(Originally published in CNS News.)
Why should Los Angeles residents depend on District Attorney George Gascón to protect them when he can’t even protect his own employees?
Earlier this month, Gascón started shuttling employees who work in his office and are assigned to downtown’s Civic Center area to and from their cars. The reason for this is the fact that crime in the area has created a safety concern for those employees, according to an internal memofrom Gascon’s office that was analyzed by The Epoch Times.
This memo read: “Security incidents involving aggressive confrontations initiated by members of the public have occurred to our employees assigned in the Civic Center area, while walking between their vehicles or transportation area and the office”.
So, we have the chief prosecutor in Los Angeles, whose job it is to prosecute criminals and take them off the street, so ineffective at his job that he is having to beef up security around his employees.
The office’s Bureau of Investigation is running the shuttle for now, and minivans will carry workers “between Union Station and a parking lot in Chinatown every weekday between 6:20 a.m. to 8:20 a.m. and 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.”
With crime in Los Angeles soaring, surely the Bureau of Investigation could find a better use of its means other than shuttling employees through the city. Perhaps the Bureau could spend that time actually investigating crime in the city so that the attorneys are fully prepared when they go to trial.
Gascón’s office has been under fire for its lax approach to the prosecution of criminals at a time when crime in the city is rising. The city has also seen a growing homeless problem, and many of these people have drug problems also.
While talking about this matter with the Epoch Times, former Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley said: “The problem is worse nowadays, because of the sheer number of drug addicted or mentally disturbed, homeless that are everywhere, including the Civic Center”. He added: “That, I think, has made conditions worse.”
The District Attorney’s Office is just the latest example of city government focusing its limited resources on the safety of municipal employees. In 2019, the Los Angeles Police Department increased its presence in the area after city employees said they didn’t feel safe near their offices.
And while there is certainly crime in the area, the same can be said for the entire city.
The LAPD has a shortage of patrol officers, and citizens are facing increased response time to their calls for help. By squandering those limited resources in an area that isn’t necessarily the worst place for crime, officials are overlooking the rest of the city.
While it is commendable that Gascon wants to keep his employees safe, he would better achieve that by taking cases to court, winning convictions, and removing criminals from the streets. Not only would it remove some offenders, but it would send a message to other potential ones that he is serious about law enforcement.
What they see now is a man who is either too weak to do his job or actually on the side of the criminals.
