Sacramento’s mayor wants Gov. Gavin Newsom and Democratic leadership to spend $3 billion to prevent crime — a call to action that follows some of the worst violence in city history.
Mayor Darrell Steinberg on Wednesday pushed for the funding not far from the scene of a mass shooting that killed six people early Sunday.
Sen. Maria Elena Durazo, D-Los Angeles, and Assemblyman Miguel Santiago, D-Los Angeles, joined Steinberg and social justice advocates in urging financial support for victim services, re-entry programs, community organizations and mental health and addiction treatment.
The group sent a letter to Newsom, Senate Pro Tem Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, and Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, D-Lakewood, asking for investments they say get at the root cause of community violence.
California is flush with a projected surplus of more than $30 billion ahead of May budget revisions. The crime prevention spending package Steinberg and others presented will be on the table along with other spending priorities Newsom could consider.
The spending package the mayor, legislators and advocates touted includes the following:
— $210 million for critical victim services
— $200 million to increase the capacity of community-based re-entry programs
— $200 million for a re-entry housing program
— $100 million in grant funding to go to cities and counties for community-based crime prevention
— $200 million to fund mental health treatment for people in the criminal justice system
Steinberg said he wanted to be clear that his comments on Wednesday were meant to push violence prevention funding in general.
Sacramento police on Wednesday say they believe the shooting was gang-related and that least five people fired weapons. One of the arrested suspects was released early from a 10-year prison sentence he was serving after he assaulted his girlfriend, according to reporting from The Sacramento Bee.
“I have some very serious questions about why the alleged perpetrators, and it is an allegation, were out on the streets,” Steinberg said. “And those questions need to be answered, and they will be answered over the days ahead. But I think if we’re going to be leaders, it’s also a time for reflecting on a whole host of things relating to criminal justice. And this is the truth, the failure to re-enter people effectively is, itself, a major public safety issue.”
Steinberg also suggested that any funding be matched with “clear changes in the law in ways that we have never considered before.”
“There needs to be a legal right to housing and a legal right to mental health treatment for people in California, especially people who most need the help,” Steinberg said. “Until the systems are required to respond to the need … all this money is going to help a lot of people, and it’s absolutely necessary. But we are still going to have broken systems.”
Durazo spoke in support of an element of the spending package that would provide $50 million grants to help incarcerated people re-entering society find higher-paying union jobs. She also touted a measure she authored, Senate Bill 731, which would automatically seal arrest records that don’t result in convictions.
“Over-reliance on incarceration only worsens the conditions that create violence and does nothing to actually prevent crime in the first place,” Durazo said. “We know what works, and we know what doesn’t work to protect our communities from harm.”
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Sacramento Black residents accounted for some 38% of police traffic stops despite comprising approximately 13% of the city’s population. For pedestrians, officers targeted Black people 5.7 times more often than whites, and were 59.7% more likely to search Black people.
I.A.W. U.S. Census & 2018 FBI (Table 43a)
Black males make up about 7% of the U.S. population but every year commit ~56% of all the murders and ~54% of all robberies in the U.S… Every year in the U.S. there are ~6,000 African-Americans men, women and children killed and 92% of them were killed by fellow African-Americans.
“Over-reliance on incarceration only worsens the conditions that create violence and does nothing to actually prevent crime in the first place,” Sen. Maria Elena Durazo, D-Los Angeles said. “We know what works, and we know what doesn’t work to protect our communities from harm.”
OH Really? Then why is it that every large Democrat Party ruled city in the U.S. is a haven for crimes, robberies, shoplifting and murder??
Why is the Democrat Party importing multi-millions of criminal illegal immigrants?
Sen. Maria Elena Durazo, D-Los Angeles, we all see how you Democrats deal with crime, homeless and illegal immigrants. You encourage crime!
SACRAMENTO, Calif. – A suspect arrested in connection with last weekend’s mass shooting outside bars near the California state Capitol served less than half his 10-year sentence because of voter-approved changes to state law that lessened the punishment for his felony convictions and provided a chance for earlier release.
Smiley Allen Martin, two days before he was released to Sacramento County probation for his sentence on charges of corporal injury and assault likely to cause great bodily injury. Martin was arrested Tuesday, April 5, 2022, in connection with a mass shooting that killed six people in Sacramento, Calif. Martin is the brother of Dandrae Martin, the first suspect taken into custody in the investigation. (California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation via AP)
THEY don’t need MORE money. WHAT THEY NEED is more enforcement of the THOUSANDS OF LAWS that already exist!
Criminals keep breaking laws, so passing more laws is not the answer. Why don’t you try enforcing the laws that are already on the books and stop wasting money and time on ridiculous procedures that accomplish nothing?
Because it’s California under Liberal control.
That takes too much common sense..
Just keep the felons in jail, don’t release them from jail! SIMPLE.
California needs to create their own Krypto Currency to finance all their soon destined to fail social experiments and leave the real money in the pockets of their hard working, now ripped off people of California. Back it with the full faithlessness and credit worthlessness of Socialism and then see who invests anymore human life force into the fallacy they now offer THE PEOPLE. Put the Face of Joe, Nancy and Gavin on their paper money denominations and see who actually decides it has any worth.
AND what’s the betting, ALL that money is going to come from EVERYONE ELSE, not just the plebs still in Commiefornia..