Measure 57 bad piece of legislation

Measure 57, which would swing open the prison doors of California even wider for so-called non-violent offenders, is a bad piece of legislation that will do nothing but endanger the public, endanger the law enforcement community, cost the public more money for keeping the peace and very likely lead to injury and death of innocent people, aka citizens.

Let’s see ... who says this? Just the prosecutors and law enforcement officers of the State of California.

Just ask one. Go to the courthouse, go to the police station, go to the sheriff’s office, go to the jail, go to the prosecutor’s office, go to the state patrol office, go to one of the prisons and ask any of those men and women charged with keeping the rest of us safe if they think Measure 57 is a good idea. Do they think it will make us safer? Do they think it will save the state money?

And the answer is likely to be something like this:

When hippos learn to tap dance. For the love of Heaven, vote no on 57.

All you have to do is look on the ballot you’re being asked to fill out for this election to see that things are headed in the wrong direction insofar as law enforcement is concerned.

Madera’s Measure K has been proposed because law enforcement knows that without more money to hire more officers they will be unable to do the work they have been given to do if Measure 57 is passed. In fact, the ill effects of a similar measure, Proposition 47, passed in 2014, already have stressed the local police to the limits because there are people let back on the streets who shouldn’t be there without having served their original sentences.

So Measure K will cost us money, but we’ll need to spend it or we’ll be in more trouble.

To avoid this mess, give Measure K a YES.

But another measure that will cost us money if it passes is Measure 64, which would legalize recreational marijuana. It’s likely to pass because the potheads love it and the uninformed believe it will result in a new tidal wave of sin taxes to help pay for the cost of enforcing it. And that may be true in the first couple of years.

But remember, the marijuana business in this state right now is run by freelance gangsters and organized criminals. And those people make a lot of money on their businesses, and they won’t take kindly to the fact that the state will be moving in on their lovely enterprise.

The result, more work for the police.

We live in odd times. We’re voting for crimes.