00:00crime problem in the country. You know, you go to our major cities, most of the things in basic
00:06convenience stores are behind lock and key. And the cause of this is probably threefold,
00:11a lack of resources for police, some rogue district attorneys like George Gascon in LA,
00:18who fortunately has been removed by the voters, and then very weak laws when it comes to punishing
00:23retail theft. Things got so bad, we have a witness from Target here today,
00:28that last year, our governor, Gavin Newsom, was visiting a Target when a thief absconded with
00:35a variety of merchandise. And the governor starts berating one of the Target employees saying,
00:40why aren't you stopping them? And apparently the employee didn't recognize who she was talking to
00:44and said, well, we can't because of the governor. Despite this, the governor himself opposed an
00:51initiative that I was part of last year to actually restore some real consequences for
00:58retail theft in California. It eventually became known as Prop 36. The governor led the opposition
01:05against it. The state's political class closed ranks in opposing Proposition 36. And yet, at the end of
01:13the day, it passed with 68% of the vote. It passed in every single one of California's 58 counties, even
01:20Governor Newsom's San Francisco. It got more votes than any other measure on the ballot, showing just
01:27how fed up the people of California are with the rampant lawlessness that is proving such a threat to
01:35business and to safety. So we have a district attorney with us today, District Attorney 7. I know that you
01:42are a supporter, or at least are grateful for the passage of Prop 36. Can you just let us know how it's
01:48improved the ability of your office to actually hold criminals accountable and deter crime?
01:53And thank you, Representative Kiley, for your help with this proposition. It has been a game changer for us.
02:00We've been able to prosecute. It targets, as you know, habitual offenders. It doesn't target the kid
02:08who makes a mistake. But with targeting the habitual offenders, San Diego has already seen a 23% reduction
02:17in property crimes. It still doesn't get to that high-level organized criminals that we need this
02:25legislation, the CORCA legislation for. But it certainly has given us the tools to act. And of course,
02:32something that I worked on for a whole year alongside you and other leaders.
02:36That's right. The DA's association really led the charge on that. So thank you for all of your work
02:42on it and for what you're doing now. And we certainly need these measures at the federal level
02:46to supplement those new consequences. Just out of curiosity, if you could have...
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