In Crime-Ridden California, Progressive Dems Push Newsom to Defund Prison System by $1 Billion

There are any number of reasons California is bleeding population, but crime rates are certainly one of the biggies.
In 2022, violent crime in the Golden State increased by 5.7 percent, a troubling jump when you consider the spike in lawlessness that followed the pandemic and the summer of George Floyd.
(Violent offenses are up by 13.5 percent over 2019 levels, in case you were wondering.)

Property crimes, meanwhile, were up 6.2 percent in 2022 — also not a good sign in a state where residents of one particularly hard-hit city, San Francisco, have resorted to leaving their car trunks open just to prove to would-be thieves that there’s nothing of value to pilfer.
With these kinds of numbers combined with the exodus of residents, you would think that even the progressives in Sacramento would be getting hard on crime — particularly Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has …