In recent years, some major progressive cities have erased their gang databases amid outcries from far-left activist groups and politicians around the country. They claim that keeping such information is racist because 88% of all gang members are not white, despite whites making up 70% of the entire US population.
Chicago’s crime has skyrocketed–with 4000 shootings and 55% murder rate increase in 2020 alone, since the vote to remove the database signaled a huge shift in arrest and policing policies in the city by radical anti-Trump mayor, Lori Lightfoot.
Now, it appears as though L.A. County in California is seeking to outdo Chicago’s anti-policing policies.
We previously reported on Los Angeles’ new Soros-funded District Attorney, George Gascon’s plans to completely radicalize the L.A. justice system. We have also discussed his unwillingness to charge Black Lives Matter criminals, even when they try to derail a train by placing barriers across the tracks.
He also refuses to charge vicious MS-13 gang members as such, even when they brutalized a transgender woman. Is this what progressives mean when they say ‘equity’?
This week, Gascon announced plans to effectively terminate its entire gang unit, leaving 700 active cases to twist in the wind while filing no new gang or gun allegations:
It is a sad day for LA. The Gang and Narcotics units have both been slashed in half. This will lead to more violence on our streets and more victims in our communities. And it puts public safety at greater risk.
— jonathanhatami (@jonathanhatami) April 1, 2021
“Los Angeles County’s top prosecutor is reimagining, renaming and downsizing to eliminate a unit within his office that handles gang-related cases, sources told Fox News.
The unit is slated to be “decentralized” under George Gascon‘s leadership, with a number of prosecutors in the Hardcore Gang unit expected to be transferred to other units. The unit currently has around 700 active cases.
Branch offices will get a “Special Trial Lawyer/Gang Coordinator” to assist prosecutors in absorbing the cases. No new gang or gun allegations will be filed.
Critics of the move argue it will result in more violence in communities.
In a statement to FOX Los Angeles, Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva called the move a “suicide pact.”
“While gang members are busy driving up LA County’s homicide rate, DA Gascon is now dismantling the Hardcore Gang Unit that works with local law enforcement,” he said. “This is not reform, this is beginning to look more like a suicide pact.”
Prosecutors also had sharp words for Gascon.
“It is a sad day for LA. The Gang and Narcotics units have both been slashed in half,” Los Angeles prosecutor Jonathan Hatami tweeted Wednesday.” This will lead to more violence on our streets and more victims in our communities. And it puts public safety at greater risk.”
Prosecutors working gang cases will be asked to set up community liaison relationships working with relevant police agencies to target specific gangs and gang members in an effort to reduce community violence, the source said.
The source said that prosecutors in the unit were told to wait for a phone call about their new assignments. If they chose to not remain in the new unit or whatever unit they are transferred to, a request for reconsideration will be honored.
“None of us will be asked to do anything we don’t want to do,” the source said.
The controversial changes come amid a series of criminal justice reforms implemented in the months since Gascon took office that have sparked nationwide backlash but also praise from criminal justice advocates.”
