A top Los Angeles County prosecutor is reportedly set to downsize and rename the area's gang unit, drawing sharp criticism from fellow attorneys and local law enforcement.
District Attorney George Gascon will allegedly shrink and rename the "hardcore gangs" unit because "administration doesn't like it," sources within the task force told Fox 11. Some in the DA's orbit have insisted the unit, which handles heinous violent crime and complex criminal cases, will be entirely dismantled.
"So there isn’t going to be a hardcore gang unit anymore, because I guess the DA, George Gascon, finds that term offensive to the community," a prosecutor, who was not named, told the local outlet.
Law enforcement officials in the county have reviled the reported decision with Sheriff Alex Villanueva likening the assault on the gang force to a "suicide pact."
"While gang members are busy driving up LA County's homicide rate, LA DA @GeorgeGascon is now dismantling the Hardcore Gang Unit that works in collaboration with local law enforcement," he wrote in a Wednesday tweet. "This can only serve to add gasoline to a raging fire of gang violence that threatens the safety of all. This is not reform, it's beginning to look more and more like a suicide pact."
Other prosecutors in the area have said "gang members are laughing" at top authorities in the densely populated California county.
"We can already hear in jail calls and interviews with officers on the street telling us that the gang members are laughing at them, I mean it’s undermined the credibility of law enforcement in its entirety," another attorney said.
Eric Siddall, the vice president of a union that represents prosecutors in the DA's office, said, "[Gascon] made political promises to certain fringe groups and it's payback, so yeah it makes sense in terms of that. Legally and in terms of public safety issue, no, it makes no sense."
Gascon is also reportedly seeking to cut the major narcotics unit by half in another controversial move, according to Fox 11.
"It is a sad day for LA," Jonathan Hatami, a child abuse prosecutor, wrote in a Wednesday tweet. "The Gang and Narcotics units have both been slashed in half. This will lead to more violence on our streets and more victims in our communities. And it puts public safety at greater risk."
Earlier in March, Beverly Hills City Council issued a vote of no confidence against Gascon for "disregarding the actions of criminals" and "undermining the work of our women and men in law enforcement." The DA, whose appointment was funded by liberal billionaire George Soros, made headlines in December 2020 when he chose to drop special charges on Rhett Nelson, 31, who was arrested for allegedly shooting Los Angeles County deputy Joseph Gilbert Solano in the back of the head.
Gascon took office in December and announced an array of changes under his leadership, including stopping the use of sentencing enhancements, ending the use of the death penalty in the county, and trying juveniles as adults.
"It is time to change course and implement a system of justice that will enhance our safety and humanity,” Gascon said in a statement at the time. “Today we are confronting the lie that stripping entire communities of their liberties somehow made us safer — and we’re doing it with science, research, and data. For decades those who profit off incarceration have used their enormous political influence — cloaked in the false veil of safety — to scare the public and our elected officials into backing racist policies that created more victims, destroyed budgets, and shattered our moral compass. That lie and the harm it caused ends now.”
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The Los Angeles Sheriff's Office, Los Angeles Police Department, and Gascon's press team did not immediately respond to requests for comment from the Washington Examiner.
