LOS ANGELES — When the trial verdict over George Floyd’s death is handed down, Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva said he will not allow the area to be overrun with the violence that consumed Minneapolis, Portland, and Seattle last summer.
“We are going to send our personnel anywhere in the county where there is looting, rioting, arson, and vandalism — we definitely are going to stop it,” Villanueva told Fox11 Los Angeles on Saturday. “We are going to assist our local law enforcement agencies in their efforts, but we are not going let any it get out of control anywhere in the county. I don’t care where it is.”
California has a mutual aid law that gives sheriffs in all 58 counties the authority to respond to any crisis, whether or not a local jurisdiction gives permission. While dozens of riots erupted nationwide after Floyd’s death on May 25, the greater Los Angeles area remained relatively quiet — a stark contrast to the week of riots in 1992 after the acquittal of four police officers in the Rodney King beating trial.
THE PROSECUTION’S CASE AGAINST DEREK CHAUVIN IS BASED ON AN ALTERNATE REALITY
“We were able to avoid the worst of the worst,” Villanueva said of last summer. Sheriff deputies “are very well trained and did a wonderful job from separating peaceful protesters from people intent on doing harm. We aim to separate the wheat from the chaff.”
California has several strict criminal justice laws, including Three Strikes, which requires a mandatory sentence of 25 years to life for defendants convicted of a third violent felony. Recently elected Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon tried to abolish the law after taking office, but he was stopped by a judge during a lawsuit filed by a union for county prosecutors.
But that hasn’t stopped Gascon from taking a sledgehammer to departments within the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office that have been long-standing traditions, such as the hardcore gangs and narcotics units. They have been stripped to the bone, with most prosecutors reassigned to other areas, according to reports. Gascon has also downgraded serious felonies to misdemeanors to avoid using Three Strikes, and he prohibited filing case enhancements that are state law aimed at adding years to sentences. Examples of enhancements are using a gun, multiple murders, belonging to a gang, or endangering a child.
“If there is a lack of a prosecution fist that might embolden our antifa anarchists from the radical elements to hijack a peaceful protest for their own personal gain and if they feel like they aren’t going to face any serious consequences, that is a bit of a problem,” Villanueva said.
Unlike most jurisdictions where the sheriff and the district attorney work as partners, this has not been the case in Los Angeles County. Villanueva said he has only had one conversation with Gascon since he took office in January.
“It was a practical issue where we had to coordinate some effort on a case, and that has been it,” Villanueva said. “[With] everything else … he brought down his Ten Commandments, the tablets from the mountain — his special directives. [He] expects the entire world to just go along with it, and somehow it’s going to work. Well, it’s not working. It’s had dire consequences for victims of crime.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Gascon did not respond to a request for comment.
