How a political earthquake rocked California and made crime 'finally illegal again'

Fed-up Californians rejected a decade of liberal criminal justice reform measures and their champions on Election Day due to disgust with the status quo, locals tell Fox News Digital.

Voters overwhelmingly rolled back portions of Proposition 47, which many saw as soft on crime and was championed by progressive Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón, whom voters have now fired. San Francisco Mayor London Breed was also ousted in favor of a political newcomer who campaigned on public safety.

"You look at just what's going on the streets, there's been serious acts of violence… People have been slashed, stabbed, murdered," Venice Neighborhood Council Board Member Soledad Ursua said. "I think that Californians are very hopeful because crime is finally illegal again."

And at the federal level, Bay Area native Kamala Harris lost millions of California voters who had voted for President Joe Biden just four years earlier.

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Californians frustrated with brazen crime overwhelmingly voted to roll back portions of Proposition 47, a 2014-era initiative that made drug possession and thefts of items worth less than $950 misdemeanors. A nonpartisan think tank found retail thefts have surged in the Golden State in recent years. (Manhattan Beach Police Department)

"I think people are angry. People are upset," recovering homeless addict-turned-activist Tom Wolf told Fox News Digital of Harris ceding ground in the Democratic stronghold.

‘That was not a good experiment'

When voters passed Prop 47 in 2014, it downgraded drug possession and thefts of items worth $950 or less from a felony to a misdemeanor. Critics said the law, coupled with a shift in law enforcement to focus on more serious crimes, effectively greenlit shoplifting and addiction.

Within two years, thefts jumped 9% across the state, according to a 2018 analysis by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California. Retail thefts skyrocketed even more during the pandemic, with the institute finding a 28% increase in reported shoplifting of goods worth up to $950 since 2019.

One of the biggest about-faces Golden State voters pulled on Election Day was passing Prop 36, an initiative backed by Republicans, district attorneys, big box stores like Walmart, and mom-and-pop shops fed up with shoplifting.

The new law will make thefts of $950 or less a felony again for offenders with two or more past theft convictions. It also creates a new "treatment-mandated felony" in which drug offenders could complete treatment rather than going to prison.

"Accountability is a cornerstone of recovery," said Wolf, who was addicted and living on the streets in San Francisco in 2018. Since entering recovery, the self-described Blue Dog Democrat has called on the left to get tougher on open-air drug use and public safety. "I think we have to start giving people harder choices."

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Homelessness and open-air drug markets have dominated San Francisco's streets. Voters this month ousted Mayor London Breed in favor of newcomer Daniel Lurie, who promised action on homelessness and public safety. (Photo by Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu)

Prop 47 was an early drop in a deluge of social justice-minded reforms that gained speed in 2020.

"There was a group of people in 2020 who I think have been looking at trying to take over the Democratic Party, and they did," Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney Jon Hatami, who ran for DA before stepping aside and endorsing federal prosecutor Nathan Hochman this spring, told Fox News Digital. Hochman went on to defeat Gascón on Election Day.

"Now we're in 2024, and I think most individuals have now said that that was not a good experiment," Hatami said. "That was dangerous."

Prop 36 passed with a landslide 68.9% of the vote, despite attempts by Gov. Gavin Newsom and legislative Democrats to keep it off the ballot.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom opposed Proposition 36. After the election, he headed to D.C. to meet with Biden, and called for a meeting of state lawmakers in order to "Trump-proof" the state. (Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

"Prop. 36 takes us back to the 1980s, mass incarceration, it promotes a promise that can't be delivered," Newsom said earlier this year. "I would ask those who support it, particularly mayors: Where are the treatment slots, where are the beds?"

Hatami said Californians were "sick and tired" of the status quo.

"We want laws that actually make sure everyone is safe," he said. "You shouldn't have laws that only help criminals."

Ursua said politicians who opposed Prop 36 are "not taking it well." Newsom set off for Washington to meet with Biden, and has called a special session of state lawmakers to "Trump-proof" California's progressive policies on immigration, climate, abortion and more.

"What he should be doing is getting ready to enforce this law again," Ursua said. "This is what people want. They want a return to law and order. But he is not listening to this."

Local shakeups dominate

Prop 47 was pushed by then-San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón. The progressive Gascón lost his re-election bid for Los Angeles County District Attorney earlier this month. Alameda County voters also recalled far-left DA Pamela Price, who even came under fire from Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif.

Homeless people are seen on May 16, 2024, as San Francisco continues to struggle with open-air drug markets and fentanyl use. (Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu via Getty Images)

And in San Francisco, infamous for its open-air drug markets and rampant homelessness, political newcomer Daniel Lurie unseated Mayor London Breed.

Wolf said he's seeing a rise in "more moderate, pragmatic views" in his city.

"Progressive policy doesn't work unless you have a modicum of public safety," he said. "If people feel safe and they're making money, they'll vote liberal."

Nationally, the election was also "an absolute rejection of [the] social justice narrative," Wolf said.

‘Red wave’ in the Golden State?

While Kamala Harris comfortably won California, her victory was dampened as her home state shifted right from previous elections. President-elect Donald Trump even flipped some counties that went for Biden four years ago, and his improved performance there helped him likely win the national popular vote. 

"There is a growing red wave in California," declared Darren Stallcup, a Gen Z conservative documenting the state's drug and homeless crises on X. He's based in San Francisco, which he calls the "far left lion's den."

Harris clinched only 58.7% of the vote in California, compared to Biden's 63.5% four years ago, according to preliminary ballot counts.

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"Kamala Harris was an absolute disaster on the local and state level," Stallcup told Fox News Digital. "Even though she's from where I'm from, I could not with good conscience vote for her, after witnessing all the chaos and lawlessness she left behind in her wake."

As of Friday, Harris had 80.57% of the vote in San Francisco, a landslide, but significantly less than Biden's 85.26% in 2020. 

Asian and "less-educated voters" drove the swing toward Trump, according to a San Francisco Chronicle analysis of voting data.

Wolf sees Harris' lost ground as a backlash against inflation and numerous Democratic policies, from lax immigration control to social issues like allowing biological males to compete in women's sports.

He also decried perceived "Left Coast elitism," and said Democrats have belittled people without a college degree.

"It's supposed to be the party of the working family," Wolf said. "And right now, it looks like the party of people with two degrees that are rich, live up on a hill and talk down to everyone else."

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He added that Democrats need to "drive the far left wing" out of the party, citing pro-Palestinian "mob mentality that is fomented on university campuses" as one example.

"Let them go join the Democratic Socialists of America," he said. Democrats "just need to take a more pragmatic approach in a lot of these social issues if they want to win a national election."

"If they want to die on those hills, go for it," he said. "But just be prepared to be out of power for the next 12 years in the White House."

But when Ursua looks at maps showing how individual precincts swung, she sees a sea of blue around Venice Beach. 

"I hope that people are waking up," she said. But "I guess people are not tired of this yet."