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  • Liberal LA County DA Gascon backpedals on progressive directives amid c

    From buh buh biden@21:1/5 to All on Sat May 14 08:24:49 2022
    XPost: alt.transgendered, talk.politics.guns, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh
    XPost: sac.politics

    Critics called the backpedaling 'smoke and mirrors' as a second recall
    petition circulates

    Embattled Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón is
    backpedaling on a number of hardline progressive directives he issued upon taking office in late 2020, according to a series of memos he sent to his office Friday regarding how to handle serious crimes.

    In five documents, two addressed to deputy district attorneys and the
    other three addressed to his entire office, Gascón conceded that he’d come
    to accept his policies were too rigid "after listening to the community, victims and colleagues."

    Soon after taking office, he had banned deputy DAs from seeking the death penalty, life without parole, enhanced charges for particularly heinous
    crimes and trying juveniles in adult court in grievous cases.

    LA PROSECUTOR BLASTS POLICY CHANGE AMID CONTROVERSY OVER TRANS CHILD
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    <https://static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2022/02/SD-22-02- Alternative-Charging-Evaluation-Policies-and-Procedures.pdf>

    His memos Friday backed off of all of those directives except for avoiding
    the death penalty, but critics called the moves "smoke and mirrors" and politically motivated as Gascón looks to fend off a second recall petition after just over a year in office.

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    "George Gascón can’t be trusted with the public safety of Los Angeles,"
    said Jonathan Hatami, a longtime prosecutor of child sex crimes in the Los Angeles DA’s office and an outspoken Gascón critic.

    Members of law enforcement, Gascón’s own DAs and others have blasted his inflexible directives as a boon to criminals. In one case, a 26-year-old
    child molestation suspect began identifying as female following an arrest
    for the assault of a 10-year-old girl in 2014, according to prosecutors.
    That suspect, Hannah Tubbs, pleaded guilty in juvenile court after
    Gascón’s office declined to transfer the case to an adult court, and Tubbs could spend less than 24 months in a juvenile facility – alongside girls.

    <https://static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2022/02/Gascon- Memo-Juvenile-Alternative-Charging.pdf>

    Gascón also noted that while exceptions to his earlier policies may now be requested, they will have to go up a chain of command – through new bureaucratic processes involving officials loyal to him.

    Hatami said he’s probably feeling the pressure of the public’s ire toward
    a staggering crime wave and spike in murders.

    <https://static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2022/02/Gascon- Memo-22-024.pdf>

    "We are supposed to believe that he has suddenly changed his entire belief system overnight?" he asked. "He is a politician and he believes he will
    be recalled and lose his job."

    Alex Bastian, Gascón’s special adviser, argued that the memos actually
    show the DA "is firmly committed to his principles."

    <https://static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2022/02/Gascon- Memo-22-025.pdf>

    "One of these underlying principles is to constantly refine what we are
    doing so that we can continue to enhance public safety in a thoughtful
    manner," he said Friday night. "We are now more than one year into his
    term, he has listened to community members, victims and colleagues. Based
    on everything we have learned we are rolling out these policy
    adjustments."

    Hatami, who rose to prominence as lead prosecutor of the infamous Gabriel Fernandez child abuse case, wasn’t buying it.

    <https://static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2022/02/Gascon- Memo-22-026.pdf>

    "Don’t be fooled, Los Angeles," he said. "Actions always speak louder than words. Look at what Gascón has done to LA in just one year. We can’t trust him."

    In Gascón’s first full year in office, the City of Los Angeles saw 397 homicides, according to statistics from the LAPD. That’s a 14-year high.

    Prior to being elected DA in Los Angeles County, the Cuban-born Gascón,
    67, was police chief in San Francisco, and later succeeded Kamala Harris
    as San Francisco's district attorney.

    https://www.foxnews.com/us/liberal-la-county-da-gascon-progressive-crime- wave-blowback

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