Far-left Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon, whose initial campaign was partially bankrolled by George Soros, has incredibly claimed he is the right man for the job when it comes to keeping “communities safe,” despite near-record spikes in violence and crime under his watch.
On Friday, Gascon defended his record amid a recall effort and criticism that his soft-on-crime approach is responsible for spiking rates.
“Yeah, in some areas it is,” Gascon told KTLA-TV on Saturday when asked if he thinks that Los Angeles is safer because of policies he has implemented.
“I think it’s important to start out by saying that I was a police officer for many years before I was the district attorney. I know how to keep communities safe,” he added, according to Fox News.
The network adds:
Gascon explained that he believes his Community Violence Intervention Unit has been successfully locating repeat offenders and making “good arrests” and bringing in “a lot of guns” off the streets. Gascon also said that his office has increased the number of prosecutions of sexual assaults which is an area he says his administration has done “really well” on.
Gascon also said that his team has improved the “filing system” to make the process more efficient and that he has been successfully pushing for more “integrity” in the legal system.
When pressed by KTLA anchor Lynette Romero on critics who say that Gascon’s policies have made crime in the city worse, Gascon pointed to the coronavirus pandemic.
“We’re coming out of the pandemic that has had a tremendous impact not only on L.A. County but throughout the nation,” Gascon said. “The reality is that crime is up around the nation, in fact, some of our neighboring counties per capita are having higher levels of violence than we are.”
He went on to claim that there is “no question” that the pandemic led to crime spikes and more homelessness.
“There are a lot of things that are not working,” Gascon said. “I see them. I’m frustrated as much as the next person. It is a national problem. It’s not just an L.A. problem. But L.A. in many ways is actually beginning to come out of it.”
He went on to say that he walks L.A. streets “every day” and that what he sees makes him “frustrated.”
Gascon was then asked by KTLA anchor Mark Meester about the families of two police officers who were recently murdered in El Monte, Calif., blaming their deaths on Gascon and his weak policies.
“The reality is there was no predictability that he was going to get involved in violence,” Gascon said about the gang member accused of killing the officers who was on probation for a weapons charge after he got a lenient sentence via a plea deal.
A policy implemented by Gascon allowed the suspect, Justin William Flores, to plead no contest to charges of being a felon in possession of a firearm and thus receive a light sentence even though he already had a strike on his criminal record.
“We have to understand that we’re never going to get it 100% right,” Gascon claimed.
Flores allegedly killed El Monte Police Officer Joseph Anthony Santana his partner, Cpl. Michael Domingo Paredes after they responded to a call of a stabbing in on Tuesday.
“Gascon is just letting all these criminals out and they just keep doing one crime after the other,” Olga Garcia, the mother of Santana, said. “That guy should have been in jail. If he wouldn’t have been out my son and the other officer would still be here.”
Gascon is facing a recall and organizers say they have enough signatures to get it on the November ballot.
