What are the California Golden Fleece® Awards? They are a series of in-depth reports from the Independent Institute that expose the waste, fraud, and abuse in California. Our reports have three goals:
to expose government waste
to increase transparency into the inner workings of government
to hold government accountable at all levels when they swindle taxpayers or break public trust by giving the public meaningful information
For a program, agency, policy, tax, or regulation to receive a California Golden Fleece® Award, it must violate common-sense principles of responsible government.
The CalGang database unjustly targets “suspected” gang members—that is, people who are “suspected” even when there is no physical evidence of gang membership. This is a massive threat to the civil liberties of all Californians. No one should fear that wearing a red, green, yellow, or any colored t-shirt on the wrong day could mean their name will show up on a criminal database.
