Gascon in Crosshairs at DA Debate

There were ten candidates on the stage at the Los Angeles Magazine-sponsored Los Angeles County District Attorney’s race debate – eight of them roundly criticized current DA George Gascon – two, including Gascon himself, did not.

In trying to defend his by any standard disastrous term as district attorney, Gascon repeatedly referred to his years in law enforcement – beat cop in LA, police chief in Mesa, Arizona and San Francsico, DA in San Francisco, etc.  What Gascon, like most “resume candidates” for any office, failed to note is that just because you did something doesn’t mean you did it well.

While also pointing to his resume as a federal prosecutor, Jeff Chemerinsky shied away from attacking Gascon too harshly through the evening, though he did say he would be a “better and more effective (criminal justice) reformer than the current DA.”

If there was any debate remaining to be had, Chemerinsky confirmed Thursday his candidacy pitch as being a competent version of Gascon, or a “mini-Gascon,” as candidate Deputy District Attorney Eric Siddall called him.

Gascon wiggled and dodged through the attacks, even trying to deflect blame for his poor public safety performance and his poor history of communicating with his staff of prosecutors on the pandemic – really. And crime is down. And he’s been in law enforcement for a long time.

Gascon even took a very nasty swipe at pretty much everyone else on stage, most of whom who have been prosecutors in the LA DA’s office.  Gascon said “other people on this stage” are the reason for inequality, recidivism and high incarceration rates and that his reform efforts have been undoing their past misdeeds.

Astonishingly, none of the current or former prosecutors noticed, let alone challenged, Gascon on the claim.

When asked to rate the feeling of public safety in the community, Judge Debra Archuleta was very blunt in saying “zero.”  Other candidates for the most part agreed, though Siddall, Chemerinsky, and Deputy District Attorney John McKinney said about five or six.  Gascon did not give a number, saying it was “irrelevant.”

Gascon’s choice of chief of staff, Tiffany Blacknell, came under fire. Candidate Nathan Hochman earlier this week publicly demanded that Gascon – based on her calling police officers “barbarians” that are “trained to kill us” and constitute an “occupying force” in the community – dismiss her.  Gascon immediately played the race card, and not very well at that, calling it “offensive…that a black mother of three children” should be singled out that way and that he stood behind the former public defender and political ally.

Deputy District Attorney Jon Hatami – whose wife is a deputy – called that “disturbing sick, and disrespectful,” with other candidates saying that kind of appointment shows how Gascon has broken the DA’s office with local law enforcement.

“’When is the DA going to work with us?’” Judge Craig Mitchell said officers ask him when he’s met with them during the campaign, adding that they tend to make fewer low-level arrests because “they nothing is going to happen” to the offender in Gasco’s office.

The infamous Prop 47 drew criticism – some quite sharp – Thursday, except from Gascon – who co-wrote the measure – and Chemerinsky, who pointed to the law in Texas that sets the misdemeanor theft level at $2,500.  Prop 47’s is, as the shoplifters with calculators know, $950; but what Chemerinsky failed to mention is that number is cumulative – not just per store, per day – and that Texas actually prosecutes repeat offenders.

It is those repeat offenders, said Deputy District Attorney Maria Ramirez, that Proposition 47 needs to be amended to cover – that, and misdemeanors need to be actually prosecuted.

Gascon claimed his office is prosecuting misdemeanors, though Hatami noted Gascon blanket banned certain misdemeanor prosecution, like loitering with intent and criminal threats, among others.

As to homelessness, each of the challengers, save Judge David Milton, said the DA’s office must work proactively with other offices and agencies to help address the problem, with Mitchell and McKinney emphasizing the need to modify Prop 47 to allow prosecutors to be able to offer the “jail or treatment” option they once could.

While Milton and Gascon had similar stances of the DA’s approach to homelessness, that was the only thing they even vaguely agreed upon. Milton, who describes himself as “conservative law and order Republican,” savaged Gascon as the epitome of the woke prosecutor trend across the country.

Milton said Gascon’s “destructive policies” are part of an “actual movement put into place by George Soros” in major cities around the nation with the aim to “destroy our constitutional republic.”

In 2020, Gascon received more than $2 million in campaign cash from Soros-related groups, though whether or not he will do so this time around is unclear with the progressives in LA spilt between backing Gascon or going with Chemerinsky, who is seen (and polling confirms) as more electable.

When asked for a show of hands, each of the candidates – save Gascon and Chemerinsky – said they would immediately undo the infamous Gascon day-one “directives”  he put in place. McKinney and Archuleta specifically noted that blanket policies fail to allow for the unique circumstances of individual cases and by taking certain tools off the table – gun enhancements, for example – prosecutors are hamstrung and kept from using their best judgment right from the start of a case.

Summing up the state of public safety in general, Mitchell said that – when he was on the bench recently – the accused exclaimed “I want a Gascon special!”

As anyone from Los Angeles would wonder, Archuleta asked “if you can get that at In-and-Out”

With Gascon in the kitchen, not a lot of people are going in, but a lot are getting out.

The primary vote is March 5.

PS – as a “get to know you” question, the candidates were also asked what their favorite band was. George Gascon said Kenny G.

And you can watch the entire debate here:  https://lamag.com/news-and-politics/debate