Liberal bastions revolt against progressive crime policies, passing new laws to crack down on drugs

Lawmakers in San Francisco, Washington D.C. and Oregon are passing new laws and ordinances to crack down on drugs and rising crime as blue bastions reverse course on liberal policies. 

San Francisco voters passed a pair of law-and-order ballot measures on Tuesday night, including one that would require welfare recipients suspected of using drugs to undergo screenings to receive benefits.

San Francisco Mayor London Breed's spokesman, Joe Arellano, told Fox News Digital directly that Proposition E was intended to reverse leftist policies. 

"Over the last few years, the City’s policies swung too far to the left," he said. "Now, it’s time to send a message that San Francisco is closed to criminals and brazen theft will not be tolerated." 

LIBERAL OREGON U-TURNS, PASSES BILL TO RECRIMINALIZE HARD DRUGS AS OVERDOSE DEATHS SKYROCKET

National Vice President of the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), Joe Gamaldi, told Fox News Digital in a phone interview that soft-on-crime policies have caused suffering in San Francisco, D.C. and Oregon. 

"The public has finally had enough of the revolving door criminal justice system," Gamaldi said in response to the reversal of crime policies in multiple liberal strongholds across the country. 

"Take San Francisco," he said. "The mayor there defunded their police department by $120 million in 2020, but now you get whiplash because she changed her position so quickly. Now she's all about law and order because, guess what? It works in providing safe communities." 

Gamaldi said that Breed's support for recent propositions on drug use and police in San Francisco was a "political act" to help her out in her re-election campaign. 

Over on the East Coast, lawmakers in Washington, D.C. passed a sweeping anti-crime bill Tuesday just days after business leaders in the nation’s capital wrote a letter to Democratic Mayor Muriel Bowser and legislators warning about an "alarming increase in violent crime across our city." 

The Secure D.C. Omnibus Amendment Act of 2024 — which includes more than 100 proposals to fight crime, including ramping up gun violence penalties and adding punishments for organized retail theft, according to FOX 5 DC — was passed by the D.C. Council in a 12-1 vote late Tuesday.  

 "As far as D.C. is concerned, I think the leadership there just had no option. They defunded their police department, which has been a disaster, and now D.C. has been besieged by crime and disorder," Gamaldi said. 

"It's a complete joke that it's taken this long for them to wake up and actually care about the people that live there," he added. 

LAWMAKERS PASS ‘SECURE DC’ ANTI-CRIME BILL AFTER BUSINESS GROUPS WARN OF ‘ALARMING’ TREND OF VIOLENCE

In Oregon, lawmakers voted to recriminalize certain drugs after a surge in overdose deaths resulted in the governor declaring a state of emergency for Portland’s fentanyl crisis – all but ending a flagship liberal policy.

A bill recriminalizing the possession of small amounts of drugs was passed by the state Senate 21-8 on Friday after the House passed it 51-7 on Thursday.

The bill is now with Gov. Tina Kotek, who said in January that she is open to signing a bill that would roll back decriminalization, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported. Kotek, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler and Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson last month declared a 90-day state of emergency for downtown Portland over the public health and public safety crisis fueled by fentanyl.

"You're having these politicians finally wake up from this fever dream that they were in, thinking that if they just made everything legal, that it was going to be all sunshine and rainbows and everyone was going to follow the law and there weren't going to be any problems," Gamaldi said. 

"This is the real world we live in, and by decriminalizing all narcotics in the state of Oregon, it led to an increase in overdose deaths, it led to crime and disorder in their urban communities, and again, it should not have to take thousands of people to die for them to take action and repeal these horrific laws," Gamaldi said. 

SAN FRANCISCO PASSES LAW-AND-ORDER MEASURES BY LARGE MARGINS, INCLUDING DRUG SCREENING FOR WELFARE RECIPIENTS

Not all cities are united in pushing back on crime policy, however. 

District Attorney Jose Garza won the Democratic nomination for Travis County in Austin, Texas on Tuesday. Garza is a George-Soros-backed progressive who vowed in 2021 to "reimagine" criminal justice. 

He has defended his record as district attorney saying that he is "doing exactly what Travis County voters elected him to do, fixing our broken criminal justice system by standing with survivors, working to end the excessive use of force by police, and prioritizing treatment over incarceration for nonviolent drug offenses," per Fox7 Austin.

Another city that is instituting stricter rules amid a rise in crime is New York City. 

Gov. Hochul announced Wednesday that she would deploy National Guard soldiers and State Police officers to the city's subway system to help combat a rise in crime, per a New York Times article from Thursday.

"These brazen heinous attacks on our subway system will not be tolerated," Hochul said, stating that the State Police and the National Guard would be employed to "conduct bag checks in the city's busiest stations." 

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Bowser's office, Breed's office and Kotek's office did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital. 

Fox News' Michael Dorgon, Andrew Mark Miller, Greg Norman, Stepheny Price and David Rutz contributed to this report.