Our View | Gascón Recall: It’s About Safety

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By The Signal Editorial Board

L.A. County residents are getting another bite at the apple.

We suggest taking a very large one — because the public’s safety literally depends on it.

On Thursday, the newly formed Recall District Attorney George Gascón committee announced that it has been approved to proceed to gather 567,000 signatures in 160 days by July 6 to recall Gascón.

It’s the second time a recall has been attempted. The first recall effort last year failed, never really getting off the ground — not because the public supports Gascón’s approach to criminal justice but because of the internal infighting among the leaders of the first recall group.

By all appearances, the new recall effort appears better-organized and better-funded than the original one. And make no mistake, funding is important: Organizing and conducting an efficient petition drive in a county of more than 10 million people is no small endeavor.

The public outcry to recall Gascón has mounted and continued to grow ever since we first called for his recall just after he took office in December 2020.

Gascón was elected amid a wave of public sentiment in the aftermath of the George Floyd killing at the hands of Minnesota police in 2020, and the ensuing summer of protests across the nation. Gascón was viewed by many as a reformer who would hold police accountable.

What voters didn’t understand was, he didn’t much plan to hold anyone else accountable.

Immediately upon taking office, L.A. County’s new district attorney issued a number of directives, including orders that his deputies would not prosecute certain categories of crimes, would adopt a zero-bail policy as a default setting, and would refrain from seeking sentencing enhancements for violent crimes, including enhancements for gang-related crime.

Further, Gascón ordered his deputies to refrain from attending parole hearings as advocates for crime victims, and began undertaking a review of previous convictions in search of opportunities to reduce criminal sentences.

The results have been predictable. Violent crime has been on the rise in L.A. County since Gascón took office, and criminals act with impunity because they know they’ll be immediately released back to the streets to commit more crime.

The more the public has heard of Gascón’s support of the criminals and ignoring the victims of crime, the more the sentiment to recall him grows. The more the crime rate grows, the more criminals get released with no bail, and the more crimes that committed with no prosecution, the more voters become rightly outraged.

We’d seen this movie before, during Gascón’s previous tenure as D.A. in San Francisco. When we first warned against Gascón being elected, we said this would happen, that crime would spike, that Los Angeles would become an unsafe place to live and raise a family, and that if left unchecked, more crime would creep into Santa Clarita.

And all of our predictions have come true.

Gascón is unsuited to be L.A. County’s top prosecutor. We urge him to resign, and pursue a role more suited to his beliefs — perhaps something in the public defender’s office. 

If he does not, we urge you to support this recall attempt and sign the petition to remove Gascón, and stop the toll of crime victims from continuing to mount. 

We have a second chance. Don’t miss it.

To sign the petition, visit
RecallDAGeorgeGascon.com.

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