California Globe:
Crime victims and law enforcement officials announced Saturday they are launching a recall campaign against Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón, whose 2020 campaign was funded by billionaire oligarch George Soros, with more than $2.5 million. Gascón ran for District Attorney on a promise of turning the court system upside down, and eliminating cash bail.
The announcement came on the heels of a motion filed last week in a double murder case seeking to disqualify DA Gascón for among other issues, hiring a former public defender to write his Youth Justice policy when she was still a Deputy Public Defender, representing criminal defendants, allegedly benefitting her criminal clients. DA Gascón ordered the double murder case to stay in juvenile court, despite that the perpetrator was 17 years-old and only weeks away from his 18th birthday when he was arrested, which means the most he would get, if convicted, would be about seven years in the murder of the two young women, Fox11 reported.
Organizers of the recall campaign plan to gather the signatures needed to file an intent to recall during a “Victims Vigil” at the downtown LA Hall of Justice.
The recall effort needs valid signatures from 10% of registered voters in the county, or about 590,000 people, to qualify for the ballot. Organizers say they’ll actually aim for about 200,000 additional signatures since many could be thrown out for various reasons, LA Daily News reported.
Has he pissed off the people that voted him in or will they just vote for him again by voting against his recall?
I certainly believe that defendants need their rights preserved, and I believe that convicted felons need their rights preserved and not be subject to cruel and unusual punishment. What does bother me is that, like with gun control, the more you give in to demands, the more they demand. Some people want to eliminate the death penalty and just have life sentences with no possibility of parole (although what do you do with such a person who murders another prisoner or a guard?), but you just know that when they accomplish that then people will say that a life sentence is cruel and unusual punishment. The more society cares for criminals’ rights, the less it cares for the honest citizen’s. That bothers me a great deal.
Part of why he won is that the incumbent, his opponent, had a lot of problems. But a large part of that was that she was aggressive in going after criminals, while Gascon had a visible record from his stint as San Francisco DA so voters knew exactly what they were voting for in him.
I could see a recall being successful. But I don’t know how much better a replacement would be.
DAN
Agree!