He ran as a progressive. But is LA's new District Attorney too progressive?
We talked to George Gascón about this in our exclusive KNX In-Depth interview Friday. He's only been LA County DA for roughly two weeks. But already, George Gascón is making waves. Big ones.
Gascón says it was a historic election adding about 2 million people voted for him.
"In the last eight years, we have seen about a 30 percent increase of violent crime in the county of LA, almost 50 percent in the city of LA. I am very concerned with that. I wanted to make sure we address that. I believe mass incarceration causes a lot of the increases in crimes that we have today because of recidivism and a whole set of conditions that occur," he says. "I was clear I would get rid of cash bail. I said I would not support the death penalty."
In our exclusive In-Depth interview with George Gascón, the newly minted District Attorney fires back at his critics--critics that include some prosecutors in his own office, a former DA and even a judge.
Gascón ran on a very progressive platform, one clearly intends to keep.
One former DA Steve Cooley has gone so far as to call George Gascón incompetent.
"Steve Cooley is a very bitter man. He's part of the past. He didn't make those comments when crime went up by nearly 30 percent in the last eight years or when crime went up during his administration," he says. "I don't think I'm too radical. I have been the District Attorney for nearly nine years. We had a reduction of violent crimes in San Francisco during my time as a District Attorney at a time when we had a population increase of six percent."
Gascón clearly does not seem fazed by the criticism. But he's only been in office about two weeks.
On In-Depth he talks about how he's going to bring "more data and science to our work." He also addresses the recall efforts against him.
He's also taken over as LA County District Attorney with a sweeping reform agenda.
No more trying minors as adults.
No more gang, Three Strikes or other sentencing enhancements.
Pending allegations will be dismissed.
"These policies yield no benefit to public safety. They undermine rehabilitation, they increase racial and other inequities in our justice system and they decimate families and communities," Gascón has said.
Gascón's also doing away with the death penalty. Prosecutors won't ask for it going forward and will seek to resentence those who've already been sent to death row.
One longtime LA County prosecutor, who asked to not be identified, says, "Everyone's in shock" and this is a "complete culture change" for the office.