20th anniversary of death of Kimber Reynolds

Frank, I would urge you to get a clue. Crime, especially violent crime, was not dropping when Kimber Reynolds was murdered. It was just getting started. The next two years would feature some of the most brutal violent crimes ever committed, including the Carillo Club massacre where seven innocent victims were gunned down in cold blood to a Fresno police officer getting shot in the face and an innocent man out for a morning bike ride getting shot in the head and dying on the street. As a former reporter in the Fresno market I personally witnessed the aftermath of these crimes and many more. I saw the fear in the eyes of ordinary people. I served to communicate that fear. It was my job to ask political leaders just exactly what they were doing about the rage of violence directed at Fresno's most vulnerable or innocent. I was there Frank. Don't for a minute try to sell anyone on the fact that "crime was dropping." It wasn't. It continued to increase in ferocity until two things happened: Three Strikes passed and the Fresno Police Department rolled out the Violent Crimes Suppression Unit. Once the VCSU started shooting the thugs on the spot, and those who escaped the VCSU guns were put away under Three Strikes, only then did the crime rate begin to finally abate. I remember Frank. I was there. I saw the worst of it. Don't use numbers. Use the fear in the eyes of average, ordinary families who could not understand what had happened to their once quiet neighborhoods. Though the VCSU is long gone (some argue it should be reconstituted), Three Strikes has survived to do the job it was intended to do: protect us from those who would prey on our fears and weaknesses.

Sadly the Three Strikes Law is based on vengeance and retribution and not on facts. Crime was actually dropping 2 years before Three Strikes was enacted. About half the states in the nation have a Three Strikes law and half do not.While California spends $19.2 billion dollars on longer sentences,strike-less states are enjoying the same drop in crime as California without the cost and are closing prisons,while California continues to expand. In fact strike-less states saw an even greater decrease in violent crime.It really gives the lie of the Three Strikes argument. Fixing the law will enable the re-sentencing of drug users,shoplifters and other petty criminals swept up in the heavy hand of this law. It gives back to the voters the true intention they had when they passed it! I am voting YES to fix the flaw in this law!

While I am sympathetic, the law is based on retribution and vengeance,without fact. It is not good public policy nor has it made us safer!Since 1993 about half the states in the nation have a Three Strikes Law and half do not!Those without a Three Strikes Law have enjoyed the same drop in crime as California.In fact strike-less states such as New York saw an even greater decrease in violent crime without the $19.2 billion dollar cost in longer sentences and are closing prisons while California continues to expand!Crime began dropping 2 years before Three Strikes was enacted so the theory it has reduced crime has no efficacy. 25% of California's prison population is made up of strikers both 2nd and 3rd strikes. Unfortunately Mike Reynolds is destroying countless families of drug users,shoplifters and mentally ill that have become swept up in this poorly written law!