Sergeant's Widow Has Strong Words Against Prop. 57
SAN DIMAS (CBSLA.com) — Families of local law enforcement officers killed in shootings this month spoke out Tuesday against Proposition 57, the so-called safety and rehabilitation act that Gov. Jerry Brown strongly supports.
Brown supports it so much that he has put up $5 million of his own campaign money in support of the proposition. A Yes vote means certain state prison inmates convicted of nonviolent felony offenses would be considered for release earlier than they otherwise would have been. That has widow of Sheriff's Sgt. Steve Owen upset. Owen was gun downed in a botched robbery on Oct. 5.
"Governor Brown, I am calling you out on this," Tania Owen said. "As far as I'm concerned, Governor Brown, you are the great deceiver. How dare you think that Californians are not smart enough to inform themselves and know that you are lying to them?"
A decline in the prison population due to this measure could reduce the state's $10 billion corrections budget by tens of millions of dollars.
Brown has said there's no way he would allow the release of violent criminals and the parole board can always say no.
Opponents of 57 say the governor is lying to voters because the list of nonviolent felonies committed by those who could be released earl,y include rape of an unconscious person, drive-by shooting, assault with a deadly weapon, domestic-violence trauma and more.
