If it passes…
A bill moving through the California State Capitol in Sacramento could revolutionize the criminal justice system.
Assembly Member Reggie Jones-Sawyer (D) introduced Bill 852 in February. The mundane-sounding legislation would command judges to consider a defendant's race when sentencing them.
Jones-Sawyer chairs the California Assembly's Public Safety Committee. The general assembly has already passed his proposal. It is now under consideration in the state senate – where Democrats have a 32-8 supermajority.
If Bill 852 passes the upper house of the state legislature, it will go to Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom's desk. (RELATED: Gavin Newsom Just Paved The Way For A Major Shift In Gun Laws)
Fox News continues:
The bill would add a section to the Penal Code of California requiring courts, whenever they have the authority to determine a prison sentence, to “rectify” alleged racial bias in the criminal justice system by taking into account how historically persecuted minorities are affected differently than others.
“It is the intent of the Legislature to rectify the racial bias that has historically permeated our criminal justice system as documented by the California Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans,” the proposed new section to the Penal Code reads. “Whenever the court has discretion to determine the appropriate sentence according to relevant statutes and the sentencing rules of the Judicial Council, the court presiding over a criminal matter shall consider the disparate impact on historically disenfranchised and system-impacted populations.”
“It is the intent of the Legislature to rectify the racial bias that has historically permeated our criminal justice system as documented by the California Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans,” the proposed new section to the Penal Code reads. “Whenever the court has discretion to determine the appropriate sentence according to relevant statutes and the sentencing rules of the Judicial Council, the court presiding over a criminal matter shall consider the disparate impact on historically disenfranchised and system-impacted populations.”
In addition to the state reparations task force, San Francisco's African American Reparations Advisory Committee recommends that the city pay qualifying Black residents $5 million each. (RELATED: Squad Member Introduces Proposal For $14 Trillion In Reparations)
American Liberty News previously reported the committee's questionable compensation formula:
Instead of following an equation, the committee's chair said members scrutinized San Francisco's history to decide what would be “a significant enough investment in families to put them on this path to economic well-being, growth and vitality that chattel slavery and all the policies that flowed from it destroyed.”
Board members cited the partial demolition and reconstruction of the Fillmore District in the late 1960s and 1970s, which displaced thousands of Black residents, as a prime example of lost wages and damages suffered by the city's African American population.
The large-scale redevelopment continues to attract controversy today. As recently as the 2010s, city planners defended the action as necessary to combat the high crime rate and economic distress.
White Americans' attitudes towards reparations have shifted significantly in liberal precincts since then.
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