Several frustrated 7-Eleven owners in Southern California took to their checkbooks to lend support to Proposition 36, following several instances in which a pack of teenage thieves stormed the convenience stores.
“It has a psychological impact on our employees,” says owner Jawad Ursani. “They’re scared.”
The series of robberies began on july 12 and continued sporadically for two months, with the last instance occurring in Anaheim last Sunday.
Video footage of the incidents shows groups of teenagers, ranging from twenty to forty suspects, robbing supermarkets and looting the shelves. In Los Angeles, 13 of 14 robberies between July and September occurred on Friday evenings.
Ursani said his employees were attacked in two of the robberies at his stores.
“This is not normal,” he said. “This shouldn’t be happening. We need a solution.”
The Solution 7-Eleven franchisees and the corporate chain decided to support Proposition 36 with a $1 million check. The measure would impose misdemeanor penalties for certain drug- and theft-related crimes that are committed repeatedly.
“It’s time to send a message,” Los Angeles Police Protective League spokesperson Debbie Thomas said. “We will not tolerate lawlessness in our neighborhoods and in the community.”
The LAPPL is the union that represents LAPD officers.
Proponents of Prop 36 said it would mandate court-supervised drug treatment to avoid jail time. Critics of the ballot measure, however, claim it does not include money for treatment.
“It’s going to cost taxpayers billions, not millions, but billions,” Claire Simonich said.
Simonich is deputy director of the Vera Institute of Justice, which advocates against mass incarceration. She said Prop 36 would undo the will of voters who passed Prop 47 a decade ago. The law attempted to reduce prison overcrowding by criminalizing certain drug and theft crimes.
“Prop 36 is very much a three-strikes style, tough on crime, tough on crime, solution in our communities,” she said. “Just like that didn’t work in the ’80s and ’90s, it won’t work today.”
A UC Berkeley poll found that 60% of likely voters favor the proposal Support 36.
