Praise is wonderful. It is an affirmation — a sign that you did something right and an encouragement to do more. Certain types of praise are especially flattering: gifts, awards, imitation even. But then there are certain forms of praise that go too far, which, despite their sincerity, tend to humiliate rather than encourage.
The Washington Examiner published a bizarre news story this week about a killer and gang member who has vowed to have the name of Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon tattooed on his face out of gratitude.
This violent criminal, convicted of murder, is a huge fan because Gascon’s policies as DA are getting him out of prison early to victimize more people in society — specifically, as he explains it himself in street English, Gascon’s policy of refusing to demand that gun or gang enhancements be added to the sentences of violent criminals, even murderers such as himself.
“This s*** looking real good,” said murderer Luis Angel Hernandez in audio obtained by Fox News aired earlier this week. “Now we got a new DA in LA … so they’re going to drop a gang of, um, like my gun enhancement, my gang enhancement. … He’s making historic changes for all of us, fool. I’m just grateful, fool. Like, I got good news off that s***.”
This praise could hardly be more fitting. Gascon has been the violent criminal’s best friend ever since he took office. He pleads violent criminals down from more serious charges to less serious ones. He has told his staff always to err on the side of leniency. Despite his public support for gun control, he helps gun-wielding criminals by refusing to seek longer sentences for their crimes and has in fact lobbied for a bill that would abolish such sentencing enhancements. He has defended this policy, and his similarly lenient policy against longer sentences for gang members, based on his incredible assertion that such sentence enhancements for violent career criminals are “a principal driver of mass incarceration.”
Of course, “mass incarceration” has more than one meaning. If it means giving long sentences to first-time, nonviolent offenders, then most people oppose it. That was the principle behind former President Donald Trump’s First Step Act, which passed with broad bipartisan support.
But for Gascon, “mass incarceration” just means that a prison system exists. He believes that it is a problem that extremely dangerous, scary people who have preyed upon their neighbors are in prison. He believes that it serves the interest of justice for violent criminals and child molesters to be given weaker punishments and shorter sentences. Local law enforcement agencies have to go around Gascon by building federal cases against criminals wherever possible because they know Gascon will just reduce the charges and unleash the criminals on the public once again.
This is exactly the opposite of the way normal people think, but it is exactly the way so-called progressive prosecutors have been conducting prosecutions in major U.S. cities. It is the main reason crime has skyrocketed since 2019, extinguishing tens of thousands of lives of mostly black murder victims. When incompetent ideologues such as Gascon are given the power to set criminals free, they do it. He is a walking advertisement for Democrats’ anti-police, pro-criminal philosophy.
President Joe Biden now has a 61% disapproval rating on the issue of crime. When this causes Democrats to suffer catastrophic losses this fall, Republicans might want to consider praising Gascon or sending him a gift. Just please don’t get any face tattoos — it’s a bad choice.
