News/Commentary

Soft-on-crime DA Gascon losing another top adviser amid rising anger over crime, recall effort

July 23, 2022 | | Print Article

The office of embattled LA County District Attorney George Gascón, a Democrat known for being soft on crime, has reportedly hemorrhaged yet another top adviser.

The adviser, Alisa Blair, is voluntarily leaving to pursue work with “a national progressive neighborhood-oriented public safety think tank,” according to Fox News.

“It’s just the next step in my career. Still very cool with George Gascón. Not being pushed out as is rumored,” Blair said to the conservative network.

While she’s leaving voluntarily and is apparently “still very cool” with Gascón, the fact remains that her departure marks another loss for an office that’s been hemorrhaging top staff for months now amid an ongoing campaign to recall their boss.

“Blair is the second close ally of Gascón’s to leave the office in recent memory. Special Advisor Alex Bastian, who worked for Gascón in San Francisco and largely led his communications team in L.A., resigned last month to become president of the Hotel Council of San Francisco,” according to the Los Angeles Times.

Regarding the recall effort, it’s attracted massive support, including even reportedly from within the DA’s own office.

“The office has been roiled by a campaign to recall Gascón that is eagerly supported by most who work there, lawsuits from employees who allege they’ve been punished for objecting to his policies and a level of distrust that has people on both sides of the feud watching what they say and whom they say it to,” according to the Times.

The recall effort has also garnered support from the wealthy residents of Beverly Hills because of the spike in crime that’s occurred under the current DA’s tenure.

Back in January, the Beverly Hills City Council voted unanimously, 5-0, to join the recall effort.

“In a 5-0 vote on Tuesday evening, the Beverly Hills City Council unanimously adopted a resolution in support of the recall of Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón. Mayor Bob Wunderlich and Vice Mayor Lili Bosse requested that the item be brought forward for consideration,” the council announced in a press release.

“Over the last 12 months, Los Angeles County has seen a dramatic increase in widespread crime including follow-home robberies, smash-and-grab incidents and the tragic death of beloved Beverly Hills philanthropist Jacqueline Avant. Mr. Gascón has also issued numerous Special Directives that are of great concern to the City.”

Notice the name Jacqueline Avant. The wife of music executive and film producer Clarence Avant, she was murdered in December by a longtime criminal who’d been on parole at the time thanks to Gascón’s policies.

But it gets worse. Hours after her murder, Gascón “distributed a fundraising letter seeking to overturn a law that would keep her killer in prison,” as reported at the time by the Washington Examiner.

(Source: Washington Examiner)

While it doesn’t pay to commit a crime in Los Angeles, it doesn’t hurt either, as demonstrated by the endless cases of violent criminals who’ve been spared tough sentences thanks to the DA’s penchant for leniency.

Most recently, a doped-up teen thug who almost killed a mother and her 10-month-old baby was sentenced to just five months in juvenile detention.

Last August, the then-16-year-old thug drove straight into the mother, identified only as Rachel, as she was pushing a stroller containing her 10-month-old child. Both miraculously survived without any serious injuries.

Rachel was irate at the sentence.

“George Gascón doesn’t value my life or the life of my child, or any other victim out there and would rather reward the monsters like [the juvenile suspect] by demonstrating to them that their actions have no consequences,” a victim’s impact statement from her read.

“DA Gascón is telling him and every other thug in LA County that it doesn’t matter if you try to murder people. Why are Gascón’s policies prioritizing the livelihood of rotten monsters when my child, my baby, who is incapable of protecting himself, is left to fend for himself, and is essentially being told his life doesn’t matter?”

In Los Angeles, it appears the lives of criminals matter most, be it killers or even rapists.

“In normal times, the convicted sex offender’s request for leniency would have been met with a swift, emphatic ‘no’ from the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office. But these aren’t normal times in the D.A.’s office,” the Times notes.

“So when the felon earlier this year asked a judge to reconsider his 73-year sentence, the prosecutor assigned to the case didn’t object. He couldn’t, he explained in a court filing, because his boss, Dist. Atty. George Gascón, wouldn’t allow it, court records show.”

Vivek Saxena
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