California merchants react to Newsom's pledge to stop smash-and-grabs, retail theft
LOS ANGELES - How do merchants feel about Governor Gavin Newsom’s spending proposals to fight California retail theft?
Well, that does depend.
Newsom is proposing millions of dollars in grant money in the budget to be proposed this January, including $270 million for law enforcement and prosecution, as well as $25 million for small businesses victimized by theft. But the focus remains on large gangs, multi-level operations that have been the target of CHP investigations and some arrests.
PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Newsom boosts efforts to combat smash-and-grabs
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But for merchants in small boutiques in Burbank, or the car cleaning supply store in Van Nuys – where security video shows a single person breaking in – the Governor’s plan seems less likely to help them.
"If the criminals targeting stores are just one person, taking less than $950 in merchandise, how could they be prosecuted for anything more than a misdemeanor under proposition 47?" says one store owner.
She is referring to the voter-approved proposition lowering certain drug and thefts to misdemeanors. Newsom has doubled down on his belief that Prop 47 or the zero bail policies established during the pandemic, are not an issue in the increase of retail theft crimes, calling them a "political sidebar" in the rhetoric from opponents.
Still, the merchants we spoke to voted for Newsom. Already doubtful of money promises, claiming they didn’t receive pandemic relief money last year, they are not sure that they will actually get grants for their losses during smash-and-grabs, especially if their suspects are single perpetrators, and not large groups of hooded, sometimes armed characters seen on recent videos at phone stores and high-end retailers.
The grants will be part of the budget that Newsom will present in January 2022, which usually takes months for legislators to approve. So it may be some time before any of these grants become available.
We asked people what they’d like the governor to do right now. The most common answer? More police on the streets.
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