The House Consumer and Public Relations Committee met on January 31st to discuss 5 Bills relating to crime within the state.
House Bill 57 would provide immunity for merchants that detain shoplifters using reasonable force and cause harm to the shoplifter.
House Bill 58 adds 12 crimes to the standing list of 5 violent felonies in which if a person has been convicted of committing 3 violent felonies it results in the life sentence.
House Bill 59 would create a crime out of possessing a firearm while trafficking narcotics
House Bill 60 includes increased sentencing for those that are caught trafficking fentanyl
Representative John Block of District 51 had this to say in favor of this bill.
“We heard today someone said they know they can sell drugs and nothings going to happen to them, Madam chair, Representative, I think that is something totally horrific, if you just go out there and pedal drugs and know with certainty that nothing is going to happen to you in this state, that is somethings that’s wrong and that's probably why we’re number 11 on the highest drug overdoses in the nation. I’m sure our weak laws are contributing to this kind of death upon our populous across our nation and especially right here.”
House Bill 61 would increase the sentencing for felons that are caught in possession of a firearm.
These bills were sponsored by Representative Bill R. Rehm of District 31 who is a retired police officer.
All of these Bills were voted to be tabled with votes of 4-2 and was split along party lines
After the committee meeting, Representative Andrea Romero of District 34 said this when asked what could improve New Mexico’s drug and violence issues after voting to table these bills.
“I’m just trying to follow the data, I’m trying to follow what it is that we can do to reduce violence, reduce recidivism, reduce the problems we have with addiction in our community and address the root causes of violence the root causes of addiction and how we can do both and. The linkages between the two, we have to address, they’re tough, we can do that though. For me its not just criminalizing everyone and throwing them into jail. We have to be smarter than that. We owe it to tax payers, we owe to our society for people that are dealing with this.”
