Gov. Gavin Newsom isn’t the only beleaguered California Democrat facing a recall effort. With homicides rising, the commitment of Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon to ensuring that justice is served has come into question, and for good reason.
Los Angeles saw a 38% increase in homicides from 2019 to 2020, along with a nearly 40% increase in shootings. That carried into the new year. The 19 homicides in the city in the first two weeks of 2021 more than doubled the same time period last year. Gascon only took office last December, after serving nine years in the same position in San Francisco, but it hasn’t taken him long to stumble in his new role.
Among the grand criminal justice reforms that he ran on, Gascon had promised to end sentencing enhancements, which increase the sentences for those convicted of serious crimes if they have prior convictions. This included the killers of Joshua Rodriguez, meaning that they would no longer be eligible to receive a life sentence with no possibility of parole.
Sources tell me the woman yelling is the mother of Joshua Rodriguez, who was kidnapped, tortured, and murdered in 2015. Special circumstances were recently filed on the accused killers, which will be dropped under Gascon’s new policy, which takes life w/out parole off. @FOXLA
— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) December 19, 2020
Rodriguez’s family confronted him while he was speaking in front of a Pomona courthouse, where he then said they did not “have enough education to keep their mouth shut.” He later apologized, saying he didn’t know they were the family members of a murder victim.
A judge since ruled that Gascon’s order barring sentencing enhancements violated California’s three-strikes law. Gascon plans to appeal. The Association of Deputy District Attorneys for Los Angeles, which sued their boss, Gascon, over the policy, said the court ruled that the policy “violated the law to benefit criminal defendants and ordered him to comply with the law.”
The court ruling hasn’t stopped Gascon from trying to undermine further justice in Los Angeles. He recently hired public defender Tiffiny Blacknell as a high-ranking prosecutor, leapfrogging positions for which she doesn’t meet the minimum qualifications. Blacknell offered a “sweetheart” plea deal to a suspected gang killer behind the back of the victim’s family, called the L.A. Police Department “barbarians,” and said prisons should be abolished.
Much like his social justice successor in San Francisco, who is also facing a recall effort, Gascon is not living up to the moment. Los Angeles needs a justice system that social justice opposes, and Gascon is not prepared to eschew ideology for reality.
