Newsom can’t see that California’s soft-on-crime laws are deadly
Zachary Faria
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A career criminal shot and killed a police officer in Selma, California, and Gov. Gavin Newsom is upset that he and California state law are being blamed for it.
Selma police officer Gonzalo Carrasco Jr. was shot and killed by Nathaniel Dixon, a man with multiple felonies on his record going back to 2019. Carrasco is the first Selma police officer to be killed in the line of duty since the city’s police department was founded in 1893.
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Fresno County District Attorney Lisa Smittcamp then turned the blame on the state’s Democratic leadership. “Gov. Gavin Newsom, and every legislator in the state of California who supports this over-reaching phenomenon they try to disguise as legitimate criminal justice reform, has the blood of this officer on their hands,” Smittcamp said.
Newsom was upset about this, saying that “I’ve been listening to this for years from her. She has the prosecutorial discretion. Ask her what she did in terms of prosecuting that case. I’m sick and tired of being lectured by her on public safety. With all due respect to her statement, she should be ashamed of herself and should look in the mirror.”
If Newsom is sick and tired of being lectured to about public safety, perhaps he should treat it more seriously because Smittcamp is right.
In 2019, Dixon was convicted of second-degree felony robbery, and he was released on probation in July 2020. One month after his release, he was arrested on charges of “carrying a loaded gun and possession of drugs.” The drug charge qualified for zero-dollar bail. He was arrested again shortly after for five felonies, with charges including possession of meth and being a felon in possession of a firearm.
He was jailed only until September 2022. He was released on probation thanks to credits for time served as well as Assembly Bill 109, which was passed by the state legislature to prevent “prison overcrowding.” The bill was signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown, when Newsom was serving as lieutenant governor.
One month later, Dixon’s probation was revoked after he failed to meet with the probation department. He was jailed for two weeks in November and then released again.
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How a convicted felon who was twice found in illegal possession of a firearm was allowed back on the street was directly the result of California state law. California Democrats passed the law, and they can rewrite it whenever they wish. Newsom can ask the legislature to revisit the law whenever he likes, but he hasn’t. Whether Smittcamp did enough on the prosecutorial side is an open question. The fact that state law let Dixon out repeatedly is not.
Newsom is welcome to be upset by the blame being thrown at him. But he should channel that anger into fixing the problem rather than flippantly dismissing the concerns of law enforcement officials across the state who have had to deal with the effects of the state’s criminal-coddling laws. If he can’t recognize that the state’s laws are severely flawed after this, then Smittcamp’s harsh words are all the more appropriate.