The Gazette editorial board | Denver Gazette
Our state was slammed by a crime wave a few years ago — aided and abetted by a notoriously offender- friendly, victims-be-damned Legislature — leaving it to hard-hit local governments to figure out how to respond.
With state lawmakers abandoning the crime fight on every front — hard drugs, auto theft, illegal immigration, you name it — a number of Colorado cities, commendably, took the reins.
Some municipalities imposed stiffer sentences than the state’s for shoplifting and motor vehicle theft. Some made clear they’d continue to cooperate with federal authorities seeking to catch lawbreakers who had entered the country illegally.
Some cities also stepped up policing to bridge the gap in justice created by a Capitol that had gone soft on crime. Just last week, for example, The Gazette reported how Colorado’s No. 3 city, Aurora, has expanded its use of police chases to include hot pursuit of stolen vehicles. The city previously had enacted a law imposing mandatory minimum jail time for car thieves.
Colorado led the nation in auto theft for two years running, 2022 and 2023, and Aurora was among the places that bore the brunt. Owing Aurora’s local measures, The Gazette reported, motor vehicle theft has dropped significantly.
Incredibly — though perhaps not surprisingly — the same Colorado Legislature that gutted the crime fight at the state level now wants to crush local efforts like Aurora’s. Claiming it is somehow “unconstitutional” for municipal courts to jail the likes of shoplifters when state law lets them off the hook, the “justice reform” fringe of ruling Democrats at the Capitol has gotten the Legislature to pass a bill essentially halting the local crackdown.
House Bill 25-1147, which still needs the governor’s OK before it becomes law, prohibits municipal courts from imposing harsher sentences than state courts for the same crimes. It would make it as hard under local laws as it is under state law to keep petty career criminals — serial shoplifters, robbers, auto thieves, street-level drug dealers — in jail.
We urge Gov. Jared Polis to stand by the local Colorado communities that have stood up to the criminal element — despite an AWOL Legislature — and veto HB 25-1147.
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Editor’s note: Opinions expressed in commentary pieces are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the management of the Rocky Mountain Voice, but even so we support the constitutional right of the author to express those opinions.