Soft on crime? Not Gavin Newsom.

On July 12, Sacramento County Sheriff Jim Cooper made headlines when he blasted the California legislature and Gov. Gavin Newsom for not doing enough to prevent the state’s residents from being victims of crime. He took particular aim at the governor for failing to deliver on what was contemplated by Proposition 36, which passed with nearly 70 percent support in 2024.

Among other things, Prop 36 authorized felony charges for possessing certain drugs, and for thefts under $950 for someone with two prior drug or two prior theft convictions. Both had been treated as misdemeanors and carried light punishments.

It also offered an option for people convicted of certain crimes to agree to mental health or substance abuse treatment in return for having felony charges dropped.

Prop 36 was a response to a dramatic spike in high-profile crimes targeting businesses in Los Angeles, San Francisco and other parts of the Golden State that began in 2019. It was so bad that, in 2021, the Hoover Institute at Stanford University said, “Shoplifting Is Now De Facto Legal In California.”

Without such hyperbole, the California Public Policy Institute reported that “Between 2019 and 2023, retail theft (both shoplifting and commercial burglaries) increased in 11 of the state’s 15 most populous counties but generally decreased in smaller counties. Most notably,” it added, “retail theft increased by almost 70 percent in Sacramento, by 65 percent in Alameda, by 41 percent in San Mateo, and by 40 percent in Los Angeles.

The incidence of retail theft drew press coverage........

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