George Gascon’s policies are getting people killed
Zachary Faria
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The election of Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon, and the failed recall attempt against him, have had deadly consequences in Los Angeles, and yet he has made no effort to chart a new course.
The latest example of this is that of Stefen Sutherland. In November 2020, Sutherland attempted to kill a construction worker by slashing his neck. Despite that attempted murder, Gascon’s office instead charged him with assault. And despite charging him with assault, Gascon’s office rejected the idea of giving him jail time, instead putting him in a “mental health diversion” program.
The attempted murderer was deemed eligible for that mental health program, and Gascon’s office of course pursued that, because Gascon believes all criminals should receive as little jail time as possible. According to his office, “The defendant participated for nearly two years in [the] treatment program without issue,” and that was it. Sutherland was free to go, no questions asked, two years after he tried to slash a man’s throat. No jail time, no parole, no real consequences.
To absolutely no one’s surprise, the attempted murderer became an actual murderer. Last week, Sutherland shot Jennifer Gomez 19 times in her own home. Who could have guessed that two years of “mental health diversion” and nothing else would not stop a mentally troubled man from killing someone after he already attempted to do so?
It has been one whole month since this exact scenario last played out. In April, a woman with a violent criminal record who had also been put in a mental health diversion program stabbed a man to death during an argument. That woman had stabbed another woman in the chest in 2020.
Maybe, just maybe, “mental health diversion” isn’t a good option for attempted murderers. Has anyone working for George Gascon possibly considered that?
That isn’t the point, though. The point is that Gascon hates putting criminals in prison. Call it “reform” or “fighting mass incarceration,” but that is Gascon’s only guiding principle. That is why he doesn’t want to prosecute criminals if they happen to be illegal immigrants, why he doesn’t want sentencing enhancements for gang members or gun criminals, and why he doesn’t want the victims of crimes to be able to attend parole hearings for criminals.
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George Gascon does not care about making people safer. He never has. His focus is always on what is best for the criminals he is supposed to be prosecuting, and that is how dangerous people like Sutherland are on the streets to kill people in the first place.
Gascon is so ideologically committed to protecting criminals that he refuses to change course, no matter how many violent criminals he lets free that go on to kill people. This has been the reality in Los Angeles for over two years now, and Gascon has shown no signs of taking his job seriously and focusing on keeping his constituents alive rather than on keeping criminals out of prisons.