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A petition to recall Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon failed to qualify for the vote, but opponents of progressive prosecutors say their job isn’t done.
Kathy Cady, former Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney and co-chair of the Recall DA George Gascon campaign, told Fox News that the group “has to review its full document to verify the rejected signatures and the verification process that took place. We will exercise our statutory and legal powers and ultimately aim to ensure that voters are not disenfranchised.”
“Nevertheless, according to Registrar Recorder, more than half a million residents have validly signed a petition to initiate the recall of Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon,” Cady said. It is heartbreaking to take away the opportunity to restore public safety in our communities, and to interpret this in any other way other than a sweeping rejection of Gascon’s dangerous policies is disingenuous or naive at best. is.”
Cady noted that more than 500,000 signatures had 37 cities voted no confidence in the district attorney, plus more than 98% of Gascon prosecutors supported the recall.
“George Gascon’s dismissal was never a question of when,” she said. “The citizens of Los Angeles cannot allow Gascon to wreak havoc on the streets and put people’s lives at risk for another two years.”
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Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney John McKinney said many of his colleagues and he were “disappointed” that the recall effort failed to meet the required number of signatures, but that it “has stood up to the scrutiny of objective review.” We will respect the results of the verification process if we are allowed to do so,” he said.
“Over the next two years, with Mr. Gascon at the helm of the District Attorney’s Office, I am deeply concerned about the viability of the health and safety of our communities and our entire court system,” McKinney said in a statement. “More than ever, the public needs to pay attention to what the Gascon government is doing and talk to other elected officials about their concerns.”
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The Republican nominee for California Attorney General Nathan Hochman said the people of Los Angeles “will have to continue to put up with the radical policies of George Gascon and[California Attorney General]Rob Bonta.” .”
“The homeless crisis that is ravaging our cities and the pro-crime pro-Gascon communities that refuse to address the soft-on-crime approach that endangers everyone,” Hochman said. The California Attorney General needs to intervene to “counteract prosecutor policy.”
As a future Attorney General, Hochman vowed to “stop radical district attorneys like Gascon and restore security throughout the state according to the law.”
Gascon supporters, on the other hand, have hailed the recall’s failure as a victory for the progressive movement. It clearly shows a waste of time and money.”
“DA Gascon was elected to implement overwhelmingly popular policies that enable restorative justice, disproportionately target black, brown, and low-income communities, and undermine criminals and their powers. We’ve improved a failing criminal justice system that holds abusers accountable,” Gonzalez said. statement. “George has lived up to those campaign promises and will continue to do so.”
“The Los Angeles criminal justice reform movement has taken off because it is a community that prefers facts to misplaced fear,” Christine Soto Debery, executive director of the Prosecutors Alliance for Reform, said in a statement. .
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Gascón, a former San Francisco police chief and later DA in the city, took office in Los Angeles in November 2020 as part of a wave of progressive nationally elected prosecutors. He ran for a criminal justice reform platform after a summer of turmoil following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Critics of Gascon argue that Gascon’s crime-friendly policies have spurred the city’s rising crime rate, but the Supreme Prosecutor disputes this. His move to drastically limit when he can be put on trial or seek a life sentence has angered victims’ rights groups.
Recall that organizers had to collect nearly 570,000 valid petition signatures in order to schedule the election. But after disqualifying about 200,000 signatures submitted, county officials found that only about 520,000 were valid, well below the threshold.
It was the second attempt to qualify for a recall election that could fire Gascon after the failed first attempt last year.
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The failed attempt comes after San Francisco voters remembered another prominent California criminal justice reformer, District Attorney Chesa Boudin, in June.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.