Mike Gatto | Mike Gatto
Mike Gatto | Mike Gatto
Mike Gatto, a former Assemblymember, said that the rapid escalation of crime could be attributed to misguided policies enacted during the 2010s, such as AB-109, Prop 47, and Prop 57, along with adjustments made during the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to a surge in early prisoner releases. Gatto was a guest on a recent episode of the Next Round Podcast.
"People have the question, well, how did it get so bad really so quickly," said Gatto on the Next Round Podcast hosted by the Pacific Research Institute think tank. "Steve writes about in his study, Paradise Lost, which our listeners can download at pacificresearch.org, there were a lot of well-meaning but really bad policies that were enacted during the decade of the 2010s.”
"You may have heard of laws like AB-109, and you may remember voting on laws like Prop 47 and Prop 57," Gatto said. "Cumulatively, those laws, plus some changes that were made during the COVID-19 pandemic—there were some executive actions that were taken to prevent the spread of the virus in prisons—amounted to a lot of people being granted early release. And what you had is, cumulatively, this impact of retail theft on the rise, as Steve documented in Paradise Lost: over a million crime victims."
This full episode is available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Gatto, a former Assemblymember, chaired the Appropriations Committee. Following his father's unsolved murder, he explored crime investigations, law enforcement, and politics in Los Angeles.
Next Round is a weekly podcast put on by the nonpartisan think tank Pacific Research Institute. Topics explored on the podcast revolve around California politics and free market ideas in the state. Guests include elected officials, members of the media, and policy leaders.
Pasadena, California-based Pacific Research Institute, founded in 1979, is an advocacy organization whose goal is to “champion freedom, opportunity, and personal responsibility for all individuals by advancing free-market policy solutions,” according to the group’s website. Its president is Sally Pipes.
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