Endorsement: Re-Elect Jackie Lacey for District Attorney
Tomorrow is Super Tuesday, and it’s also the date of the election for District Attorney of Los Angeles. I will be voting for my current boss, Jackie Lacey. I have never felt the need to publish an endorsement for District Attorney before — and I doubt that my position is going to be very controversial among the readership of this site — but I think it’s time to speak out.
Lacey’s main opponent is George Gascon, the latest in a nationwide wave of would-be district attorneys whose selling point is that they will go easier on criminals than the incumbent prosecutor would. This is an argument that has worked in some places, notably San Francisco and Philadelphia. It can’t work here. Gascon is endorsed by the Democrat party and by the Los Angeles Times — a somewhat redundant set of honors. He has run television ads that sound like he is running as a defense attorney, with his main selling point being how lenient he will be.
Gascon wants everyone who has been sent to death row by the L.A. County District Attorney’s Office for horrific murders to be resentenced, although he is completely unclear about how exactly he expects to accomplish this. (I have one defendant on death row and he richly deserves to be there.) Gascon was the District Attorney in San Francisco, before the election of the current San Francisco public-defender-turned-D.A., Chesa Boudin, who was sired by convicted Weather Underground terrorists and raised by Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dorhn (not a joke). But the current mayor and city attorney of San Francisco have endorsed Lacey. What does that tell you?
Gascon hopes to use a “risk assessment tool” to determine bail, rather than the traditional system that prioritizes public safety. This experiment was tried in San Francisco courts with much the same disastrous and violent results as the country has seen in New York, including the 2017 murder of Edward French in San Francisco.
Gascon is a danger to public safety. If he is elected, morale in my office will plummet as the prosecutors are forced to work for someone who cares more about dangerous so-called “reforms” than he cares about crime victims. He won’t be able to fire us willy-nilly, like Boudin fired experienced prosecutors in San Francisco, so this endorsement isn’t about my job safety. It’s about the need to have a D.A. who does the right thing for the right reasons. And that’s Jackie Lacey.
In my current position, I have had more recent personal interaction than I had in the past with District Attorney Lacey. I worked for her in the early 2000s when she was a beloved Bureau Director over Central Trials, and I defended a habeas petition a couple years earlier (also in the early 2000s) on a case she had had prosecuted, and interviewed her about that case. But that was the main extent of our contact, absent occasional passing greetings (and, like Gil Garcetti, Jackie always remembers your name and who you are). But recently I have had some closer interaction with her on two or three occasions, and have been very impressed. I don’t want to go into the details of any particular case, but I have watched her thoughtfully analyze and discuss complex murder cases and offer nuanced positions that are the complete opposite of how she is portrayed by the more fringe elements of the Black Lives Matter crowd.
I’m not going to discuss the incident that happened at her home this morning, other than to say that she has been treated very unfairly by many of the protestors who have harassed her for months, some of them using the most callous language and tactics possible. I salute her courage in seeking justice and doing her job without bending to the very public pressure of those who would have her ignore her oath and make decisions for political reasons. If you have any concerns over this morning’s incident, locate and watch her press conference. Any fair-minded person watching that press conference will get a good sense of who she is. Watch it until the end, when she forcefully says she is not going to let down the folks of the D.A.’s office. It was an inspiring and moving moment.
I have no reservations about telling you that I will be voting for Jackie Lacey tomorrow. I encourage every reader of this site to do the same.
P.S. As it says on the sidebar, I speak for myself and not my office. That is true for this post, as it is for every post.
So there you have it.
Patterico (115b1f) — 3/2/2020 @ 9:04 pmWhat happened to Ms. Lacey at her home this morning is awful. I don’t blame her husband for brandishing a handgun when confronted by the ugly BLM/Antifa crowd on this front doorstep at 5:40 am, though I certainly wish he hadn’t pointed it in their direction. I’m going to vote for her tomorrow too, though I do fear that the optics of what happened this morning are going to badly work against her, if anyone happens to be paying attention. And I am really, really sorry that you are even put in the position of having to potentially work for a San Francisco reject who thinks coddling criminals is the way to get back in the good graces of the radical left.
JVW (54fd0b) — 3/2/2020 @ 9:04 pmIf I lived in L.A. County, I’d definitely vote for Jackie Lacey based on your recommendation, Mr. P.
That Gascon has a fighting chance is one of the reasons I don’t live there anymore.
Munroe (dd6b64) — 3/2/2020 @ 9:06 pmI assume you agree that these “optics” are precisely what the BLM crowd hoped for when they showed up on her doorstep before most people are awake. Ironic that the video, like some (not all) video relied on by the BLM crowd for their grievances, eliminates crucial context.
Patterico (115b1f) — 3/2/2020 @ 9:10 pmNice that you and your boss have a good professional relationship.
I live in OC, but based on what you say I hope she’s re-elected.
Dave (1bb933) — 3/2/2020 @ 9:10 pmI don’t want to make out our interactions to be more than they are. It’s an office of 1000 lawyers. She interacts with many others more than with me. But I have had the chance to watch her close up a couple of times in recent weeks and have been impressed with what I saw.
Patterico (115b1f) — 3/2/2020 @ 9:15 pmI assume you agree that these “optics” are precisely what the BLM crowd hoped for when they showed up on her doorstep before most people are awake.
Yeah, I carped at the other candidate for the job who took Ms. Lacey to task for apparently allowing her husband to defend the family home.
JVW (54fd0b) — 3/2/2020 @ 9:15 pmBut, Jeebus, Mr. Lacey has to be smart enough to hold the gun down in front of him, muzzle pointed to the ground, and not waive it around like some unhinged fool.
JVW (54fd0b) — 3/2/2020 @ 9:18 pmGeeze, he had his finger on the trigger too. No firearm discipline at all.
JVW (54fd0b) — 3/2/2020 @ 9:20 pmI’m not sure how much discipline I would have in such a situation.
Patterico (115b1f) — 3/2/2020 @ 10:28 pmI’m not sure how much discipline I would have in such a situation.
Yeah, but you’ve been through some serious stuff on your front porch. Perhaps the Laceys have too, but I think if Mr. Lacey is going to brandish a firearm he needs to control it a whole helluva lot better. But it really sucks that he was put in that situation to begin with.
JVW (54fd0b) — 3/2/2020 @ 10:33 pmInteresting. Gascon is of Cuban descent, but looks plenty Anglo to me. Ms. Lacey is African-American. Who knew her opponents were…so racist?
Simon Jester (7b213b) — 3/2/2020 @ 10:49 pmOn a serious note, Patterico, I trust your judgement about these DA-ers.
Simon Jester (7b213b) — 3/2/2020 @ 10:50 pmIf she loses, Cook County IL could do way way worse…fly her out here and let’s get her on as independent for November.
But given the cross streams/strange bedfellows of both her and her opponents’ backers, this not the post racial America I’ve signed up for.
urbanleftbehind (3a66e2) — 3/3/2020 @ 4:11 amGascon seems to get jobs the same way a Filipino doctor gets patients. But at least that new One Day at a Time series has some basis in reality (a Cuban in LA…and the Cuban matriarch in the show thinks it’s easy for the daughter to find a Cuban man in LA).
urbanleftbehind (3a66e2) — 3/3/2020 @ 4:17 amAs terrible as it will no doubt be for the law and order desiring citizens of L.A., and going by no polling, other knowledge, or insight whatsoever, after reading Gascon’s resume (holy cow!) on his website and reading about the incident with Jackie Lacey’s husband this morning, I will be shocked if she wins.
George Gascon is your next D.A. Will you resign in protest or do your best to get justice under a D.A. undermining your work?
Make America Ordered Again (c1ef7d) — 3/3/2020 @ 4:36 amI can understand your anger. This is the exact situation when max discipline is required.
I say that from an ex-infantry perspective, but I’m sure it’s the same in a court room.
It’s even the same from a protecting your family perspective, when facing a mob: a brandished gun may do the trick and, if his finger wasn’t on the trigger, I’d be hoping he doesn’t get charged with anything (now I still hope that, but reluctantly conclude the odds of me voting to convict him, were I on a jury, would go up over that); everything everyone said against Antifa (who embrace political violence as a philosophy) and the violent BLM radicals (some in BLM are peaceful) above still holds true; however, if you must brandish a gun in self-defense, keep your finger off the trigger. You’re still responsible for every bullet you let fly, intended or not, and if you wound someone in a mob, that could disperse the mob, or it could enrage your mob with your family behind you.
Make America Ordered Again (23f793) — 3/3/2020 @ 4:52 amI’ll be rooting for her.
Sorry, JVW, but the gun etiquette for defending your home and family from a mob is “What will your bullet hit if you miss?” or, as Jeff Cooper put it, “Know your target and what’s behind it”. That’s all.
nk (1d9030) — 3/3/2020 @ 6:24 amI’d be interested in seeing fuller, unedited video. From the part shown in the news clip I saw, the protesters looked annoying and persistent but non-violent, and he looked terrible, aiming at a woman.
I’m no fan of Antifa/BLM, and am more than open to the idea they may have been threatening.
But with just the part I saw, I don’t see how he doesn’t get prosecuted.
Make America Ordered Again (23f793) — 3/3/2020 @ 6:30 amWhy didn’t he keep the door locked and call the LAPD, FFS? He could have kept his gun in hand on the other side of the door, prepared to use reasonable force to protect himself and his wife.
What he did was dumb.
Make America Ordered Again (23f793) — 3/3/2020 @ 6:34 amP – If I was residing back in SoCal I’d be voting for Ms. Lacey. Fingers are crossed that she’s allowed to stay in office.
HMCS(FMF) ret (566ba2) — 3/3/2020 @ 6:39 amI definitely hope Jackie Lacey wins and her husband gets the best possible legal representation and consideration for the stress he was under and what I assume is a long life well lived.
Make America Ordered Again (23f793) — 3/3/2020 @ 6:40 amThe American law on the use of force (and California is still in America for the most part) in defense of one’s home (the part I saw Mr. Lacy was standing inside his doorway and the three trespassers were on the Laceys’ porch) is not like that of other countries.
nk (1d9030) — 3/3/2020 @ 6:41 am*Mr. Lacey*
nk (1d9030) — 3/3/2020 @ 6:42 amYeah, I get that, but it’s not a Castle Doctrine state.
Also, as someone who is ex-military, the lack of trigger discipline just irks me. I imagine JVW is the same way, possiblly for the same reason. It was kind of drilled into me.
Having a gun on hand at one’s home prepared to defend oneself against leftist radicals trying to intimidate your wife into silence, for the benefit of criminals no less, during an important election is hardly the part that I take issue with.
Make America Ordered Again (23f793) — 3/3/2020 @ 6:44 amCorrection. I was wrong. California is a Castle Doctrine state; I should have looked it up first, obviously.
So, that will help him, I hope. Still, keep your finger off the trigger until you’re ready to shoot!
Make America Ordered Again (23f793) — 3/3/2020 @ 6:47 am(I just assumed a silly place like California wouldn’t be a Castle Doctrine state. My bad.)
Make America Ordered Again (23f793) — 3/3/2020 @ 6:47 amThe LA Times endorsed Gascon and George Soros funded his campaign. That should tell you enough about who to vote for here.
Gascon and his supporters use the phrase “mass incarceration” to mislead the public about what is really happening. Getting into prison is a lifetime achievement award that isn’t awarded easily.
AZ Bob (885937) — 3/3/2020 @ 7:58 amthough I do fear that the optics of what happened this morning are going to badly work against her
Depends where you are. Maybe in LA. In a lot of places, they view her husband as a man trying to defend his home. Heck, he could be in an NRA ad.
Maybe if she loses, she should move to Texas and become a Republican.
Bored Lawyer (998177) — 3/3/2020 @ 8:29 amAZ Bob (885937) — 3/3/2020 @ 7:58 am
Not the public, the intellectuals. All of this stuff is a good example of how to lie with statistics.
The problem is that it is invidious and maybe considered racist to say that there are more bad people nowadays among African Americans than among any other group of people in the United States, so the best retort isn’t said.
It is never said that, yes, there are more blacks arrested and convicted, but that is because there are more rotten people among blacks.
So it becomes like arguing against socialism. Socialism has some success until people can manage to elucidate arguments against it.
They’re going to have to find a non-racist explanation (the racist explanations, which nobody gives, of course are ridiculous and untrue so you don’t really have to worry about them) for why there is more serious crime among blacks than among whites. The reality is undeniable to any honest person. The question is why.
There is a good explanation: Differential association – a person is influenced by his friends, and his friend’s experiences.
Also DIFFERENTIAL LAW ENFORCEMENT, which is different in exactly the opposite way (net, because you get both Type I and Tyoe II errors) than what Black Lives Matter and other advocates claim.
That is; It is far easier to get away with actions like serious law breaking in black communities than in white communities, and for longer, and the same thing goes for bullying and causing other kinds of trouble in school, which can set someone off on the wrong direction.
Anybody that says the opposite is lying with carefully chosen statistics, that, among other things, assume, falsely, that there are no more evil people among blacks (in our day and age) than among non-blacks. It’s not true.
Now it is important to evaluate every person individually. And that maybe could be hard to do for some people. But it’s important. Every person is different.
Sammy Finkelman (9fe80b) — 3/3/2020 @ 8:41 amThings haven’t always been the way they are, and the relative ratio has changed considerably even since 1990, but it’s true. And that does not contradict free will and individual responsibility nor does it support the even more stupid idea of inherent inherited criminality, which can readily be proven false if someone is disposed to believe it.
If this unstated assumption – no more rotten people among blacks than among whites – is not attacked head on, this will go on, because in the end, that is the only defense you can give for the incarceration statistics.
By not going against the unstated (for good reason because bringing something out into the open allows it to be disputed, but also uncontradicted, assumption of racial balance in participation in evil head on, people are literally requiring every single person that is confronted with it to either deny it, or think why this is so for themselves, and if they do, some of them will come up with racist explanations, so how is that good?
Sammy Finkelman (9fe80b) — 3/3/2020 @ 8:43 amI already voted for Lacey a few days ago, hope she wins.
Maybe the optics of yesterday’s incident are bad, as people are saying, but the LA Times’ coverage of the story exercised the paper’s typical selection of facts. I perhaps read it too quickly, but the only references to the time of day I saw were vague phrases like “early Monday” and “near dawn” but nothing about the incident happening at 5:40 a.m. which was reported elsewhere. The Times also didn’t find room to mention that the protestors had banged on the door, which was also reported elsewhere. The Times did helpfully mention that the protestors had set up chairs on the sidewalk in front of her house and had prayed at some point before the incident. I don’t know, pray all you want, but if you bang on someone’s door at 5:40 a.m. to harass them you maybe should expect a hostile reaction.
The Times also said that the protestors had protested peacefully outside Lacey’s office several times, as if to imply that her husband should have known they would be peaceful when they banged on the door. It’s almost as if the editors decided to make the coverage one-sided or something.
This is what passes for news coverage from our local paper here in L.A. If it weren’t for the generally decent sports pages, I would have stopped getting it long ago.
RL formerly in Glendale (40f5aa) — 3/3/2020 @ 9:39 amThe very fact that that Gascon is considered a viable candidate for DA illustrates that California is an insane asylum. My old wish to see you out here in Colorado remains, Patterico.
SPQR (08311d) — 3/3/2020 @ 10:02 amDid you ever read his bio, man?
I’m sure he’s leftist slime. Let’s call that a given. But holy crap! Excerpt:
Not in the slightest surprising that he’s a viable candidate. That’s a future Presidential contender if he was eligible.
Make America Ordered Again (23f793) — 3/3/2020 @ 10:07 amHi SPQR!
—
I agree. Look, it’s easy to sit behind a keyboard and get off track talking about indexing and backstops and keeping your cool. It’s definitely better to keep your cool when people attack your home.
But there’s a reason these protests at homes, often from Antifa or the like, are such a provocative step. They know it’s a huge violation. They know people could be scared for their families and kids. They know this could lead to a juicy video snippet and are willing to cause all this risk and stress for a few points at the polls. all responsibility for this man imperfectly hoping to protect his family rests with the people taking politics to someone’s home.
Dustin (33f5ee) — 3/3/2020 @ 10:28 amYeah, sure. They were trying to intimidate her, no doubt.
Real mau-mau stuff.
Make America Ordered Again (c1ef7d) — 3/3/2020 @ 11:00 amDustin, greetings. People don’t understand the value of central controlled water sprinklers…..
SPQR (08311d) — 3/3/2020 @ 11:04 amYes, California is both a stand-your-ground and a castle doctrine state.
The reason it’s confusing is because it’s not written law; it comes from a series of California Supreme Court decisions starting from the 1890’s and continually being reaffirmed from there.
If you are a juror in a case which concerns stand-your-ground and castle doctrine, it’ll be in the mandated Jury Instructions.
Ingot9455 (1549ef) — 3/3/2020 @ 11:17 amThanks for the explanation, Ingot.
Make America Ordered Again (c1ef7d) — 3/3/2020 @ 11:19 amIf I still lived in LA, I’d be getting up early to take your advice. I hope that LA County doesn’t play lemming, but it might; a lot of that going around.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 3/3/2020 @ 5:28 pmBut, Jeebus, Mr. Lacey has to be smart enough to hold the gun down in front of him, muzzle pointed to the ground, and not waive it around like some unhinged fool.
Pretty sure that many African-Americans have needed that 2nd Amendment over the years, and waving a gun all around should tell people to GET OFF MY PROPERTY. Which is the point, I think.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 3/3/2020 @ 5:30 pmI say that from an ex-infantry perspective
I think I’d go with the “outraged householder” perspective. And an investigation into the early-morning ambush will be part of the decision. Particularly if the other campaign was involved.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 3/3/2020 @ 5:32 pmAnd Patterico, if Lacey loses I invite you to look at that equity in your home and ask yourself what you could buy with that outside the asylum. It’s what made up my mind for me. The weather isn’t everything.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 3/3/2020 @ 5:36 pmJACKIE LACEY (N) 220,295 54.87%
GEORGE GASCÓN (N) 91,935 22.90%
RACHEL A. ROSSI (N) 89,269 22.23%
From here: https://results.lavote.net/text-results/4085
Dave (1bb933) — 3/3/2020 @ 9:06 pmHere’s a direct link to the DA results, which I missed:
https://results.lavote.net/text-results/4085#contest-6
Dave (1bb933) — 3/3/2020 @ 9:10 pmSo she’s in? No runoff since she got over 50%, or does Gascon get a second bite in November?
nk (1d9030) — 3/3/2020 @ 9:42 pmJACKIE LACEY (N) 317,474 53.93%
Dave (1bb933) — 3/3/2020 @ 10:02 pmGEORGE GASCÓN (N) 146,780 24.93%
RACHEL A. ROSSI (N) 124,466 21.14%
One new thing this year — the city of LA is holding their municipal elections at the same time as the general election so the turnout will be more than just the elderly and the city workers. I wonder it things will change.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 3/3/2020 @ 10:51 pmIn the CA jungle primary system, there is always a run-off of the top two primary vote getters in the general election.
Dave (1bb933) — 3/4/2020 @ 12:15 amHow anybody could even think of voting for Gascon after reading the intro of his Wikipedia bio is beyond me:
My god.
Dave (1bb933) — 3/4/2020 @ 12:33 amIn the CA jungle primary system, there is always a run-off of the top two primary vote getters in the general election.
I think that non-partisan races are different.
Kevin M (ab1c11) — 3/4/2020 @ 12:19 pm