Left-Wing LA County District Attorney Cuts Ties with DA Association Because All Its Members are White
Evan James
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Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón has said he’s cutting ties with the California District Attorneys Association because all of its board members are white.
“The absence of a single person of color on CDAA’s 17-member board is blinding,” Gascón wrote in a letter Tuesday to CDAA president Vern Pierson. “This is the leadership that sets the direction for an organization of elected prosecutors, all of whom disproportionately prosecute communities of color at a time when the nation is facing a reckoning over systemic racism, and in a state with a plurality of minorities no less.”
Pierson, who is also the El Dorado County District Attorney, shot back at Gascón in a statement to Fox News.
“Mr. Gascón cannot resign because he has not been a member of CDAA since October 2019 when he quit his job as DA of San Francisco,” Pierson said, adding that his race remarks are “disingenuous.”
“[H]e ran against the first sitting Los Angeles District Attorney who was both a woman and an African American. Incidentally, she was a CDAA board officer and in line to become president. Shootings and other violent crimes are skyrocketing in LA. This appears to be a publicity stunt to divert attention from his favoring criminals at the expense of victims and growing calls for his recall,” Pierson said.
Gascón hails from Cuba and has only been Los Angeles County District Attorney for approximately two months. He previously served as the San Francisco District Attorney; his predecessor in that position was Kamala Harris.
Pierson’s remarks about Gascón “favoring criminals at the expense of victims” likely refers to the lawsuit filed against Gascón by his own deputy district attorneys. They allege that he is attempting to impose reforms on sentencing enhancements, which they say cannot happen without violating the California state penal code.
“The directives violate California law, which imposes a mandatory duty on prosecutors to plead and prove strike priors,” they said in a statement. “Dismissals of those priors can only be based on individual circumstances, not a blanket policy.”
Gascón is well-liked among left-wing activists because of his stance on criminal justice reform. He claims his reform policy as LA District Attorney is aimed at reducing recidivism because sentencing enhancements and overincarceration do not “enhance safety.”
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