Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. George Gascón highlighted three latest instances Thursday through which his workplace secured convictions on hate-related prices and referred to as for extra consciousness about crimes pushed by prejudice.
“We now have no tolerance for hate in our neighborhood,” he stated throughout a information convention on the Corridor of Justice, including later that “police are doing their work, we’re prosecuting instances.”
Gascón’s remarks come practically 4 years after he issued a extensively criticized directive ordering prosecutors to cease looking for sentencing enhancements that enable for added penalties for many who are convicted of hate crimes and sure different classes of offenses.
Lower than two weeks after he launched the order, nevertheless, he reversed course, declaring in a December 2020 open letter that his deputies might resume submitting enhancements “in instances involving probably the most weak,” together with victims of hate crimes.
In a cellphone interview after the D.A.’s occasion, Nathan Hochman, Gascón’s opponent within the race for his seat, criticized Gascón’s “anemic efforts” to fight hate crimes and prosecute those that commit them.
“He’s successfully gaslighting the general public and attempting to make them imagine that he’s being proactive in attempting to go after hate criminals … however the actuality is he’s not,” Hochman stated.
Requested how his insurance policies differed from these of his predecessor, Jackie Lacey, and the proposed insurance policies of Hochman, the district legal professional stated that the occasion was “not a political dialog” and that he wouldn’t focus on the marketing campaign.
However his method to prosecuting hate crimes “differs drastically from my predecessor,” Gascón stated. “We now have elevated the variety of instances which are being prosecuted, considerably. … Additionally, our conviction price far exceeds not solely the state common however far exceeds the prior administration’s.”
Requested to supply figures to again up his claims about his workplace’s conviction price, Gascón stated he didn’t have these numbers available however “I do know that we’re getting superb outcomes.” The marketing campaign supplied solely details about his workplace’s submitting price.
Between 2016 and 2023, the variety of hate crimes reported in California has greater than doubled from 307 to 679. In 2023, the D.A.’s workplace filed 77 hate crime instances, in keeping with state Division of Justice figures. L.A. County prosecutors filed prices in 84% of the potential hate crime instances referred to the D.A.’s workplace by legislation enforcement final yr, in keeping with Gascón.
However Hochman criticized Gascón for not offering extra particulars.
“The one statistic that he thinks is worthy of consideration is submitting share. However he doesn’t inform you what number of instances have been filed vs. what number of instances might have been filed,” Hochman stated. “Of the hate crime prosecutions, what number of of these resulted in jail time? What number of of these folks ended up getting bail?”
Gascón was flanked by members of his much-touted D.A.’s workplace advisory boards that signify the pursuits of teams which have been targets of hate crimes in recent times in L.A. County, akin to members of the Latino, LGBTQ+ and Jewish communities.
Robin Toma, govt director of the Los Angeles County Fee on Human Relations, spoke Thursday in assist of Gascón’s efforts to battle in opposition to hate crimes.
“When our neighborhood has been threatened by hate crimes, he has been there,” Toma stated. “We’d like significant penalties for many who commit hate crimes, little doubt about it.”
Among the many instances highlighted by Gascón on Thursday:
On Aug. 21, Kevin Mumin was sentenced to 4 years in jail for a sequence of hate-driven assaults in opposition to Latino males and the sexual assault of a lady driving the bus to highschool.
Israel Hernandez was lately sentenced to 4 years in jail for the brutal, hate-driven beating of an unhoused African American man in December 2023.
On Aug. 23, Klinton Dion pleaded responsible to 1 depend every of vandalizing a spot of worship and putting an emblem of hate on public property, each pushed by antisemitism. He was sentenced to 2 years and eight months in jail.
