Imperfect Paradise: District Attorney Gascón: Part 1

Norco 80

LAist Studios

True Crime

4.2 • 887 Ratings

🗓️ 4 September 2024

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Voters elected Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón in 2020 on his promises to undo decades of mass incarceration, tackle what many viewed as excessive prison sentences, and to generally create a fairer system. LAist Civics & Democracy Correspondent Frank Stoltze explores the criminal justice system Gascón set out to change. He examines decades-old practices and the impact on the people imprisoned through the case of Jose Santana. Santana ended up being sentenced to 22 years in adult prison for robbing two kids of their cellphones when he was 15.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Election season is underway, an LAST is here for you.
0:04.2	Make your most informed vote yet, with the help of our fact-based ballot guides
0:08.6	to candidates, measures, and more at LAAS.com. LAS.com.
0:15.0	LAS and Show and Tell present an evening with Fran Leibowitz.
0:20.0	Author, journalist, and social observer will take the stage Wednesday, September 25th at the Maltlebonne Theater.
0:25.3	Tickets and information at LAAS.com slash events. This is in person. L'Aest Studios.
0:44.0	This is imperfect paradise, the show about the gap between the dream and reality.
0:50.0	I'm Antonia Sirejido.
0:58.0	This past March was my first time covering an election. It was a primary election here in Los Angeles.
1:01.0	One of the races on the ballot was for Los Angeles County District
1:05.1	attorney. The incumbent George Gascone was running for re-election against 11
1:10.5	challengers. If he could win the majority of the votes, that would be it election over.
1:16.2	Gascon wins.
1:17.9	But otherwise, the top two candidates would face off in the November election.
1:23.0	Nobody thought Gascon was going to win outright,
1:27.0	even his own campaign manager,
1:29.0	who hadn't planned a watch party for Gascon's supporters. That's what I expected. A ballroom packed with swarms of people
1:37.2	watching the vote count roll in on big TVs. Instead, his campaign arranged for me to meet him in a dark park in downtown LA, right in front of the looming art deco-style city hall building.
1:50.0	It's like we're like, look, it look this to do like a drug deal.
1:55.0	I first saw District Attorney Gascon
1:58.0	from a distance, just his outline,
2:01.0	backlit by a street lamp. He was wearing a tailored suit, his crop of
	...

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