CA Appeals Court Slaps Down Radical LA District Attorney George Gascon – Opinion

California Court Rebuked Soft-on-Crime LA County District Attorney George Gascon on Thursday. It ruled that Gascon must follow the law, not make up his own.

“The district attorney overstates his authority,” the ruling said. “He (Gascon) is an elected official who must comply with the law, not a sovereign with absolute, unreviewable discretion.”

Their legalese might be a little better than mine, but basically what the judges are saying is, “Who the heck do you think you are?!”

In its decision, the three-justice panel at the Appeals Court stated that Gascon could not order prosecutors refuse to prosecute three-strikes cases or to withdraw any special circumstances allegations. This ruling confirms a decision by a lower court which reached the same conclusion.

California’s Three Strikes Law was overwhelmingly approved by voters via Proposition 184 in 1994. Californians are almost as sick as ever of crime now than they were in 1994. Proposition 184 mandated that any defendant convicted for a third felony serve at most 25 years prison. Sentence enhancements (also known as aggravating circumstances) allow the prosecution to request additional time for defendants if they are convicted. These include hate crime enhancements and gang/warrior enhancements.

Gascon, however, like so many other California politicians, doesn’t actually care what the voters want. And he’s proud of his efforts:

8127 years unnecessary, excess and high-priced prison sentence time was eliminated

In 17 cases, the execution was a halt.

Took down 77 motions for the transfer of children to an adult court.

This saved taxpayers millions.

All within my 100th day. pic.twitter.com/I5XaIZveb7

— George Gascón (@GeorgeGascon) March 19, 2021

Yes, he did accomplish a lot in his first 100 days, that’s for sure—and he hasn’t stopped destroying LA since. Gascon, who was elected in December 2020 and quickly issued directives almost inviting criminals into committing crimes, has made a profound transformation to the county. Which of course is exactly what they’ve been doing:

Since Gascón took office in 2020, data shows Los Angeles has seen a 34% increase in homicide, 15.5% increase in violent crimes, 6.7% increase in property crimes and 67% increase in shooting victims. https://t.co/UdpnyQfSy2

— FOX 11 Los Angeles (@FOXLA) May 6, 2022

An editorial was written by Todd Spitzer, former Orange County DA and Steve Cooley, ex-LA DA.

Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón has enthusiastically embraced radical, pro-criminal, anti-law enforcement policies to fulfill his misguided and dangerous ideology. Gascon’s policies reduced punishment to a minimum level and greatly decreased the number of criminal prosecutions. Crime rates, including murders, gang shootings, theft, and organized crime, have soared.

Gascon is Los Angeles’ unmitigated disaster.

Months of frustration between career attorneys culminated in Gascon being sued by the Association of Deputy District Attorneys, claiming the policies were against their rights.

“There’s never been a case where a court had to tell a chief prosecutor that his job is to follow the law,” Eric Siddall, vice president of the group, told Fox News. “Just because of the nature of his job, he doesn’t get to ignore or break the law.”

On Thursday they were vindicated. Said Siddall:

This is a win for the voters, a win for the people in the state of California and it’s a win for the line prosecutors. Today’s losers are George Gascon, and the violent criminals.

Gascon is bringing such chaos to Los Angeles and showing such disregard for crime victims, that former allies and voters are beginning to turn against him. Recall Gascon’s campaign is rapidly gaining momentum and has almost reached the necessary number of signatures in order to put the issue on a ballot.

As of May 31, our campaign for George Gascon recall has attained 500,000 signatures!
We must have 566,857 signed signatures before July 6 to be eligible.
Get in touch with your fellow Angelenos to help George Gascon get recalled!
Sign the petition: https://t.co/NKtY22obXc#RecallDAGeorgeGascon pic.twitter.com/qPxMEVmNHE

— RecallDAGeorgeGascon (@DAGasconRecall) June 2, 2022

Gascon is a like a local version of Biden—in just a short time, he has done such incalculable damage to this county, just as Biden has done to the country. The almost 10 million people who live within the county’s boundaries have seen homicides go up, daily smash-and-grabs with no consequences for the culprits, and residents terrified to walk down the street.

Today’s court decision is a victory for scared citizens in this county. But it’s not enough. Gascon represents a danger to the society. He must go.