Bo Tefu, California Black Media

California community leaders denounced the comments of San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan regarding Proposition 36, demanding that he disavows his “woefully ignorant” statements in a recent interview with Elex Michaelson of the Fox network.

The community advocates said Prop 36 is a dangerous measure on California’s November ballot that aims to restart the failed War on Drugs.

During the interview, Mahan said that Black and Brown communities stood to benefit from Prop 36.

Advocates opposing the measure argued that passing the law would cut money for drug treatment and make simple drug possession a felony, increasing mass incarceration affecting communities of color.

“Mayor Matt Mahan’s comments are woefully ignorant of the ways that decades of failed criminal justice policies destroyed thousands of lives in California,” said the Rev. Jethroe Moore, president of the NAACP San Jose-Silicon Valley Branch.

“This is especially true for Black men, who are ten times more likely than their White counterparts to be incarcerated. We are not going back to Proposition 36’s failed approach and the harm those policies inflicted on so many families across our state.”

Assemblymember Lori Wilson (D-Suisun City), Chair of the California Legislative Black Caucus (CLBC), agrees with Moore.

“I was a mayor, and I know the mayor knows better. It is clear what will happen if Proposition 36 is passed – thousands of lives will be destroyed, and most of those lives will be Black and Brown men,” said Wilson.

“We need to increase money for treatment programs that work, not make the deep cuts to drug treatment that Proposition 36 would inflict,” she added.

Hilda Solis, member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, stated that Black and Brown communities need real solutions from leaders who understand the problems that people experience statewide.

“Proposition 36 is nothing but a bunch of empty promises, proposing cuts to proven treatment programs, while wasting billions of dollars on additional jail and prison spending. Incarceration strategies have proven ineffective, and treatment and jobs are better ways of addressing systemic poverty and crime,” said Solis.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post