Say Goodbye to Hollywood’s Progressive Prosecutor

Angelenos had four years of George Gascón’s ‘restorative justice.’ Now they want the real kind

By Will Swaim Mr. Swaim is president of the California Policy Center and a co-host of National Review’s “Radio Free California” podcast. Excerpts:

"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."

"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."

"In 2018 a homeless woman murdered a retired probation officer and his elderly parents in their home. During sentencing in April, Mr. Gascón blocked his staff from seeking the maximum penalty of 75 years to life, ordering them instead to seek life with the possibility of parole after just 20 years. Despite the family’s protests, Mr. Gascón prevailed."

"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.

Numerous employees have alleged that Mr. Gascón retaliated against them for doing their jobs. In 2021 Deputy District Attorney Jon Hatami filed suit, claiming Mr. Gascón had sidelined him after he sought, won and defended the death sentence of a man convicted in the torture and murder of his girlfriend’s 8-year-old son. Prosecutor Shea Sanna alleges Mr. Gascón ordered him to suppress evidence that a man convicted of sexually assaulting a 10-year-old girl had declared himself a woman to gain favorable prison treatment. Mr. Sanna told Fox News Digital that Mr. Gascón responded by suspending him without pay and attacking his credibility, “all so I would obey him; so I would stay quiet; so I wouldn’t speak up on behalf of those most affected by his misguided political policies.”"

"voters realized their mistake and acted accordingly. They are in good company. On the same day voters in Alameda County recalled District Attorney Pamela Price, Mr. Gascón’s policy doppelgänger. Voters in Oakland, the Alameda County city that rivals L.A. for dramatic violence, tossed out their progressive mayor. San Francisco’s progressive mayor lost to a liberal Democrat who made the city’s rampant crime his campaign hook."

"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."