Gov. Gavin Newsom doubled down Friday on his opposition to Proposition 36, the newly enacted statewide anti-crime initiative , and claimed that recent progress cracking down on retail theft can be attributed to his support for a statewide California Highway Patrol anti-organized retail theft task force.
At a press conference in Oakland, Newsom said Prop. 36, which passed overwhelmingly last month, primarily addressed “nonviolent drug possession” and did not allow for multiple law enforcement agencies to work together, unlike the CHP task force he has touted as a major facet of his statewide anti-retail theft strategy. The task force has been in existence since 2019, when Newsom first took office.
“Prop. 36 never included organized retail theft, it never addressed that issue,” Newsom told reporters from a CHP facility in Oakland. “It never addressed the issue of vehicle crimes. Never addressed the issue of multijurisdictional prosecutions.”…