There is so much ridiculous news coming out of California these days – jail time for providing plastic straws, driver’s licenses for illegal aliens, sanctuary cities…it’s almost too much to keep up with. There is so much insanity that Americans might not be aware of another Krazy Kalifornia™ measure that has been burdening the state and law-abiding citizens since 2014.

Prop 47 – deceptively (of course) monikered as the Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act – reduced the threshold for felonies, categorizing most non-violent crimes as misdemeanors in an attempt to reduce the prison population. The result has been an increase in petty crimes as most go unpunished. Police are unable to hold those committing petty crimes and thus the perpetrators are simply released back into the population to continue their offenses. Petty criminals know this and have been offending with near complete impunity over the last few years.

The measure was intended to expire by 2017 but Governor Jerry Brown has extended it until 2022.

Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer says that he has no doubts at all that Prop 47 is creating a crime wave that he’s witnessed personally as a law enforcement officer.

“There’s an individual we have arrested 83 times since Prop 47 has passed, all on petty thefts, 83 times,” said Dyer.

Dyer will never shy away from his feelings about Prop 47, especially during a time where there’s 18 fewer murders in the city compared to last year, Dyer is seeing a spike in thefts.

He says it’s happening everyday.

“That’s their job, that’s their career, there embolden to do it because there’s no consequences.”

From petty thefts to high end robberies, in the last few weeks 15 Lululemon stores statewide have been hit, including the one in the Fig Garden Village twice in three days. Tens-of-thousands of dollars of merchandise ripped off the racks.

The Apple store in Fashion Fair and most recently in Costa Mesa also targeted. Thousands of dollars in iPhones and iPads swiped off the counters right in front of everyone. Dyer believes these snatch-n-grab crimes are linked to Props 47 and 57, often times leaving the employees of these stores at risk.

“There put into the position where they have to confront the thieves who are often times on meth and will do anything to get away,” says Dyer.

Dyer goes on to say that it is easy for Californians to become complacent, and he isn’t wrong. As the rest of the nation can see, Californians put up with a lot of nonsense for a lot of different reasons. The weather makes residents more likely to put up with more as kind of a “trade off”…we all it the “Sunshine tax” and it is probably a huge reason the state hasn’t completely dried up by now. Also, lawmakers are adept at manipulating the descriptive language of bills in order to deceive voters. Prop 47 is a great example – who could be opposed to safe schools and neighborhoods? That would make you some kind of nazi!

Dyer says sometimes there hands are tied when it comes to keeping the thieves off the streets, but he says the voters can shackle them at the ballot box.

“We as a community have become complacent. We can adjust to a new norm. We’ve adjusted to Props 47, 57 and AB-109 and the weakening of the law, we shouldn’t as a community. We shouldn’t accept that.”

Jerry Brown can sugarcoat his shady prison fix all he wants, but there is nothing “safe” about forcing the police to arrest the same person for the same type of crimes over 80 times.

It’s ridiculous.