L.A.'s bad D.A.

George Gascón wants to end long sentences for career criminals and killers

Sunday’s New York Times Magazine ran a cover story on Los Angeles County D.A. George Gascón, who also happens to be the former San Francisco Police Chief and San Francisco District Attorney.

The story looks at Gascón’s heavy-handed approach to criminal justice reform, which has alienated many career prosecutors, whom he has dubbed “internal terrorists.” So much for progressives’ belief in dissent.

After he was elected L.A.D.A., Gascón sent out marching orders to his troops — that they not file sentence enhancements for repeat and violent offenders. It has been his intent, the magazine explained, “to effectively end very long sentences — in pending cases as well as new ones — for some of the most serious crimes, including murder.”

The inmate community saw cause for celebration.

Gascón not only opposes the death penalty, he also opposes LWOP, or Life Without Parole.

The union for county Deputy District Attorneys in Los Angeles filed a lawsuit to compel L.A.’s top law man to enforce the law — which is what most of us thought D.A.s do. “The deputies argued that their new boss was ordering them not just to do something they thought was wrong, but to violate their oath and break the law,” the Times reported.

I first met Gascón in 2009 when then San Francisco Mayor (now California Gov.) Gavin Newsom appointed the then Mesa, Arizona Police Chief to be San Francisco Police Chief.

In 2011, when then San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris was elected state Attorney General, Newsom named Gascón, who had gone to law school, to succeed her. Problem: Gascón not only had never worked as a prosecutor, he also had never tried a case in court in his life. Newsom could not have found a less qualified would-be D.A. if he tried.

He’s also a little thin-skinned.

But I should give Gascón credit for his fundraising acumen. He raised more than $12.4 million to run in Los Angeles, far more than the $7 million raised by then incumbent D.A. Jackie Lacey. And the big bucks didn’t come from just anywhere. George Soros forked $2.25 million and NetFlix CEO Reed Hastings and his wife Patty Quillin donated almost as much. It helps to have friends in high places.

“Soros finances people who feel this way. They seem unconcerned about the crime rate. They think this is collateral damage until we get the system right,” Michael Rushford of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation in Sacramento told me.

Debra J. Saunders is a fellow at the Discovery Institute’s Chapman Center for Citizen Leadership. Contact her at dsaunders@discovery.org.

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