On Monday during a press conference, Whittier Police Chief Jeff Piper blamed the death of Officer Keith Boyer on California's prison policies.
Particularly AB109, which was Jerry Brown's crazy idea in 2011 to move massive amounts of inmates from state prisons to county jails. The measure also allowed some inmates to serve a "split sentence," with part of the time on probation instead of in jail.
Brown called it "prisoner realignment," which is an obnoxious way of saying "we're going to take the worst of the worst and essentially let them off the hook."
Another police officer is dead, but the Los Angeles Times won't bother to criticize Jerry Brown, AB109, Prop 47 or Prop 57. Instead they write this nonsense headline, "Police blame reform for putting a convicted felon suspected of killing a Whittier officer back on the street. The record is more complicated."
The Times says that California's prison policies had no effect on Mejia being out of prison:
"State corrections officials have since stated that the time Mejia served — nearly two years for grand theft auto and attempting to steal a vehicle — was not shortened by laws designed to reduce the prison population. Mejia, 26, who was wounded in the shootout, had earlier spent over three years in state prison for a robbery."
The article adds:
"Mejia’s criminal convictions occurred before the November 2014 passage of Proposition 47 and were too serious to have been affected by the law, which downgraded some drug and property crimes from felonies to misdemeanors."
Mejia was in Pelican Bay, home to the worst criminals out there. When he got out in July 2016, he repeatedly violated his probation, serving what's called "flash incarcerations" each time.
Why does the L.A. Times treat this stuff so lightly? It's not like Mejia was stealing bread to feed his family. He was convicted of serious crimes, and then was let out only to violate his probation over and over again.
When do the people responsible wake up and say, "You know, maybe we should keep this guy locked up."
We saw what happened in Lancaster, Palm Springs, and now in Whittier. What's sad and infuriating is that this will most likely happen again.
Read more, if you can stomach it, at the L.A. Times.