A powerful California Democrat who recently helped kill a Republican-backed state bill that would have increased criminal sentences for those found guilty of various forms of sexual assault, including rape, explained his decision amid widespread backlash because he opposed the measure.
Representative Reggie Jones-Sawyer, chairman of the California Assembly’s public safety committee, voted last week along with the rest of the panel’s Democrats against Bill 229, which would classify domestic violence, human trafficking and several sex crimes as a violent crime in the United States . stands.
As a result, the bill failed to make it into committee, despite the committee’s two Republicans voting in favor of the legislation.
California Assemblyman Reggie Jones-Sawyer, a Democrat, speaks at the Los Angeles County Democratic Party’s election night drive-in watch party in the LA Zoo parking lot on Nov. 3, 2020. (Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
DEMOCRATS IN CALIFORNIA KILL SEVERE PENALTIES FOR SEX CRIMES, GIVE STRENGTHENED PENALTIES FOR HIGH VALID THEFT
“The bill was a broad recategorization of non-violent crimes, and even misdemeanors, as violent crimes (sic),” Jones-Sawyer told Fox News Digital. “This is another attempt to revive a version of the three strike mentality of mass incarceration, which was a failed policy. We need to look at ways to reform our criminal justice system while advocating for diversion and rehabilitation programs ending the crime cycles of all categories.”
Under California law, committing a “violent crime” increases the penalty for crimes in line with the state’s Three Strikes Law, which significantly increases prison sentences for people convicted of felonies who have previously been convicted of a violent or serious crime . For those already found guilty of two violent or serious crimes, a third conviction would require a sentence of 25 years to life in prison.
The legislation would expanding the crimes that are considered violent crimes, increasing the sentences for those convicted of such crimes. Among the various crimes listed are domestic violence, human trafficking and numerous sex crimes such as rape of an unconscious or incapacitated person. For example, under current law, human trafficking is defined as a non-serious and non-violent crime.
The successful attempt to crush the bill was met with backlash, both in the media and online.
“This week, CA Democrats rejected a GOP bill to increase sentences for domestic violence, human trafficking, and other sex crimes. Moments later, they passed a Democratic bill to increase sentences for theft of property over $275,000,” Emily Hoeven, a writer for the San Francisco Chronicle, tweeted. “If Dems don’t show ideological consistency in their votes, they owe it to us to allow a broader range of ideas to be vigorously debated. Their party, which controls a legislative supermajority, has come nowhere close to resolving CA’s problems in matters of its own.”
Hoeven was referring to the fact that shortly after the Democrats on the Public Safety Committee killed Assembly Bill 229, they passed a separate measure to increase sentences for people convicted of stealing, damaging or destroying property worth more than $275,000.
“It doesn’t really make sense to me why the Democrats in the Capitol don’t feel that domestic violence and human trafficking should be a violent crime, but damaging property deserves harsher punishments,” said Assemblyman Joe Patterson, the Republican who introduced AB229. . Fox News Digital last week. “Their priorities are inconsistent at best.”
Ana Fuentes, a former photographer for the New York Times, Los Angeles Times and Associated Press, retweeted Hoeven’s comments and writing a bill to increase penalties for violent offenders deserved more attention.
“The bill deserved serious consideration — not only because it would amend California’s penal code to classify domestic violence as the violent crime it is, but also because it could help the state reduce mass shootings, which research shows these are overwhelmingly perpetrated by domestic violence,” she tweeted, quoting from Hoeven’s column.
“According to (California Democrats), rape is not a violent act,” added George Andrews, chief of staff of the California Assembly Republican Caucus. “Victims don’t matter and jail time is worthless/racist. Let’s hand out parking tickets to criminals who commit assault because incarceration hurts feelings.”
Republican Assemblyman Tom Lackey similarly berated Democrats on the committee for not agreeing to classify sexual assault as a violent crime.
“I am disgusted to announce that (AB229), a measure to make sexual assault a violent crime, has failed on a party-line vote in the #CALeg Assembly Public Safety Committee,” tweeted Republican Assemblyman Tom Lackey. “Please explain to me why rape is not violent in California?”
In his remarks to Fox News Digital, Jones-Sawyer reiterated the positions he outlined at the commission’s hearing last week.
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“You’re trying to say, ‘If we go back to three assaults, we’ll stop all crime,'” he told Patterson. “We’ve already proven that doesn’t work.”
Aaron Kliegman is a political reporter for Fox News Digital.
