Terming out California Senator Richard Pan is at it again. Last week, California parents celebrated a hard-fought victory when Pan announced he would put his bill mandating the Covid vaccine for school kids on ice. However, Pan has been pushing a package of bills to undermine Californians’ personal liberty. One of those bills, Senate Bill 1464, aims to turn California law enforcement into “Covid police.”
Pan’s legislation is set to be heard by the Senate Health Committee tomorrow and the Senate Public Safety Committee next week. The bill requires sheriffs and local peace officers to enforce public health orders law enforcement deem illegal or unconstitutional. If sherrifs don’t comply, state bureaucrats would punish them by stripping away law enforcement funds.
Why? Pan is miffed that some California sheriffs said they were focused more on preventing crime than being the state’s Stormtroopers for enforcing Covid mask and vaccine rules. Pan wants to turn the State Capitol into the Death Star, where power-hungry legislators hold the purse strings over local law enforcement so they can force local sheriffs to do their unconstitutional bidding.
Independently-elected sheriffs have the authority under the California constitution to enforce the law and report to local voters, not Sacramento bureaucrats. State legislators should not have the power to threaten local law enforcement by withholding funding that would otherwise go to making sure our communities are safe. Sheriffs are there to serve and protect us, not intimidate and harass parents who are playing at the park with their kids while not wearing masks.
Pan pulled his Covid vaccine mandate bill after more than 3,000 people signed California Policy Center’s petition opposing the bill and contacted their legislator through our Take Action webpage.
Today, you can use CPC’s Take Action tool to let your legislator know you oppose SB 1464’s intent to defund law enforcement! Signing on only takes a few minutes.
Let Senator Pan know that in the last few months of his final term, we won’t allow him to enact his package of overreaching bills to give state bureaucrats more power and destroy the livelihoods and liberties of Californians.
