Who says elections don’t have consequences?
Los Angeles county voters have just elected a remarkably tolerant district attorney.
As a result, new District Attorney George Gascon has decided county residents are going to tolerate a lot more crime in their lives.
Fox News has the story:
"George Gascon, Los Angeles County's new head prosecutor, unveiled an agenda Monday that will usher in changes to the local criminal justice system by his refusal to prosecute certain crimes on top of other sweeping changes.
"The list of offenses includes trespassing, disturbing the peace, a minor in possession of alcohol, driving without a license, driving with a suspended license, making criminal threats, drug and paraphernalia possession, being under the influence of a controlled substance, public intoxication, loitering to commit prostitution and resisting arrest."
There is a lawful way to make ignoring these offenses legal.
The process involves going to the county commission or board; or to the state legislature — asking elected officials to decriminalize those offenses by repealing the law.
What is not legal is for any district attorney to decide what laws he will enforce and what laws he won’t enforce.
The district attorney is not the legislature.
Law enforcement by whim is what’s found in Venezuela and other tin pot dictatorships; those run by strongmen who think they are above the law.
It’s worth considering the specifics of Gascon’s non-enforcement regime.
We’ll wager the neighborhood where he lives isn’t plagued by trespassing, public intoxication, prostitutes on the sidewalks, public drug use, criminal threats or minors getting high in the park.
What sort of neighborhoods are? Neighborhoods where the poor and minorities live.
Those same poor people the left assures us they care so deeply about are going to bear the brunt and consequences of Gascon’s arbitrary decision to let criminality go unchecked.
What does he think is going to happen in those neighborhoods when the least law-abiding are allowed free reign?
Or, did Gascon think at all?
The Los Angeles Police Protective League has given the new policy much thought.
The verdict wasn’t positive, "As homicides, shooting victims and shots fired into occupied homes soar in Los Angeles, it’s disturbing that Gascon’s first act in office is to explore every avenue possible to release from jail those responsible for this bloodshed. These victims and law-abiding residents lost a voice today while criminals and gang members gained an ally in the prosecutor’s office."
Gascon is so blinded by ideology that he won’t consider the consequences of his crime legalization plan for a minute.
The only people who will have the policy dominating their thoughts are the victims and residents of the neighborhoods that Gascon is pushing into a new dystopia.
Michael Reagan, the eldest son of President Reagan, is a Newsmax TV analyst. A syndicated columnist and author, he chairs The Reagan Legacy Foundation. Michael is an in-demand speaker with Premiere speaker’s bureau. Read Michael Reagan's Reports — More Here.
Michael R. Shannon is a commentator, researcher for the League of American Voters, and an award-winning political and advertising consultant with nationwide and international experience. He is author of "Conservative Christian’s Guidebook for Living in Secular Times (Now with addedhumor!)" Read Michael Shannon's Reports — More Here.