Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón, the George Soros-backed prosecutor who has overseen a dramatic rise in crime in L.A., has appointed a radical chief of staff, Tiffany Townend Blacknell, who has a record of trashing police.

Fox News’ Bill Melugin reported that Blacknell had called for defunding police, and expressed indifference toward the suffering of L.A. residents who had been victims of the Black Lives Matter riots in 2020:

Melugin added that he had previously reported “that Blacknell was also involved in an alleged secret ‘sweetheart’ plea deal offer of 7 years to a suspected gang murderer behind the backs of the prosecutor & victim’s family. The deal fell apart after judge found out about it.”

Blacknell’s offensive opinions came to light in 2020, when she worked for Gascón’s campaign as he challenged incumbent D.A. Jackie Lacey, the first black woman to hold the job. Ironically, Lacey became a target of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Melugin reported in 2020:

On June 5th, in response to a video of LAPD engaged with protesters in LA’s Fairfax District, Blacknell’s Twitter account posted “Look at these barbarians! #LAPD is an occupying army! #DefundPolice.”

On August 2nd, 2019, Blacknell’s account posted “Prison is obsolete. We need to reimagine America without it,” and her account has posted the hashtag #AbolishPrisons multiple times.

…

“I was stunned,” L.A. County D.A. Jackie Lacey told FOX 11. “You shouldn’t have anybody on your committee whose talking about burn it down, when the city is burning because of rioting and looting. The other tweet, abolish prisons? So where do rapists go? Where are people who murder going? Are these people going to inform the public safety policy for the LA County DA’s office? They shouldn’t!”

Last year, Blacknell was described as a public defender inside Gascón’s inner circle of advisers. Peter Savodnik wrote at the Free Press: “On her Instagram, Blacknell, who is black, had posted a picture of herself in a t-shirt that said, ‘THE POLICE ARE TRAINED TO KILL US,’ and another photo of herself in a shirt that said, ‘THEY CAN’T KILL US ALL.'”

Blacknell was also accused of trying to intimidate prosecutors who defied Gascón’s radical new “criminal justice reform” initiatives, many of which resulted in violent criminals being released and murderers receiving lower penalties.

Blacknell has locked her social media accounts.

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 new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.