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The progressive crime agenda, largely pushed by liberal mega donor George Soros, suffered a major defeat in deep blue California this week after voters soundly rejected progressive prosecutors and policies, which experts tell Fox News Digital represents a major sea change.
"I think that this is broader than just a message from people who care about crime," Cully Stimson, senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation and co-author of the book "Rogue Prosecutors: How Radical Soros Lawyers Are Destroying America's Communities," told Fox News Digital.
"This is a massive mandate and cry for help from the general population that we want our state back. We want our counties back, and we want our cities back and that our failed social experiments have had enough time, and they're an absolute, abysmal failure."
California voters overwhelmingly voted in favor of Prop 36 on Tuesday, which rolled back key provisions of Proposition 47 which was advertised by Democrats in the state as progressive crime reforms that would make the state safer.
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But in the last several years, retail chains and mom-and-pop shops have been hit hard by theft, smash-and-grab robberies and organized retail crime gangs, while cities like San Francisco, Oakland and Los Angeles have been ravaged by rises in property crime and retail theft.
"For too long, Gavin Newsom, George Gascón and Democrat leaders have been trying to tell voters not to believe what they were seeing when it comes to crime," Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco told Fox News Digital. "They wanted to gaslight the public into thinking that our eyes have been lying to us. Well, the people have spoken in an overwhelming fashion. The results in the LA DA race and the Prop 36 race make it clear that Californians are done with the Democrats' soft-on-crime experiments that put our communities' safety at risk."
When Proposition 47 passed in 2014, it downgraded most thefts from felonies to misdemeanors if the amount stolen was under $950, "unless the defendant had prior convictions of murder, rape, certain sex offenses, or certain gun crimes."
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Every single county in the state voted in favor of Prop 36, which won by an overall margin of 70.4% to 29.6% with 54% of the votes on Thursday.
"You see all of these Walgreens, the first In N Out Burger to close, all these CVS in downtown San Francisco and L.A closing, these mom-and-pop shops closing because you're literally telling people you can steal up to $950, and nothing's going to happen to you," Stimson told Fox News Digital. "Nobody with an ounce of common sense, left or right, thinks that that is a good idea. That is not reimagining criminal justice. That is a cancer unleashed on society under the fig leaf of reform."
Progressives suffered another major loss in the city of Los Angeles, where District Attorney George Gascón, backed by Soros, was defeated by former federal prosecutor Nathan Hochman as crime was seen as a top issue of the election cycle.
Stimson told Fox News Digital that Gascón’s policies were essentially a "middle finger" to victims and that the "Achilles heel" of the progressive prosecutor movement continues to be the "invalidity and lack of common sense" that leads "directly to rising crime rates."
"That’s why Gascón is going to go down as the worst DA in the history of the county, maybe the country," Stimson said.
After losing his re-election campaign, Gascón suggested that it was part of a "rightward shift across America" that he called "heartbreaking."
"Democrats have a long road ahead, but the work is more vital than ever, and our commitment will not waver," Gascóon said. "Nevertheless, I have called Mr. Hochman and wish him the best as Los Angeles County’s next district attorney. I’m deeply proud of what we’ve accomplished over the past four years and grateful to the communities who have been and will always be the heart of criminal justice reform."
Gascón, who was a co-author of Prop 47, was ushered into office in 2020 amid a reckoning over police misconduct and national calls for criminal justice reform. His directives – such as the elimination of cash bail, not seeking the death penalty and refusing to try underage defendants charged with violent crimes as adults – were panned by critics as being too soft on crime.
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In another loss for Soros-backed prosecutors in the Golden State, Alameda County, California, District Attorney Pamela Price was recalled early Wednesday, less than two years after taking office, following backlash for her alleged soft-on-crime approach.
Oakland Democratic Mayor Sheng Thao, who faced heat from her constituents amid rising crime, grand theft auto street muggings, was also ousted from office after her recall effort passed with 65% of the vote.
In San Francisco, where crime has been a major concern with voters, Democratic Mayor London Breed lost her re-election campaign.
"I don't think this has really cabined to people who cared about crime," Stimson said. "This is just we want our beautiful state back. We want our beautiful cities back. And your cancerous failed social experiment, your social pandemic that you've unleashed on us is gone. We're done. We're done with this. And that's what's happening."
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"So, Pamela Price, losing, getting recalled. That's a no-brainer. George Gascón losing 2 to 1. That's a no-brainer. Prop 36 passing, that's a no-brainer because it was the epitome of stupid and a hard thing for people to acknowledge is that Trump didn't win because Black men are misogynists and Hispanic men are misogynists. Gascón didn't lose because Black men are misogynist and Hispanics are misogynists. Price wasn't recalled because of that. Prop 36 didn't pass because of that. These things happened because the policies, in action or proposed by the other side, were dumb. Were a failure. And on the criminal law side, were deadly."
Fox News Digital’s Jamie Joseph, Louis Casiano and Michael Ruiz contributed to this report
