It has been six months since California’s Prop 36 — also known as the “Homelessness, Drug Addiction, and Theft Reduction Act” — took effect after voters overwhelmingly passed the measure in the November 2024 general election. Unsurprisingly, it took only half a year for the data to yield results that were eerily similar to those from stop-and-frisk laws in NYC, the so-called “war on drugs,” and, of course, the notorious federal crime bill of 1994.
Black people are being disproportionately targeted and harmed because we’re disproportionately poor and policed (and because law enforcement is inherently racist).
According to the Los Angeles Sentinel, “Prop 36 increased penalties for certain drug and theft crimes, reclassifying some as felonies, and lengthened sentences for specific offenses, particularly those involving multiple individuals or the sale of certain drugs.” The law appears to be a reversal of the state’s Prop 47, which voters passed in 2014, significantly lowering the penalty for non-violent petty crimes, including drug offenses and property crimes. Prop 47 reclassified certain felonies as misdemeanors and downgraded penalties for nonviolent crimes like drug possession for personal use and the theft or receipt of stolen goods valued at under $950…