Controversial left-wing Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón is reportedly “planning to severely downsize or outright dissolve the office’s Hardcore Gang unit,” according to a report Tuesday night by local Fox affiliate KTTV-11.
Bill Melugin reported:
It’s one of the oldest units in the office and it’s responsible for prosecuting the most heinous and complex gang-related crimes in the county.
On the condition of anonymity, two LA County Deputy DA’s in the Hardcore Gang unit confirm to FOX 11 what multiple sources are telling us: that Gascón is planning to disband or downsize the unit in a major way.
“What we’re hearing is that the Hardcore Gang Unit will be dissolved,” said one of the prosecutors.
…
The prosecutors say they feel they’ve already been hamstrung by Gascón’s decision to ban them from using gang and gun enhancements, and they feel that disbanding the unit will be a disaster waiting to happen, given the violent crime surge across Los Angeles.
The change could happen as soon as early April, Melugin reported.
Gascón was elected in November after receiving millions of dollars from Soros, who has pushed for the election of radical prosecutors nationwide to pursue drastic “reforms” to criminal justice. He replaced incumbent Jackie Lacey, who was the first black woman in the job but was disliked by Black Lives Matter. Gascón took office and immediately pushed to end cash bail, bar prosecutors from seeking the death penalty, and end sentence enhancements for most aggravating circumstances.
Prosecutors — and the public — have pushed back. Rank-and-file prosecutors won a preliminary injunction last month that blocked some of Gascón’s policies, and critics — including families of crime victims — have started an effort to recall him.
However, Gascón’s “reforms” continue. On Tuesday, Gascón announced that it would review all the cases involving a recently retired detective who was seen in a recent video referring to a racial slur in a roadside argument with another driver.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.