Some demons are about to be unleashed on the City of Angels’ streets, courtesy of a George Soros-bought district attorney who appears to believe his role is to pander to and not prosecute criminals.
George Gascón was sworn in Monday as Los Angeles’s new D.A., and he wasted no time sending the message that his jurisdiction would become a new Wild West. He “announced a sweeping range of reforms … including no longer seeking the death penalty and not using gang enhancements for sentencing,” reports ABC 7.
“In addition, he has issued a memo to prosecutors in his office seeking to change how they deal with a range of low-level crimes,” ABC also informs.
“The memo spells out misdemeanors which should be declined or dismissed before arraignment, with a number of exceptions at the discretion of the prosecutor,” the outlet continues. “Among them: Trespassing, disturbing the peace, driving with no license or a suspended license, making criminal threats, drug possession, drinking in public, loitering to commit prostitution and resisting arrest, among others.” Gascón will also end the practice of trying juveniles (e.g., violent teen gangsters) as adults.
Yet of “all the policy changes Gascón laid out, the end to cash bail, which is set to go into effect Jan. 1, is perhaps the most seismic,” adds the Los Angeles Times. “Instead of seeking to hold criminal defendants in custody unless they can afford to post an amount of cash determined by a judge, prosecutors will be directed to ask judges to release them, except when someone is charged in a homicide or other violent felony.”
Crime has risen is much of the country — in N.Y.C., for instance — due to leftist policies such as Gascón’s. Many realize, too, that this doesn’t bode well for L.A.
“‘His policies are a slap in the face to crime victims — both past victims and the ones to come. His blanket policies do not take into account that we are the only people standing between truly dangerous criminals and the general public,’ said a veteran prosecutor, who requested not to be named because a fear of retaliation for speaking out against Gascón,” the Times also informs. “‘I am already getting concerned emails from concerned victims. What am I supposed to say to them?’”
There’s certainly much that could be said to Gascón, but it would undoubtedly fall on deaf ears given his penchant for repeating mistakes. To wit: You “should know that Gascón is best known for destroying the city of San Francisco,” reported Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson Tuesday evening. “He was the district attorney there for eight years, from 2011 to 2019. Under his tenure, San Francisco led the state of California in property crimes and violent crimes but ranked near the bottom in arrests.”
So how does such an incompetent “move up and become D.A. in Los Angeles, or anywhere?” asks Carlson rhetorically. The “answer, of course, is that he had powerful help,” the pundit continued. “Gascón’s campaign received millions of dollars from George Soros and other left-wing donors, people who don’t live anywhere near the communities he plans to destroy” (video below).
So it’s no wonder Carlson said that our “second-largest city is on the verge of collapse tonight…. People will flee Los Angeles.” Its mayor, Eric Garcetti, just imposed another onerous lockdown on the city, one banning even “walking, driving, [and] travel on public transport, bikes, motorcycles and scooters,” reports Fortune — unless you’re “undertaking essential activities.”
And if you do now dare go out, the consequence may be that you’re waylaid by one of Gascón’s released pet criminals.
Gascón certainly has his rationale, though. His complaint is that “we criminalize behavior largely associated with poverty,” as he put it. Now a little stale, it’s the “victims of their environment” thesis used decades ago already to justify slap-on-the-wrist policies that led to crime’s proliferation.
Yet if Gascón “looked at the science,” he might realize that his theory was called into question long ago. For example, research indicates that crime rates actually dropped markedly during the Great Depression.
Of course, along with many other things, poverty can be an “exacerbating” factor in social ills. But this doesn’t mean it damns people to immorality. Believing it does is Marxist thinking, the idea that man is merely an economic being; therefore, his overall state will reflect his economic state.
But man does not live on bread alone. He has moral and spiritual dimensions as well. Besides, the proverbs “Busy hands are happy hands,” “Work ennobles man,” and “An idle mind is the Devil’s playground” all warn of the perils that can attend wealth. It’s no cure-all.
Obviously, Gascón’s policies will cause an L.A crime spike. For they ignore the “broken windows” policing principle, which states what’s just common sense: “that visible signs of disorder and misbehavior in an environment encourage further disorder and misbehavior, leading to serious crimes,” as Psychology Today puts it.
In other words, “Take care of the little things, and the big things take care of themselves.” This principle’s application was a major factor in the steep drop in N.Y.C. crime under then-mayor Rudolph Giuliani.
So how could Gascón not know this? He likely doesn’t really care. His is surely a mind constrained by misbegotten ideology, and man does have a great capacity for rationalization. But related to this is another factor.
Devout leftists maintain that the “real” causes of crime are unaddressed deeper issues such as “systemic racism” and “white supremacy,” which can supposedly cause the poverty of which Gascón complains. And many of these social engineers perhaps are thinking on some level, “You won’t take our sage counsel and implement our progressive prescriptions? Then you’re going to have to endure these problems until you eliminate them our way.”
It also may be a pleasing type of retribution for them. Remember that no one likes having his plans thwarted, and leftists believe it’s the “deplorable” resistance throwing a monkey wrench into theirs. Intensely angry about this, the attitude likely is, “If you won’t listen, you’ll just have to suffer till you toe the line!”
This would also explain why leftists try to disarm good citizens and prosecute them for self-defense. Allowing such would give you an “escape hatch” from their policies’ consequences and would, in this way of thinking, reduce your incentive to comply with their agenda.
Bottom line: These leftists are stone-cold ideologues who’ll die with their boots on. Or, at least, you’ll die with their boots on — they tend to live in posh, privately secured neighborhoods.
