The Boise decision was a horrible one.

I’m referring to the Martin v. Boise decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in response to a 2009 lawsuit by six homeless plaintiffs against the city of Boise, Idaho regarding the city’s anti-camping ordinance.

The ruling held that cities cannot enforce such ordinances if they do not have enough homeless shelter beds available for their homeless population. It did not necessarily mean a city cannot enforce any restrictions on camping on public property.

Last week Republicans in the California State Assembly called on Speaker Robert Rivas (D-Hollister) and Senate President Pro Tempore Toni Atkins (D-San Diego) to direct the Office of Legislative Counsel to file an amicus brief on behalf of the California State Legislature urging the U.S. Supreme Court to consider an effort to overturn the decision in Martin v. Boise.

The current case, City of Grants Pass v. Johnson, asks the Supreme Court to determine that the enforcement of laws prohibiting camping on public property should not be considered cruel and unusual punishment.

Republicans feel that allowing the enforcement of vagrancy laws will eliminate an excuse of failures to address the homelessness crisis. The feel that overturning the decision will allow officials to focus on other drivers of homelessness, including a failed “housing first” policy, soaring housing costs, inadequate mental health treatment and a failure to enforce common-sense drug and public nuisance laws. 

Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher said “California needs to be all-in on ending the human devastation we’re seeing throughout our state. The unchecked crime, addiction and mental illness on our streets need to stop. It’s time to clear these encampments and eliminate open air drug markets - overturning Boise will be a critical step in that effort.” 

Assembly Republicans are urging Speaker Rivas and Pro Tem Atkins to act quickly, as the deadline for submission of amicus briefs for this case is approaching. 

Earlier this year, at the direction of Democratic leadership, the Legislature filed a lawsuit seeking to disenfranchise millions of California voters by having an initiative to limit tax increases thrown off the November 2024 ballot. The effort to resolve the homelessness crisis should merit a similar level of attention and resources. 

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Nobody likes hearing of another mass shooting. We are in an age when we are no longer shocked at the news that some deranged nut job decided to go hunting people before ending it all. But dammit, guns are not the problem; they are a mere tool used by the problem – in this case, mentally ill folks.

A new Rasmussen survey conducted in the aftermath of the Maine mass shooting substantiates that Americans think enforcement of existing gun laws would do more to prevent gun-related violence than passing new laws.

According to Rasmussen, 57 percent of voters say stricter enforcement of existing gun control laws would be more effective, while 30 percent believe passing new laws would do more. The veteran polling firm also found that 71 percent of Republicans and 58 percent of Independents favor stricter enforcement of current laws, while only 43 percent of Democrats concur, showing a marked philosophical difference between political affiliations.

According to Alan Gottlieb, the chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, “If existing gun laws were enforced, we wouldn’t need a constant stream of new laws, with additional restrictions on law-abiding citizens, which have really not prevented such events, as gun control proponents invariably promise when they push their latest schemes.”

The media has done a great job in controlling the narrative that banning guns means no more gun deaths. That’s a pure fallacy that’s definitely believed by Democrats more than Republicans. The Rasmussen survey found that 44 percent of Democrats think it is possible to completely prevent mass shootings – an opinion shared by only 21 percent of Republicans and 19 percent of Independents.

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Our public school system needs to offer a mandatory “Don’t Be a Dumb*** in Life” 101 class.

We could prepare kids for the real world and about life choices and consequences because lots of kids are leaving the school system without a clue about the application of education in life. They haven’t lived long enough to know any better because nobody has taught them and judging by the vast numbers of DUI arrests I’ve published in my career, the “Every 15 Minutes” program isn’t as effective as everyone thought.

Take for example the young lady from Turlock who appeared in last week’s Courier after her arrest for DUI in Ceres. She emailed me and called requesting “this article be unpublished as soon as possible due to personal privacy protection.” She then threatened legal action if we didn’t “come to a mutual agreement.”

Here is an example where the “Don’t Be a Dumb*** in Life” 101 class would have benefitted her. She would have learned that if you drive drunk you could be arrested and booked into the county jail. You could easily kill someone driving around drunk, and the ones whose lives you are endangering include my own grandchildren who often roll into Ceres with their mother to go shopping or get haircuts. (I started writing this part of my column before Thursday’s deadly DUI crash at Hatch and Faith Home.) The class would also teach said drunk driver that her mugshot could make its way onto the pages and website of the local newspaper of a small town like Ceres when it probably would fly under the radar in cities like Modesto or Stockton.

The teacher of said class would teach about the aspects of undesired consequences and how some results of bad decisions cannot be reversed … like plowing your car into another car and killing everyone inside, or if you’re lucky, only facing DUI charges in the Stanislaus County Superior Court. And you bet that the class would teach that no attorney will take the case of suing a newspaper for actually publishing news. The class could even, say, talk about how the First Amendment to the Constitution allows newspapers to report crimes and arrests. Apparently young people have no clue about that concept.

Don’t hold your breath that such a class will ever be offered. The public schools are too busy teaching kids themes like guns are bad, Trump and DeSantis are mean and evil, that we are killing the planet with greenhouses gases, that liberals are good that there’s nothing wrong with smoking pot. It’s too bad, because a lot of pain and suffering could be averted with such an education.

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Do California legislators and the governor care about the damage their policies are doing to law-abiding citizens?

There was a stabbing death in Ione last week that we need to talk about.

A man with psychiatric problems had been released from a facility and he went to Ione where he stabbed three different people in town. He killed 63-year-old Lori Louise Owens after he stabbed two men at other locations in the city.

Arrested for murder and the assaults was Joseph Stephens Jenkins, 34. He was homeless and recently released from state prison and on parole stemming from a 2011 attempted murder case.

Jenkins never should have been released.

He had been sentenced to 14 years for attempted murder as a second striker. He previously served time for battery with a serious injury. Jenkins had been paroled to Atascadero State Prison, is a psychiatric hospital in San Luis Obispo County on Feb. 18, 2023, and was released on June 30 to Orange County to face two misdemeanor charges stemming from December 2012. He pleaded guilty to assault and battery of a peace officer or emergency personnel. For that he got eight days in the county jail and given credit for time served. He then reported to the Division of Adult Parole Operations on July 6. Jenkins made his way to Ione where he creeped out mothers with kids in the park.

The family of the murdered woman have called out the fact that Owens was “stolen from us because of the negligence and incompetence of a failed justice system.” Family spokesman James Gruggs laid the blame squarely at the feet of California Attorney General Rob Bonta and Gov. “I Want to be President” Newsom.

In his first court appearance, Jenkins was asked if he wanted an attorney, and responded, “No, I want to go back to the hospital.”

Why he was ever released should be a question put to Newsom, if he could stay in the state instead of traipsing off to China as he pretends to be a head of state.

So much of what ails California is a result of voters’ choices in Democrats like Newsom and Bonta.

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I shouldn’t be receiving press releases about political endorsements made in Yolo County but in this instance I am glad I did because it just solidified what I know about those who get elected as California Superintendent of Public Instruction.

Delaine Eastin, the former superintendent, just endorsed deputy Attorney General Clara Levers in the race for Yolo County Superior Court Judge. Eastin cited Levers’ work in “representing families separated at the border and standing up for women’s reproductive rights.” Great, we need another judge in California who likes bending the law for border jumpers and letting women kill their babies.

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The freedom-stealing, gun-grabbing Democrats in Sacramento have been put in check by a federal judge.

U.S. District Judge Mark Holcomb last week told the state Legislature and governor they cannot ban gun shows at county fairs, asserting that the state would be violating the rights of sellers and prospective buyers by prohibiting transactions for firearms that can be bought at any gun shop.

The laws that were blocked were written by Dave Min, a Democrat state senator from Orange County. One of the laws which went into effect in January 2022, barred gun shows at the Orange County Fair, and the other, which took effect this year, extended the ban to county fairgrounds on state-owned land.

Judge Holcomb, in my opinion, is a constitutional stalwart, saying this which is obviously true: “California’s interest in stopping crimes committed with illegal weapons, as important as it is, cannot justify prohibiting the complete sale of lawful firearms at gun shows.”

Min’s laws are ridiculous because the actual purchase of the firearm may start at a fair buy is completed at a licensed gun store after a 10-day waiting period and a background check.

Chuck Michel, the president of the Rifle & Pistol Association, succinctly stated that “Anti-gun-owner politicians are trying to eliminate the ‘gun culture’ for future generations by, among other things, banning folks from getting together at a gun show to learn about guns, gun safety and gun-control politics.”

Rob Bonta, California’s Attorney General and a political twin to the ideology of our power-hungry governor who signed those bills into law, plans to appeal. But Judge Holcomb doesn’t think the state will be successful.

When self-serving politicians like Bonta and Newsom violate our rights, it’s time to end their political careers – not promote them to other offices.

This column is the opinion of Jeff Benziger, and does not necessarily represent the opinion of The Ceres Courier or 209 Multimedia Corporation.  How do you feel about this? Let Jeff know at jeffb@cerescourier.com