Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. George Gascón’s election defeat was one more reminder that despite what those of us in progressive states say we want (criminal justice reform), our feelings about crime and safety rule our decisions at the ballot box.
I was sorry that Gascón lost to Nathan Hochman, a former federal prosecutor who ran as a Republican for California attorney general in 2022, and has promised to undo most of Gascón’s reforms. But I wasn’t surprised.
“I had people calling me two months after Gascón won asking, ‘Why is crime going up?’ He hadn’t even gotten into office yet,” civil rights attorney Connie Rice told me Thursday. “That’s irrational, and they blamed him for COVID policies that the Superior Court set that emptied out low-level offenders [from jail].”…