Ever since Oklahoma voters overwhelmingly passed State Questions 780 and 781 — two public referendums that altered the thresholds for certain non-violent felonies and misdemeanors to address Oklahoma's world-class incarceration rate – right-wing lawmakers who get hard-ons whenever they hear the COPS theme song have been trying their hardest to overturn the laws.
Although their early efforts failed, these authoritarian lawmakers finally achieved some success last year when they passed a law reintroducing mandatory jail time for certain drug offenses.
Now, fresh off the heels of that regressive and very draconian success story, they’re pushing to make another big change to the people’s law.
Earlier this week, the House passed a bill that would reclassify any theft over $500 from a misdemeanor to a felony. This goes against what the people wanted when they voted to raise that threshold to $1,000.
The bill was authored by State Representative John George.
A former cop who once led the Oklahoma City FOP, his authoritarian addiction to locking people up and subverting democracy is a direct result of the many years he’s spent suffering from Little Man Syndrome.
He's pictured below and to the far right:
Serious question: Why is it always the shortest, angriest guys who become asshole cops turned asshole lawmakers who want to subvert the will of the people?
Are they still mad about never getting to ride any of the roller coasters at Six Flags, or are they simply bitter about having to use a footstool when looking at ice cream at Braum’s?
Johnny’s a first-time caller and I’ll take my answer off the air.
KOKH Fox 25 caught up with Rep. George while he was helping the Keebler elves make cookies inside a tree stump at Will Rogers Park and asked him for his thoughts on the bill. He basically thinks voters are dumb and he knows better…
"I believe there were some things in 780 that I don't think a lot of people understood that we're making it pretty soft on crime," said State Representative John George, the bill's author.
I do actually agree with John that Oklahoma voters are pretty dumb and usually don’t know who or what they’re voting for, which is exactly how we end up with people like him serving in office.
But…
The language of SQ 780 and 781 was pretty clear. And I’m pretty sure the reason it passed was less about voters being “soft on crime” and more about us wanting to reduce our state’s out-of-control incarceration rate, something John loves.
"If people need to be in prison, they need to be in prison, and I gladly pay my tax dollars for that. Our goal in government is to keep people safe and help provide a higher quality of life and if we have to put certain people in prison, we have to put them in prison," he said.
Once again, I don’t necessarily disagree with John’s initial point:
”If people need to be in prison, they need to be in prison.”
I guess the disagreement we have is on who exactly needs to be in prison! Like most Oklahomans who voted in 2016, I chose to increase the felony threshold for theft to $1,000 and would like to keep it there.
That being said, if lawmakers are going to subvert the will of the people, I think they should focus on quantity over quality. Whether the item you stole is $100, $1,000, or $10,000, the question of if you should go to jail or not should depend more on how often you steal than the dollar value of what you stole.
Then again, I don't have to climb a ladder to get into bed each night, so what do I know?
Anyway, I guess we shouldn’t be too surprised that short, conservative “rule of law” Republicans are once again going down this path to overturn the will of the people.
Whether they’re doing it through legislative means – or simply storming a Capitol to stop the certification of a federal election – they've never been big fans of that pesky thing we call “democracy,” and this is just more proof of it.
We’ll continue to monitor the legislation as angry little men push it through the high halls of state government.
