Kern County District Attorney Lisa Green spoke before Professor Randy Beeman’s History of California class Nov. 5.
Beeman’s class, which has been learning about the history and origins of many gangs in California, were given a description of the Kern County DA’s office, as well as Green’s own personal history. A native of Buffalo, New York, Green entered law school and became a prosecutor after pursuing a career in law enforcement.
After talking to the class about her career, Green spoke about Proposition 47. According to Green, the proposition would officially reclassify felonies that are non-violent to misdemeanors, including drug and theft related crimes that involve property that is worth less than $950.
“I’m very sad about it,” Green said of the proposition, which was passed by California voters Nov. 4. “There are many provisions about it that I think are very bad.”
Green explained that though many low level offenders are being released from prison already because of overcrowding, Proposition 47 will also release convicts with violent or more heinous prior convictions simply because their commitment offenses (the conviction for which they are being incarcerated or tried for) are being lowered to misdemeanors. “It’s very clear to me…that very dangerous people with dangerous priors will be getting out of prison,” she said.
After answering questions posed by students in the class, Deputy District Attorney Cynthia Zimmer, who accompanied Green to the classroom, touched on the subject of gang prosecutions. A 30- year veteran of the District Attorney’s office, Zimmer is the supervisor of gang prosecutions in Kern, and said that there is a distinction between crimes and gang-related crimes.
“(A gang) is defined by statute as a group of three or more persons, having a common sign or symbol, having its common activity being felonious conduct,” Zimmer said.
Zimmer estimated that there are around 3,000 gang members from Delano to Lamont, clarifying that the most active gang members are in Bakersfield itself. She also stated that most gangs are “neighborhood and ethnically based,” although she then said that gang members can originate from any ethnic background.
After a student asked why she believed that drive-by shootings haven’t appeared in the news as often as in previous years, Zimmer said that many gangs have alternated to “walk-up” murders. Her reasoning for this change being that drive-by shootings run the risk of killing innocent civilians, which increase the police action and prosecution of the gangs and their members.