Under Realignment"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Michael Rushford<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"cuffs\"<\/a>W<\/span>ith the recent FBI release of preliminary crime statistics<\/a> for the first six months of 2012, and continuing reports on local crime from news organizations and police agencies across the state, it is becoming increasingly clear that something happened in California last year that caused a sharp increase in virtually every major category of crime.\u00a0 The FBI report found a small increase nationally in violent and property crime driven by larger increases in the West.\u00a0 Since the sweeping changes in sentencing under Governor Jerry Brown\u2019s Public Safety Realignment law<\/a> took effect in October 2011, the California-based Criminal Justice Legal Foundation has been monitoring criminal activity across the state to gauge the law\u2019s effect on public safety.<\/p>\n

While the reports we have collected from local law enforcement agencies over the past year and the recent preliminary report from the FBI are not proof of a trend, they do show a large and abrupt, across-the-board increase in California crime rates which is disturbing.<\/p>\n

The Criminal Justice League Foundation<\/a> noted that, in a January 28, 2013 report, researchers at the University of Minnesota identified a downward national trend in crime, citing better technology and changing social dynamics.\u00a0 In December, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg boasted that his city\u2019s declining incarceration rate and improved policing had caused a dramatic decrease in major felonies.<\/p>\n

\"FBI<\/a>

FBI Preliminary Semi-Annual Uniform Crime Report<\/p><\/div>\n

The recent FBI report tells a different story.\u00a0 Over the first six months of 2012, violent crime in New York City increased by 3.9% and property crime climbed 6.1%.\u00a0 But not all large states saw increases, Florida and Texas, both of which have reduced some incarceration rates but maintain tough-on-crime sentencing policies, saw only slight increases or declining rates.\u00a0 States which have been more aggressive at reducing the incarceration of felons, particularly along the West Coast have reversed the trend of reduced crime in recent years and saw rising rates of both violent and property crimes.<\/p>\n

California\u2019s increase has been the most dramatic.\u00a0 The FBI report for 2011 had crime dropping in all categories compared to the previous year.\u00a0 The preliminary report for 2012 shows significant increases.\u00a0 In a February 3, 2013 Pasadena Star-News story, the Police Chiefs of Pasadena, Glendale, and Covina expressed their concerns about rising crime caused by Realignment.\u00a0 \u201cThis is a dangerous public policy,\u201d Glendale Police Chief Brian De Pompa told reporters.\u00a0 \u201cWithout strong state prison accountability, it\u2019s hard to control crime.\u201d<\/p>\n

San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon<\/a> disagrees.\u00a0 His city has embraced the evidence-based rehabilitation and probation approach to most felons, an approach praised by the ACLU.\u00a0 In a January 19, 2013 Los Angeles Daily News<\/a> story, Gascon said, \u201cI know that we cannot incarcerate our way out of this problem.\u201d\u00a0 Unfortunately, according to a January Associated Press story<\/a>, the homicide rate in San Francisco increased by 36% last year, and the trend is continuing.\u00a0 On January 1, 2013, documented gang member David Morales, 19, allegedly killed two people while being pursued by police in San Francisco.\u00a0 Morales is suspected of having driven through a housing complex and shooting at three men.\u00a0 Police matched the description of the vehicle involved in the shooting to Morales\u2019s car.\u00a0 Officers then tried to pull him over.\u00a0 In the ensuing high-speed chase, Morales rammed into a car at an intersection and sent it spinning into a pedestrian.\u00a0 Both the passenger of the car, 29-year-old Silvia Tuncun, and the pedestrian, 26-year-old Francisco Gutierrez, were killed.\u00a0 Morales\u2019s most recent conviction was in April 2012 for gang activity which, under Realignment, left him free on probation at the time of the killings.<\/a><\/p>\n

Something happened in California last year that has caused a major shift in crime rates. Excuses by supporters of the Governor\u2019s Realignment are of little comfort to Californians who have lost friends or loved ones to so-called \u2018low-level\u2019 felons left in our communities because of this dangerous law.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Michael Rushford ith the recent FBI release of preliminary crime statistics for the first six months of 2012, and continuing reports on local crime from news organizations and police agencies across the state, it is becoming increasingly clear that something happened in California last year that caused a sharp increase in virtually every major […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[328,358,107,9],"tags":[329],"class_list":["post-1002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ab-109","category-crime","category-fbi","category-jerry-brown","tag-prison-realignment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.klaaskids.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.klaaskids.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.klaaskids.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.klaaskids.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.klaaskids.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1002"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.klaaskids.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1002\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3238,"href":"https:\/\/www.klaaskids.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1002\/revisions\/3238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.klaaskids.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.klaaskids.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.klaaskids.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}