Southern California 7-Eleven owners send $1 million check to support Prop 36

Several frustrated 7-Eleven owners in Southern California reached for their checkbooks to throw support behind Proposition 36, after several instances where a pack of teenage thieves stormed the convenience stores.

"It has a psychological impact on our workers," owner Jawad Ursani said. "They're afraid."

The string of robberies started on July 12 and continued sporadically for two months, with the latest instance happening in Anaheim last Sunday. 

Videos from the incidents show groups of teenagers, ranging between 20 to 40 suspects, raiding the convenience stores and ransacking the shelves. In Los Angeles, 13 of the 14 robberies between July and September occurred on Friday evenings.  

Ursani said his employees were assaulted in two of the robberies that happened at his stores. 

"This isn't normal," he said. "This should not be happening. We need a solution."

The solution 7-Eleven franchise owners and the corporate chain decided to back Proposition 36 with a $1 million check. The measure would impose felony penalties for certain drug and theft-related offenses that are committed repeatedly.

"It's time to send a message," Los Angeles Police Protective League spokesperson Debbie Thomas said. "We will not tolerate lawlessness in our neighborhoods and society."

The LAPPL is the union representing LAPD officers. 

Advocates for Prop 36 said it would mandate court-supervised drug treatment to avoid jail time. However, critics of the ballot measure claim it does not include money for treatment. 

'It's going to cost taxpayers billions, not millions, but billions in the process," Claire Simonich said. 

Simonich is the associate director of the Vera Institute of Justice, which advocates against mass incarceration. She said Prop 36 would undo the will of voters who passed Prop 47 a decade ago. The law sought to reduce prison overcrowding by making some drug and theft crimes misdemeanors.

"Prop 36 is very much a three-strikes style, harsh on crime, tough on crime style, solution in our communities," she said. "Just like that didn't work in the 80s and 90s, it's not going to work today."

A UC Berkeley poll found that 60% of likely voters support Prop 36.