LA Sheriff Slams ‘Careless and Irresponsible’ Liberal DAs Undoing Police Work
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The Los Angeles County sheriff slammed California’s liberal prosecutors on Tuesday, saying they are living in a “woke palace” and not facing the consequences of their decisions to undermine the work of law enforcement officers amid a surge in crime.
Sheriff Alex Villanueva said during an appearance on Fox News that liberal District Attorney George Gascon has declined to prosecute more than 12,000 cases after county deputies apprehended suspected criminals.
“So that is disheartening for any cop to think all their work is being undone by a careless and irresponsible district attorney,” he said. “But they’re not going to stop doing their job. The deputies … keep doing your job, don’t use the excuse of someone else not doing their job to avoid it – and it’s working.”
“So we’re making the effort out there,” he added. “What we need now is, we need responsible district attorneys who are going to file their cases. And if they want to play the role of public defender, they should just quit their job and go over to the public defenders – and everything they say makes perfect sense for a public defender, not a district attorney.”
Villanueva also reacted to San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin’s claims that calls for action against recent crime spikes are “knee-jerk reactions” and that smash-and-grab looting in California is “not new.”
“There’s nothing ‘knee-jerk’ about it. It’s just common sense,” Villanueva said. “This person just does not get it and I’m sorry to hear that. But you know what? He has a responsibility to have – if you want to do reform, that’s great. No one argues about reforming any system of government.”
He continued: “But when you fly in the face of common sense, the fact that we have in our county, L.A. County … I have a 92 percent increase in homicides in two years. I have a 16 percent increase in grand-theft auto. I have a ‘zero bail’ schedule, which means every person I catch with a stolen car gets a ticket, walks out of jail … in fact, they’re out of jail before they’re even done writing the report, the deputies.”
He said that while Boudin may claim it is a “‘knee-jerk reaction’ to go back to holding people accountable,” that the “old-fashioned ‘having people suffer the consequences for engaging in crime’ means something.”
Villanueva accused people like the liberal DAs of living in a “woke palace where they’re not affected by the policies, but the average person is impacted by them.”
The sheriff’s comments come as Boudin and other San Francisco officials have expressed opposition to San Francisco Mayor London Breed’s plan to flood the city’s Tenderloin District with police officers and to set up centers where drug users can get help or risk going to jail.
“Jailing people who have mental health struggles, putting who are vending hot dogs and other people in cages will not solve this problem,” Boudin said. “They are not the only options available to us.”
Those opposed argue there are more options available to fix the problem and that if there is more money for officers, there’s also money for programs to help those most in need.
