Why must District Attorney Gascon be recalled now?
Posted on June. 4. 2021
Judge finds DA Gascon’s policies are unlawful and unethical
BY MIHRAN KALAYDJIAN
The other night I was speaking with my family in Israel. Their house had been damaged in the recent rocket attacks from Hamas that have had 70% of the population of the country running to bomb shelters. Thankfully, they were unharmed and able to safely take refuge with friends.
If not for Iron Dome technology, who knows what might have happened. Here in Los Angeles County the Jewish community likes to think that that we are safe from such attacks. While it is true that attacks against us are unlikely to come from rockets, it doesn’t not mean that we are not still targeted.
This targeting is not one for which the Iron Dome could protect us. Rather, we are supposed to be protected by an equitable enforcement of the rule of law. However, thanks to the perilous policies enacted by the Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon this equitable enforcement has been disregarded. Instead, it has been replaced by a highly selective process in which one man picks and chooses which laws will see prosecution and which will be summarily dismissed before ever having their day in court.
Earlier this year at a Jewish Temple in Korea Town there was an act of vandalism in which the temple was defaced with a spray-painted message that said, “I hate your race!!” As the year progressed the number of hate incidents and crimes would only increase. It rose to the point of concern for LA County Sheriff Villanueva expressed his disappointment in a failure to see one such incident taking place in April from being prosecuted.
Of course, Sheriff Villanueva is not the only one to express disappointment in the actions of DA Gascon. The Association of Deputy District Attorneys for Los Angeles County took their concerns over the disregard of law and failure to prosecute special enhancements to court where the ruling handed down was mostly in their favor.
In that chastising ruling Judge Chalfant issued an order stating that DA Gascon’s policies are unlawful and unethical, and that Gascon must stop breaking the law. He must enforce the Three Strikes Law, not abandon it. He must stop his blanket policy of dismissing all gun, gang, and great bodily injury crimes.
Gascon’s policies from disregarding the rule of law, refusing to prosecute crime, ignoring the will of the voters on bail, dismantling the hard core gang unit, drastically slashing the narcotics unit; along with dangerous directives on sentencing whether in refusing to prosecute any special enhancements or refusing to prosecute even the most violent juvenile offenders as adults, all while exhibiting a callous dismissiveness to victims and the families of victims are all clear reasons why he should be recalled from office.
Every day it is more and more evident the risks faced by each and every resident of Los Angeles County as a result of Gascon’s dangerous directives. Particularly alarming are the spikes in murders reported by the Sheriff’s statistics in which homicides were up almost 200% from last year at the same time.
Such threats must be met with a solution that works. It clearly is not to resort to policies in which crime is not prosecuted and criminals face no consequences for their actions. The data already reflects that does not work. In a Press Release issued by Michael Rushford of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation he offered the data “comparing crimes reported in 1992 with 2011, there were 932,996 (45%) fewer of the seven major crimes, 190,681 (55%) fewer violent crimes, and 2,129 (54%) fewer murders. ‘That’s almost one million fewer victims when we were enforcing tough sentencing.’”
Gascon’s “data” is really not data at all, nor do his conclusions match with common sense and reality. Rather the solution is clear — Gascon must be recalled now. Los Angeles County can’t wait four years, nor should Angelenos have to wait that long for a District Attorney who will do the job for which he was elected and hired — the job of prosecuting offenders.
About the author: Mihran Kalaydjian is the co-chair for Stop the Madness; Support Recalling District Attorney Gascon Now. He is active in Neighborhood councils politics and has a more than 18-year record of creating winning public affairs and state and local governments. Mihran has been active in aerospace in Santa Clarita developing advanced metal-matrix composites for use in aerospace automotive and other industries. He is the vice president of Strategy for Global Services of creating winning public affairs strategies for businesses and state and local governments. Advocate on Neighborhood Councils for civic engagement and higher education.
Thank you.
I agree that DA Gascon is a menace to public safety.