District Attorney Gascón: Part 2
Imperfect Paradise
LAist Studios
4.5 • 535 Ratings
🗓️ 11 September 2024
⏱️ 41 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
George Gascón is unlike many prosecutors. His background and sweeping criminal justice policy reforms as Los Angeles District Attorney have made him a polarizing national figure. LAist Correspondent Frank Stoltze speaks with Gascón about his journey from hard-nosed LAPD cop to one of the most progressive prosecutors in the country and reports on the rebellion inside Gascón’s own DA’s office that began brewing within hours of him taking office.
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Transcript
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| 0:37.2 | I'm Antonia Ceregido, and I'm here with L.A.ist correspondent Frank Stoltz. Hi, Frank. Hey, Antonia. So you're here to tell me about what happened when George Gascon was elected as district attorney of L.A. County in the fall of 2020. Right. You'll remember he was an LAPD cop for a long time. Then he went to law school. He was in Mesa, |
| 0:56.0 | Arizona as the police chief, went to San Francisco as the DA up there. And in fact, he took over |
| 1:02.3 | Kamala Harris's position as DA in San Francisco before coming to L.A. As you remember, he ran as a |
| 1:08.9 | progressive in L.A. County and promised to make a lot of changes right away. |
| 1:13.6 | But the members of the L.A. County Prosecutors Union were not so enthused about having George Gascon as their boss. |
| 1:20.1 | And that's because traditionally, district attorney's office has been people who are really tough on crime. |
| 1:25.2 | That's right, Antonia. These rank-and-file prosecutors had done |
| 1:28.5 | prosecuting one way for something like 40 years. They'd even campaigned against him. The prosecutor's |
| 1:35.2 | union endorsed the incumbent Jackie Lacey in 2020. And this is because they were very skeptical of |
| 1:41.9 | George Gascon's progressive policies. |
| 1:45.0 | That's a very tense work environment to come into. |
| 1:49.0 | George Gascon knows that his employees are maybe not his biggest fans. |
| 1:53.1 | How did he approach that? |
| 1:55.2 | Well, he came in strong with his directives right off the bat. |
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