Say Goodbye to Hollywood's Progressive Prosecutor - Will Swaim op-ed WSJ
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Elected in November 2020, after the George Floyd summer, Mr. Gascón immediately delivered a menu of “restorative justice” policies. He told his nearly 1,000 prosecutors—the largest district attorney’s staff in the nation—there would be no more sentencing enhancements, no more use of the death penalty, no more cash bail. He ordered them to seek diversion programs rather than prison time wherever possible and to end the prosecution of minors in adult courts. He established the Conviction Integrity Unit, the entire purpose of which is to scour past convictions in search of what Mr. Gascón considers excessive sentences.
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His philosophical preferences translated into rising crime. The city’s homicide rate is now nearly twice the rest of the state. But data fail to describe adequately the personal terror Angelenos experience every day. A year into Mr. Gascón’s tenure, his office approved probation for a gang member with a catalog of past convictions. Back on the streets, the man kidnapped a woman in a local motel and then shot to death two police officers attempting to rescue her. He was finally shot and killed by another officer. Families of the gangster and the slain police officers blame Mr. Gascón.
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After Hamas’s attack on Israel 13 months ago, anti-Israel encampments appeared on university campuses throughout Los Angeles County. Efforts to clear them turned the antisemitic protests into antipolice riots, but Mr. Gascón said little and charged no one in the violence. In June, 150 pro-Hamas protesters blocked the entrance to L.A.’s Adas Torah synagogue. When members of the congregation insisted on entering, the blockade turned into a public beating of Jews. Mayor Karen Bass condemned the attacks, as did President Biden and Gov. Gavin Newsom. Mr. Gascón said—and did—nothing. Jewish staff in his office declared they no longer feel safe there. “I hate going to work and entering a building where I feel my boss will treat me differently simply because I’m Jewish,” veteran prosecutor Brian Schirn said.
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Most significantly, 70% of Californians voted to pass Proposition 36, a ballot measure that unwinds most of the progressive reforms initiated 10 years ago by Proposition 47. That 2014 ballot measure proposed resolving California’s crime problems by downgrading many felonies to misdemeanors. Its deceptive ballot title, the Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act, was the brainchild of California’s attorney general at the time, Kamala Harris.
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https://www.wsj.com/opinion/say-goodbye-to-hollywoods-progressive-prosecutor-violent-crime-election-recall-ballot-prop-204fed12?st=W3yhGD&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
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Mr. Swaim is president of the California Policy Center and a co-host of National Review’s “Radio Free California” podcast.
He was also the editor of the Orange County Weekly.
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