Gascon touts social justice reforms during first year as DA

Flanked by much than a twelve progressive prosecutors from crossed the country, District Attorney George Gascon said Wednesday that data, subject and societal justness are the magic bullets successful bringing instrumentality and bid to Los Angeles County amid a surge successful homicides and convulsive crime.

“We’re crafting thoughtful, humane policies that are helping to physique safer and healthier communities. We’re addressing the basal crime, basal causes of transgression behaviour and providing trauma-informed services to victims and survivors,” Gascón said during a sweeping two-hour quality league astatine the Hall of Justice to tout a database of accomplishments during his inaugural twelvemonth successful office.

“This alteration has allowed america to displacement resources into prosecuting much superior crimes similar homicides, intersexual assaults, and putting much resources into gathering the enactment we supply to victims of crime.”

The District Attorney’s Office, present much than ever, is focused connected high-crime communities by placing prosecutors alongside Los Angeles police, Gascon said. Prosecutors besides are taking a hard-line attack to nationalist accountability for elected officials and instrumentality enforcement officers, helium noted.

In 2021, the District Attorney’s Office has charged 21 instrumentality enforcement officers from 7 departments with alleged crimes ranging from execution to filing mendacious constabulary reports.

Mass incarceration rollback

“We besides brought corruption and bribery charges against officials successful the cities of Maywood and Industry,” Gascón said. “It is indispensable that we clasp each authorities officials accountable erstwhile they interruption the law.”

Gascón besides praised his unit for its diligence and determination to “roll back” wide incarceration. “Excessive (prison) sentences neglect to admit the mode that radical tin and bash change,” helium said.

With superior punishment disconnected the array successful Los Angeles County, prosecutors are reviewing existing decease punishment cases. So far, the District Attorney’s Office has succeeded successful getting five inmates connected decease row — each with cognitive oregon intelligence disabilities, Gascon said — resentenced to beingness successful situation without parole.

The District Attorney’s Office besides has stopped charging juveniles arsenic adults and eliminated sentencing enhancements, which person slashed 18,000 years successful excess situation clip for radical convicted of superior offenses.

“By eliminating the enhancements, we guarantee radical person astatine slightest a accidental to amusement that they person grown and changed implicit time,” Gascon said. “In addition, we are redeeming California taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars successful prison-related costs that tin beryllium invested successful gathering healthier and safer communities.”

Mindful of transgression victims

Gascon said helium is mindful of transgression victims, but maintains that warehousing individuals successful situation without rehabilitation is not the answer.

“Victims request and merit truthful overmuch much than that,” Gascon  said, adding that the District Attorney’s Office has established a victims and survivors advisory board. “They merit societal and intelligence support. They merit a authoritative to afloat perceive to what they privation and what they need. A prosecutor’s bureau indispensable bash much to enactment victims aft the transgression has occurred… moving tirelessly to guarantee that nary parent oregon begetter should be their child’s ceremonial due to the fact that they person been harmed by crime.”

During the quality conference, reporters challenged immoderate of Gascon’s claims that his archetypal twelvemonth has gone swimmingly. The territory lawyer acknowledged that homicides are up successful Los Angeles, but said his bureau bares nary work for a caller spate of smash-and-grab robberies.

“You’ve heard a batch of misinformation concerning this peculiar question of crime,” helium said. “Actually, astir transgression is down. And the world is that we are prosecuting these cases erstwhile they get presented to us.”

Critics blast DA

The Association of Deputy District Attorneys, which represents astir 900 Los Angeles County prosecutors, disputed the rose-colored representation presented by Gascon, noting that homicides successful the Los Angeles are up by astir 47% this twelvemonth compared with 2019 and the fig of shooting victims has accrued by astir 51%.

“This mindless and tragic unit touches each community,” the national said successful a statement. “Its victims are young and old, affluent and poor, Black and White and Brown. And truthful are the perpetrators. The alleged ‘drivers’ oregon ‘root causes’ of criminality are excessively broad, excessively analyzable and excessively heavy to laic astatine the feet of immoderate 1 person, adjacent idiosyncratic who, without a hint of humility, calls himself ‘the Godfather of progressive prosecutors.’ “

Former Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley, who is starring a revitalized effort to callback Gascon, was much blunt.

“It is not an accomplishment to person helped make an emboldened transgression constituent and make victims due to the fact that of his extremist anti-victim, pro-criminal policies,” helium said. “Gascón and his mostly caller nationalist defender absorption unit are a large origin of transgression and injustice successful Los Angeles County.”

And during his play media availability Wednesday, Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva had harsh words for the territory lawyer and his property conference.

He slammed Gascon for creating a “permissive environment” for weapon unit by refusing to prosecute firearms-related sentencing enhancements. And helium slammed Proposition 47, a transgression betterment measure co-authored by Gascon that was approved by California voters  successful 2014.

“And present the chickens person travel location to roost due to the fact that helium dropped each of these crimes from felonies to misdemeanors, and present he’s not adjacent prosecuting the misdemeanors,” Villanueva said. “Is determination thing near this idiosyncratic is going to prosecute?”

Others, however, praised Gascon’s compassion and societal justness policies, peculiarly those impacting minorities and the poor.

“I americium honored to beryllium present contiguous with my justness partners down me, and to enactment District Attorney Gascon successful his efforts,” said Sarah George, the Chittenden County States Attorney successful Burlington, Vermont. “Any meaningful alteration successful the American ineligible strategy begins with a designation that the full strategy is built connected systemic racism and classism.”

Staff Writer Eric Licas contributed to this report.