Activist Ward Connerly rips California panel's claim that reparations would halt crime: 'This is a bad idea'
Ward Connerly of the American Civil Rights Institute weighs in after a California panel argued reparations would stop crime.
Equal opportunity activist Ward Connerly responded to a California board's claims that offering reparations for Black state residents would not only stimulate the economy, but would also put a damper on crime, telling Fox News' Will Cain the move is a "bad idea."
"Capital, money, reparations… that will stimulate this economy for the 2.6 million Blacks in California," one speaker said at a Sacramento meeting on Friday.
"There's only one thing that would stop our children from busting into these liquor stores; there's only one thing that would stop our kids from busting into these jewelry stores, stealing watches and jewelry, and that's reparations," the speaker continued.
SAN FRANCISCO REPARATIONS PANEL ONN HOW IT DECIDED ON $5M PER BLACK PERSON: ‘THERE WASN’T A MATH FORMULA'
Proposed payment totals climbed from $220,000 last year to $360,000 this year, according to Cain's Sunday report from "Fox & Friends Weekend."
"I think it's a bad idea. I'm not going to form a committee or anything to oppose it because of many considerations. I respect the perspective that the proponents of this goofy idea have," Connerly said of the reparations proposal during Sunday's show.
Los Angeles long-time resident, Walter Foster, age 80, holds up a sign as the Reparations Task Force meets to hear public input on reparations at the California Science Center in Los Angeles on Sept. 22, 2022. ((Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images))
Connerly, founder and chairman of the American Civil Rights Institute, said he was born in the Deep South in Leesville, Louisiana, and has suffered "some of the humiliations of race."
Still, now living as a California resident, he considers reparations for descendants of slavery to be a bad idea.
DEMOCRATS SEEK REPARATIONS, ‘NATIONAL APOLOGY’ FOR SLAVERY: ‘WE ARE MOVING CLOSER’
California had a public comment period on January 27, 2023 for its reparations task force. (screenshot/YouTube)
"Our founders told us this was a less-than-perfect union, and we wanted to make it a more perfect union… we know that we have some problems in the country, and we're working through them. Those problems relate to a lot of identities," he said.
"What about women?" he asked later, pointing to historical attempts to prevent them from making progress. "People based on sexual orientation, some argue, fits into that category. How about immigrants? Recent immigrants? Bad idea."
Calls for reparations ramp up across The Golden State, including one instance in which a Sacramento speaker claimed the move would help halt crime in the state. (Fox News)
Connerly said, by his own estimates, claims that five million people would qualify for the proposed reparations are overreaching, adding that, unless enacting reparations triggered a mass influx of newcomers, he believes only half of the estimated number would qualify.
He also believes that state voters would take a stand against the proposed idea at the ballot box.
"California is a progressive state, but we're not insane, and so I think that the people of this state would rise up and say ‘no.'"