The drive to recall the radical L.A. County District Attorney George Gascon hit a huge landmark on Saturday, when The L.A. County Registrar-Recorder confirmed that the campaign collected 715,833 signatures. That's greater than the 500,000 signatures needed to place the issue on the November ballot. While it was reported that the Recall Gascon movement announced its signatures on Wednesday, it is only the second time elections officials have acknowledged it.
There's a final hill to climb: the Registrar will have until the 17th of August to check the signatures. While the office is notoriously difficult to verify signatures, it is necessary to disqualify a large number of people in order to be able to pass. Signature validators use their “random sampling technique,” in which they check just 5 percent of signatures to ensure that they are legal.
The strategy is similar to one employed for the recall in San Francisco, where progressive San Francisco DA Chesa Boudin was fired in June, following a successful recall attempt.
Gascon has been a total scourge to Los Angeles, freeing criminals all over the place, and refusing to properly prosecute even serious crimes. According to the LA Times:
A growing number of people who are unhappy with Gascon are centered around his all-or-nothing stances on policy. When he first took the office Gascon banned prosecutors from seeking death sentences and from attempting to convict juveniles in adult court or submitting sentencing enhancements. These can increase the length of prison time that a defendant could be subject to in certain circumstances; for instance, if they used guns during the commission of an offense.
News broke the shocking tale of how a narcotic-fueled teenager who was on parole and driving a stolen vehicle intentionally struck the mother and baby. Gascon provided the offender with five months in the so-called “probation camp.” The mother in the case was adamant about him following the incident and was even the spokesperson for his recall effort. In another instance one, a teenager brutally assaulted a 10-year-old girl, and was given only a slap on the wrist. A list of Gascon's shoddy choices is endless.
The overall rate of crime has increased under his administration since 2020:
In April, the number of incidents of violence within Los Angeles are up by 69% since the year 2020. The number of violent crimes is increasing by 7.2 percent when contrasted with the previous year. Robberies are increasing by 18.5 percent when compared to the previous year. The number of car thefts is up 40% when compared with 2020.
Criminals appreciate Gascon such that one prisoner called Gascon “champ” and promised to have his name tattooed on his face. L.A. Deputy DA Jon Hatami stated to Fox News:
“Today is truly the start of the final chapter of George Gascon…People are scared. They're worried about their security. We have a town and a county that are unregulated. We have a town and an area where people believe they are free to do whatever they like and not be responsible for what they do.”
You're sure you're not liked by your own deputy when he's attacking you in the media.
It's been beautiful to watch Chesa Boudin, and now, perhaps, George Gascon thrown out of their jobs. I'm not sure what they thought when they advocated these policies that were criminally oriented and victim-blaming. It is possible that they thought they were seeking “equity” and “police reform,” however, anyone who attended kindergarten is aware that letting criminals who are violent get away with little or no penalties is an invitation to catastrophe. It was a disaster for the two cities of San Francisco and Los Angeles. We'll just have to hope that this L.A. Registrar doesn't have some tricks of his own to disqualify this initiative, and when election time arrives in November, that the voters are out in force to remember this scourge.
