Check out the video, below, from yesterday’s Senate Courts of (In)Justice discussion of a bill to raise Virginia’s antiquated, insanely low threshold for grand larceny from $200 to $1,000, putting Virginia in the middle of all the other states. Not surprisingly, the all-white, affluent Republican majority seemed to think this is some sort of joke, since of course such a low felony larceny threshold overwhelmingly doesn’t impact people who look like them. Funny how that works, huh?
So we ended up with this ridiculous exchange in which Sen. ObenSHAME makes a “joke” to Secretary of Public Safety Brian Moran about why he’s speaking on the issue, since Gov. Northam said in his inaugural address against anyone who “lies, cheats or steals.” Hardy har har. As an added bonus, our pal Sen. Dick Saslaw made another hilarious “joke” about how the entire committee is filled with people who “lies, cheats or steals” and would be “emptied out” if we didn’t tolerate that. Ha. Ha. Ha. (note that this is from the same buffoon who claimed that ethics laws are irrelevant and unnecessary)
In the end, the INjustice committee reported out a so-called “skinny” bill to raise the felony larceny threshold to $500, which is still well below what inflation alone (since 1980) would call for, and also WELL below the national average. Also note that even on this “skinny” bill, three Republicans – including highly politically vulnerable Sen. Glen Sturtevant – voted “no.” In 2019, we have a lot of work to do, let’s just leave it at that…
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