LOS ANGELES (AP) — Ten years ago, Alley Bean joined 3.7 million Californians in voting for a measure that downgraded many nonviolent felony crimes to misdemeanors, such as petty shoplifting and drug use, hoping it would lead to a more equitable criminal justice system and help end mass incarceration.
Since then she has seen an increase in crime in her beloved Venice neighborhood of Los Angeles, with some homes robbed in broad daylight. Meanwhile the sidewalks are occupied by tents of homeless people and dotted with people passed out from drugs. The opioid crisis touched her personally when she lost her 25-year-old granddaughter Zelly Rose to a fentanyl poisoning…