Attorney General Bonta Gives Lip Service on Fentanyl

Progressive California Attorney General Rob Bonta appeared at a recent Placer County press conference to congratulate Placer County’s district attorney for convicting a drug dealer of second degree murder.  Columnist Dan Walters writes in Cal Matters that the dealer, Nathanial Cabacungan knowingly sold a 15-year-old girl a fake Percocet pill containing a fatal dose of fentanyl.  The dealer was found guilty of second degree murder and sentenced to 15-years to life in prison.   Bonta called the prosecution “historic” and told reporters . . . “to me, it’s an example of good law enforcement at its finest, working together, following the facts, building the case.” Bonta cited the alarming increase in fatal fentanyl overdoses among young people, saying, “It’s cheap, it’s potent and it’s lethal.”

But earlier this year the Attorney General was AWOL when the legislature was killing bills to throw the book at fentanyl dealers statewide.  In April the uber-progressive Assembly Public Safety Committee killed bills which would have increased penalties for fentanyl suppliers, making it a crime to use social media to sell the drug (as Cabacungan did), and increasing penalties for possession of large quantities of fentanyl.  As the state’s chief law enforcement officer, Bonta’s support for those bills might have persuaded a majority of committee members to pass it.

As Walters notes:

However, it (Bonta’s statements) had the trappings of publicity mongering and image-building by an ambitious politician who wants to become governor because Bonta was missing-in-action this year when the Legislature was considering bills to crack down on fentanyl abuse–and rejecting many of them.  Bonta’s praise of Placer County’s fentanyl murder conviction implied that he supports tougher sentences for those who distribute the deadly drug, but neither he nor his office supported bills that would have implemented even lesser punishment.

Bonta apparently wants the voters to know that he supports that get-tough attitude, but so far he’s been all talk and no action.

Unfortunately It goes further than that.  The Attorney General has been a vigorous ally of Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon, who refuses to prosecute drug dealers, car thieves, wife beaters and commercial burglars.   Bonta even colluded with Gascon to reduce the sentences of convicted murderers.  The fact that he now pretends to care about victims is disgraceful.   His behavior in office enables criminals to find more victims.