Under George Gascón, the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office made unprecedented efforts to prosecute police for excessive force. With challenger Nathan Hochman surging in the polls and the favored candidate of police unions, some worry he might be far less aggressive, reports the Los Angeles Times. Chiquita Twyman didn’t think she’d ever see justice for her younger brother, Ryan. In 2019, the unarmed 24-year-old was killed after sheriff’s deputies fired 34 rounds into the back of his vehicle. Chiquita knew the district attorney rarely prosecuted law enforcement officers for using excessive force. Even after George Gascón became district attorney by campaigning to hold police accountable, Chiquita remained skeptical. In his four years, Gascón has been one of California’s most aggressive pursuers of law enforcement misconduct, making him an ally for criminal justice reformers, one some fear will be lost if the latest poll numbers hold.
Hochman is favored to oust Gascon next week. The former federal prosecutor is the preferred candidate of law enforcement. He has raked in millions from police unions and talks about restoring the relationship between the district attorney’s office and local cops. Gascón has charged five officers in on-duty shootings since 2020, including one of the deputies who killed Ryan Twyman. Chiquita says, “Gascón is the real deal and that’s why we need him in office.” In a race centered on voter anxieties over public safety and the legal controversies that have marred Gascón’s first term, the criminal justice reform issues that got him elected after George Floyd’s murder have largely taken a backseat. “Everybody is looking at the November election in terms of the presidency, but I think for Angelenos, the most immediate and impactful change would be the change in the D.A. It’s an even greater threat to the Black community ...than Donald Trump,” said Melina Abdullah of Black Lives Matter Los Angeles. Hochman has scoffed at suggestions that he would be beholden to his police backers, repeating a canned line that “nobody hates a bad cop more than a good cop.”
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