LOS ANGELES — Newly elected District Attorney George Gascon is the subject of a recall campaign that began Friday, spurred on by crime victims who have experienced lax criminal justice measures against their attackers.
The unprecedented recall of Los Angeles County’s district attorney needs 579,062 signatures by Oct. 27 to qualify for the ballot. Gov. Gavin Newsom is also facing a recall, which has received enough verified signatures to appear on the ballot in the fall. Both men are Democrats who have rankled voters with extreme leftist positions.
LA COUNTY SHERIFF ONE OF GASCON’S BIGGEST FOES
“George Gascon got elected by disguising a radical, dangerous, and pro-criminal agenda as ‘criminal justice reform,’ but that’s not what he is doing,” Desiree Andrade told ABC7 News.
She organized the recall after her son was kidnapped, then beaten to death with a metal pipe before being thrown over a cliff. Instead of a death penalty case, Gascon created a situation where the two defendants could be out of prison in 15 years.
“What he failed to mention was that he would cater to the most heinous offenders in our society at the expense of victims and let cold-blooded killers back on to our streets,” Andrade said. “We have no choice but to seek Gascon’s immediate removal from office because his twisted social experiment is jeopardizing the safety of our communities and revictimizing victims and their families all over again.”
Fifteen of Los Angeles County’s 88 cities have given Gascon a vote of no confidence, with several more on the way, said Steve Cooley, a former LA County district attorney assisting in the recall.
“He is the worst DA in LA County history for sure, in terms of public safety and fulfilling his duties,” Cooley told the Washington Examiner. “He is making a very strong case that he may be one of the worst in our nation’s history.”
Gascon was elected with the help of a Black Lives Matter campaign and funding from billionaire George Soros. He unseated Jackie Lacey, a black woman, with a barrage of criticism that she did not prosecute police officers. Radical changes have been made to the office, starting with a moratorium on the death penalty and cutting back on enhancements to serious crimes that lengthen prison sentences.
California has some of the strictest anti-crime laws in the nation, which include adding five to 10 years to prison sentences with enhancements that are tacked on to the original crime. This includes using a gun, being a gang member, and great bodily injury. The novel Three Strikes law, which automatically gave defendants a sentence of 25 years to life for a third violent felony, was gutted by Gascon when he created a policy that disallowed including prior offenses as part of a new case. He was sued by his office’s prosecutor’s union over this and lost the case on Feb. 8.
After the verdict, Gascon defended his policies in a series of tweets.
“More than 2 million people in Los Angeles County voted for a system of justice based on science and data, not fear and emotion,” he tweeted.
“Nevertheless, I never had any illusions as to the difficulty and challenges associated with reforming a dated institution steeped in systemic racism,” he tweeted. “My directives are a product of the will of the people, including survivors of crime, and a substantial body of research that shows this modern approach will advance community safety.”
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Gascon has also abandoned the office’s practice of sending prosecutors to parole hearings to advocate keeping prisoners incarcerated. This task has now been left to the family members. Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva told the Washington Examiner that his detectives will step up and represent the public at parole hearings.
Prosecutors have been continuously attending hearings for Charles Manson and his “family” for 40 years.
