BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SB 629
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Date of Hearing: June 16, 2015
Chief Counsel: Gregory Pagan
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC SAFETY
Bill Quirk, Chair
SB
629 (Mitchell) - As Amended April 6, 2015
SUMMARY: Eliminates the characterization of taking of a person
from the lawful custody of a peace officer as a "lynching".
EXISTING LAW:
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1)Provides that the taking by means of a riot of any person from
the lawful custody of any peace officer is a lynching. (Pen.
Code, § 405a.)
2)States that every person who participates in any lynching is
punishable by imprisonment in a county jail for two, three, or
four years. (Pen. Code, § 405b.)
3)Provides that any use of force or violence, disturbing the
public peace, or any threat to use force or violence, if
accompanied by immediate power of execution, by two or more
persons acting together, and without authority of law, is a
riot. Disturbing the public peace may occur in any place of
confinement. Place of confinement means any state prison,
county jail, industrial farm, or road camp, or any juvenile
hall, juvenile camp, juvenile ranch, or juvenile forestry
camp. (Pen. Code, § 404, subds. (a) & (b)
4)States that every person who participates in any riot is
punishable by a fine not exceeding $1,000, or by imprisonment
in a county jail not exceeding one year, or by both that fine
and imprisonment. (Pen Code § 405.)
5)States that every person with the intent to cause a riot does
an act or engages in conduct that urges a riot, or urges
others to commit acts of force or violence, or the burning or
destroying of property, and at a time and place, and under
circumstances that produce a clear and present and immediate
danger of acts of force or violence or the burning or
destroying of property, is guilty of incitement to riot.
(Pen. Code § 404.6, subd. (a).)
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6)Makes incitement to riot punishable by a fine not exceeding
$1,000, or by imprisonment in a county jail not exceeding one
year, or by both that fine and imprisonment. (Pen. Code §
404.6, subd. (b).)
7)Provides that every person who incites any riot in the state
prison or a county jail that results in serious bodily injury,
shall be punished by either imprisonment in a county jail for
not more than one year, or by imprisonment in a county jail
for 16 months, two, or three years. (Pen. Code § 404.6, subd.
(c).)
8)States that whenever two or more persons, assembled and acting
together, make any attempt or advance toward the commission of
an act which would be a riot if actually committed, such
assembly is a rout. (Pen. Code, § 406.)
9)Provides that whenever two or more persons assemble together
to do an unlawful act, or to do lawful act in a violent,
boisterous, or tumultuous manner, such assembly is an unlawful
assembly. (Pen. Code, § 407.)
10)Makes every person that participates in any rout or unlawful
assembly guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by imprisonment in
a county jail not exceeding six months, or by a fine not
exceeding $1,000, or by both. (Pen. Code, § 408.)
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11)Provides that every person remaining present at the place of
any riot, rout, or unlawful assembly, after the same has been
lawfully warned to disperse, except public officers and
persons assisting them in attempting to disperse the same is
guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by imprisonment in a county
jail not exceeding six months, or by a fine not exceeding
$1,000, or by both. (Pen. Code, § 409.)
FISCAL EFFECT: None
COMMENTS:
1)Author's Statement: According to the author, "SB 629 amends
Penal Code Sections 405a and 405b to eliminate the reference
to 'lynching' as used to define the taking by means of a riot
of any person from the lawful custody of a peace officer. It
does not reduce the penalties associated with this act. The
term 'lynching' carries with it cultural significance and its
current usage in code is contrary to what the vast majority of
people understand the crime of lynching to entail. Lynching
is defined in all dictionaries searched by the author's office
as the practice of killing a person or people by extrajudicial
mob action."
2)Background: According to History of Lynching in the United
States:
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The lynching era encompasses roughly the five
decades between the end of
Reconstruction and the beginning of the Great Depression.
During these years we may
estimate that there were 2,018 separate incidents of
lynching in which at least 2,462
African-American men, women and children met their deaths
in the grasp of
southern mobs, comprised mostly of whites. Although
lynchings and mob
killings occurred before 1880, notably during early
Reconstruction when blacks were
enfranchised, radical racism and mob violence peaked
during the 1890s in a surge
of terrorism that did not dissipate until well into the
twentieth century.
In addition to the punishment of specific criminal
offenders, lynching in the
American South had three entwined functions:
To maintain social order over the black
population through terrorism;
To suppress of eliminate black competitors for
economic, political, or social rewards; and
To stabilize the white class structure and
preserve the privileged status of the white
aristocracy.
Lethal mob violence for seemingly minor infractions
of the caste codes of
behavior was more fundamental for maintaining terroristic
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social control than
punishment for what would seem to be more serious
violations of the criminal
codes.<1>
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:
Support
Association for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs
Association of Deputy District Attorneys
California District Attorneys Association
Los Angeles Probation Officers Union, AFSCME Local 685
Los Angeles Police Protective League
Riverside Sheriffs Association
Opposition
---------------------------
<1>
http://www.umass.edu/complit/aclanet/USLynch.html
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None
Analysis Prepared by:Gregory Pagan / PUB. S. / (916)
319-3744