Instant Recall: Just Add Lies

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District Attorney Geroge Gascón, who was the center of a recall effort led by two billionaires. File photo.

The “Recall George Gascón’’ website is paid for by “Victims of Violent Crime for the Recall of District Attorney Gascón,” but two of the the three major donors it cites are billionaires on the LA Business Journal’s list of “Wealthiest Angelenos,” and one of them, Geoffey Palmer, is a Donald Trump mega donor, to the tune of $2 million. The other, Robert Day, made his money the old-fashioned way: he inherited it. So, a more honest name would have been: “Billionaires for the Recall of District Attorney Gascón.” But honesty plays no part in the recall effort, any more than it does in Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 election.

The Gascón recall campaign is also an attempt to overturn the 2020 election, but in a more local sense, revolving around race and criminal justice reform. When Gascón defeated incumbent District Attorney Jackie Lacey by 7 points this past November, it was just one of several fronts in this fight. County Measure J, dedicating funding to redress racial injustice — including alternatives to incarceration — passed by almost 15 points, and Proposition 17, restoring parolees voting rights, passed by 17 points, while Proposition 20, which would have rolled back several important criminal justice reforms, was defeated by 16 points. As with the election of President Joe Biden, the voice of the voters was clear: they soundly rejected the failed mass incarceration politics of the past.

Left, Geoffrey Palmer, one of the billionaires leading the recall effort against Gascón. Right, Robert Day, the other billionaire leading the recall effort against Gascón. File photos.

But, also as with Biden’s election, the conservative losers refused to accept reality. Immediately after Gascón took office on Dec. 7, announcing he’d implement the policies he’d campaigned on — an end to cash bail, the death penalty, trying children as adults, and the use of sentencing enhancements to lengthen prison sentences — the first shots were fired in an effort to recall him. That same month saw a dramatic uptick in the effort to recall California Gov. Gavin Newsom (who appointed Gascón as San Francisco police chief in 2010 and district attorney in 2011), even as Republicans tried and failed to block the certification of Electoral College results in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.

While national attention focused on Trump’s far-flung efforts to hold onto power in purple and formerly red states — efforts that culminated in the Jan. 6 insurrection — the situation in deep-blue California was in some ways even more troubling, because of how strikingly it showed contempt for the will of the voters. Newsom was elected governor in 2018 by almost 2-1, 63% to 32%. The recall petition attacked him for not having a Republican agenda, and only found traction because of frustrations over COVID-19 restrictions — restrictions that probably saved tens of thousands of lives. Gascón won by a narrower, but still substantial margin (53.7% to 46.3%) against a well-funded incumbent (the first to lose since 1992) backed by more than $5 million from the law enforcement establishment. It was an unmistakable rejection of the status quo, made possible by years of grassroots organizing, supercharged by Black Lives Matter protests following the murder of George Floyd in March 2020. Now, Gascón also faces a recall for not embracing the agenda he defeated at the polls.

“The people that are supporting the recall are not interested in public safety,” Gascón said on NPR’s Air Talk on June 24. “They want me to put kids in adult prison. They would like to see the gas chamber back again. They want to see the death penalty working. They’re really interested in punishment as opposed to safety.”

To understand the recall, Gascón urged people to follow the money.

“When you look at the funding on the organization, what you’re seeing is very conservative right-wing people, much like we see in other parts of the country, trying to undo the results of an election,” Gascón said. 

Gascón went on to cite Palmer, as well as former District Attorney Steve Cooley and police unions. 

“So it is very clear a) what they want and b) where it’s coming from,” he said. “And, it’s not about safety, it’s about punishment.”

Indeed, the idea that crime victims and their families want punishment is just another lie. Some do, of course — and the recall campaign highlights them, as if they speak for everyone. Tania Owen, a recall campaign co-chair is a prominent example. Her husband was murdered in 2016, but she’s not your typical survivor. Her husband was a sergeant in the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department, and she herself is a detective in the department, as well as a public speaker who’s made a second career based on her identity — primarily speaking to law enforcement audiences, according to her website. So, she’s a victim, yes. But hardly a representative one. She’s far more representative of law enforcement — the part of law enforcement that’s bitterly opposed to any change.

A more representative view can be found in a survey of 724 LA County crime victims (including families of murder victims) by David Binder Research, conducted in early February. It found that “few get victim support services,” and “Most say they were not informed about these services, and majorities say they would have wanted services they did not receive,” thus giving the lie to the notion that the existing system prioritizes victims’ welfare, interests and concerns.

The survey report went on to say:

Most violent crime victims want changes to the criminal justice system that emphasize rehabilitation and crime prevention, rather than more incarceration. Large majorities support policies to shift resources away from incarceration and invest in prevention, rehabilitation, and support services. Asked about criminal justice preferences, the vast majority of violent crime victims support community-based victim services, mental health crisis response, and violence prevention outreach workers as well as alternatives to incarceration and reducing sentences for people in prison that participate in rehabilitation.

When asked specifically, “Which of the following should be a prosecutor’s primary goal?” only 25% said “Prosecuting crimes to get as many convictions and prison sentences as possible,” while 69% said, “Solving neighborhood problems and stopping repeat crimes through prevention and rehabilitation, even if it means fewer convictions.”

What crime victims want is well supported by the data that Gascón points to as guiding his policies. In fact, the evidence goes even farther in some respects. A 2015 study based on data from Harris County, Texas (home to Houston), from 1980 to 2009, found that “incarceration generates net increases in the frequency and severity of recidivism, worsens labor market outcomes, and strengthens dependence on public assistance.” In short, sending someone to prison makes them more likely, not less, to commit future crimes. This makes perfect sense, if prisons act more like schools for criminals than places of rehabilitation.

In addition, a March 2021 study based on data from Suffolk County, Massachusetts (Boston), from 2004 to 2018, found that “non-prosecution of a non-violent misdemeanor offense leads to large reductions in the likelihood of a new criminal complaint over the next two years.” So, even prosecuting someone makes them more likely, not less, to commit future crimes.

Recall proponents blame Gascón for increased crime in Los Angeles County, but it’s hardly credible, he told AirTalk. 

“I have been in office for six months,” he pointed out. “And, actually, the day after I was sworn in, the recall process began and they were told they’d have to wait 90 days. You could hardly say that my policies are causing an increase in crime when you look at the last seven years of increase in violent crime in the county, the spike in homicides last year, and I’ve only been in office for six months.”

There’s also been violent crime increases across the country since last summer. But here, as elsewhere, the recent rise still leaves crime rates well below what they were 15 or 20 years ago, before California began reversing its tough-on-crime policies.

The county’s top cop, Sheriff Alex Villanueva, has joined the recall effort, but Villanueva himself has been severely criticized over allegations of excessive force, retaliation, lack of transparency and mismanagement. This past October, the Los Angeles County Civilian Oversight Commission called for him to resign, the next month the Board of Supervisors began investigating how they might fire him, and in January, the state launched a civil rights investigation. In early June, the County Democratic Party also called for his resignation.

In the Air Talk interview, Gascón said that Villanueva’s opposition came after he refused to join the sheriff’s “crusade targeting all his political enemies.” More than a dozen smaller cities served by the Sheriff’s Department have since endorsed the recall, apparently relying on Villanueva-generated propaganda. His opposition has also been promoted by Epoch Times, a pro-Trump conspiracist media outlet run by the Chinese Falun Gong religious cult. Fox News has also played a role, promoting unrepresentative “crime victim representatives,” so the recall campaign has all the hallmarks of a typical Trump-era GOP operation.  

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