AG discusses retail mob burglaries, hate crimes

Has California's progressive prosecutors group gained a de facto fifth member?

Speaking to the Sacramento Press Club on Wednesday for the first time as California's attorney general, Rob Bonta appeared to reference the four-member Prosecutors Alliance of California. His was a response to a question about the 56-member California District Attorneys Association.

"The CDAA isn't the only prosecutors' group in California," Bonta said. Two county DAs are members of both groups.

Bonta clashed repeatedly with the District Attorneys Association over criminal justice issues during his eight plus years as a member of the California State Assembly. So did the four of county district attorneys who formed the Prosecutors Alliance last year.

This newer group has just four county district attorneys as members. But these four -- George Gascon in Los Angeles, Diana Becton in Contra Costa, Chesa Boudin in San Francisco and Tori Verber Salazar San Joaquin -- represent 12.8 million people, nearly a third of California's population.

Much of the early portion of the lunchtime program concerned a recent rash of organized retail thefts around the state. Last week, Boudin filed felony theft charges against nine suspects in a recent smash-and-grab robbery in San Francisco's Union Square. Some have interpreted Boudin's move as an attempt to appear tough on crime as he faces a recall election.

Many critics of Boudin and other progressive prosecutors have attempted to link these crimes to Proposition 47. This 2014 initiative, which the District Attorneys Association opposed, set a $950 threshold for theft to be charged as a felony unless other conditions were met. But Bonta called this interpretation "divorced from the facts," noting an estimated $1 million in merchandise was stolen from Union Square's Louis Vuitton store.

"Those are felonies," Bonta said, adding, "Proposition 47 is not involved at all. These are grand thefts, not petty thefts."

He then turned these arguments back on his critics in law enforcement and the Republican Party.

"Getting caught for an unlawful act, all the studies show, is a greater deterrent than the severity of the sentence," he said. "We need to invest in training police officers."

Bonta then suggested the conservatives focus on some crime waves and not others. He cited his own creation of a racial justice unit in the California Department of Justice.

"We've seen a spike in hate crimes," said Bonta, who has Filipino ancestry. "I have my own views on that, including the fact how publicly elected leaders speak is important. We had the former occupant of the White House pushing out messages of xenophobia and discrimination and racism, scapegoating the API community, which led to a big spike in hate crimes."

He then cited two recent California laws his office helps enforce. SB 1421 makes police use of force and misconduct records public. AB 1506 created a division in the Department of Justice to investigate police use of force incidents.

But he refused to be drawn into current legislative battles, not taking a position on a pair of bills by Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco. SB 357 would repeal legal code that allows people to be charged with prostitution if found loitering in certain areas. SB 519 would decriminalize possession of small amounts of some psychedelic drugs.

"Are we going to weigh in on every bill the Legislature is proposing?" Bonta said. "We won't do that. We're going to pick our spots and mostly focus on our own bills we're sponsoring."

He added, "But you know I have been part of drug reform efforts." Bonta has pushed measures to liberalize cannabis policy, citing similar arguments around safety and medical use Wiener has used in SB 519.

When asked about what kinds of legislative efforts he might get behind next year, he cited his office's ongoing struggles to remove guns from people not allowed to possess them. He said he could support reforms that would prioritize cases in which a court has recently ordered a person to give up their guns. Bonta also cited his office's recent win in a case defending California's ban on large capacity magazines -- Duncan et al. v. Bonta, 19-55376 (9th Cir., filed April 4, 2019) -- and another pending case on the state's assault weapons ban.

His comments also came hours after the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in a case that could undermine Roe v. Wade. Bonta said he would defend abortion rights in California.

"The argument today gave reason for concern," Bonta said. "We have to hope for the best but prepare for the worst."