LOS ANGELES — Today, George Gascón’s campaign for Los Angeles District Attorney released the following statement in response to provably false statements made by DA Jackie Lacey during last night’s debate at the Aratani Theater in Downtown Los Angeles.
“Last night Jackie Lacey packed the house with her staff, took the stage, and lied,” said campaign spokesperson Max Szabo. “That is a horrid example to set for the office’s 1,000 attorneys, all of whom took an oath to seek the truth. DA Lacey continues to display similarities to Donald Trump, and leaders who lie to the public-let alone under oath-must be held accountable. Her willingness to spew falsehoods to an entire theater of people, a live radio audience, and a room full of her deputies is disqualifying.”
To those of you who requested these specifics earlier today Team Gascón apologizes for how long this information took to release. The extent of the misrepresentations made at the debate today took a tremendous amount of time to review and consolidate in order to ensure accuracy. Without further ado, some of the many false statements made by District Attorney Jackie Lacey include:
- CRIME RATES – Regarding the fact that violent crime increased 30% in LA County and 55% in LA City, DA Lacey said:
“So with regard to crime rates, it’s not that crime rates went up by 30%, George, if you had read carefully the CAL DOJ thing, it’s that the incidence of sexual assault reports went up. Once we started focusing on campus sexual assaults, more women got the courage to come forward and report rape, and that’s what that is. Our crime rates have continued to remain low with regard to violent crime rates.”
According to the California Department of Justice, violent crime increased 29.46% in LA County since Jackie Lacey took office in 2012. Lacey is correct that there has been a large increase in reported rapes, from about 2,000 to over 4,000, but these numbers are a small amount of the overall number of violent crimes: 44,556 in 2012, and 58,567 in 2018, and therefore her attribution of a 30% increase in violent crime to increased reporting of sexual assaults is a false statement. Robberies and Aggravated Assaults make up a much larger percentage of the violent crime, and the increase in the violent crime rate is mostly being driven by an 11,000 incident increase in Aggravated Assaults between 2012 and 2018.
- ON JACKIE LACEY’S MENTAL HEALTH UNIT – In response to Gascón’s assertion that Jackie Lacey’s office spends more money on office supplies than on its mental health unit, Jackie Lacey said:
“Uh, well, George Gascón doesn’t know what he’s talking about. He does not speak, he does not speak from a position – he speaks from a position of ignorance.”
According to the LA County Budget, DA Lacey spends $39M for services and supplies (see page 163) of which $6,933,000 is for administrative services, and $1,287,000 is for office expenses (see page 167). DA Lacey, however, only spends $1 million on her mental health division (see page 6) in a county with more than 10 million people which has the dubious distinction of having America’s largest mental health facility; the county jail.
PLEASE NOTE: While DA Lacey has declined to publicly disclose the number of individuals diverted by her mental health diversion unit, one of DA Lacey’s Special Assistants has disclosed that only 26 individuals were granted diversion between January and April of 2019. Team Gascón welcomes and encourages media investigation and correction on this important issue in the event that the unofficial information provided by LADA staff is incorrect.
- ON BAIL REFORM – Jackie Lacey said that:
“With regard to reforms, uh, in order to really meaningfully get reforms through, you have to be a lawyer, you have to be able to read through things. And you have to, you know, analyze it. My position is: I’m in favor of bail reform. I’ve helped get it over the goal line. We’re going to start a pilot program.”
DA Lacey resisted cash bail reform in 2017 when she issued a letter expressing opposition to Senate Bill 10, which “would create a presumption of own-recognizance release and significantly changes monetary bail.” [Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, 4/14/2017]. Lacey implied that she opposed a provision of the original draft of Senate Bill 10 because it jeopardized public safety. [Los Angeles Times, 3/2/2019] The Los Angeles Times remarked her opposition was “disheartening,” given Los Angeles had a higher incarceration rate than the state average. [Los Angeles Times, 2/27/2019]. Notably, Lacey has accepted at least $7,950 from the bail industry since 2011. [County of Los Angeles Registrar-Recorder/County clerk,
6/14/11; 11/7/11; 11/7/11; 12/16/11; 12/16/11; 4/24/12; 4/30/12; 5/11/12; 8/9/12; 8/25/12; 8/30/12; 9/26/12; 10/30/12; 11/6/12; 11/6/12; 11/6/12; 2/26/15; 5/13/15; 4/12/19] - ON CLAIMS THAT DA LACEY SENDS TOO MANY PEOPLE TO PRISON – After moderators confronted Lacey with critics’ claims that she over-incarcerates, DA Lacey said:
“The LA DA’s values are that we seek justice in a fair and ethical manner.”
Los Angeles County incarcerated blacks 13 times more than whites from 2013 to 2015, the second highest level of racial disparity in the state. [The Daily News, 11/15/2017]. Los Angeles County sent black felons to state prison over twice the rate of whites from 2012 to 2016. [California Sentencing Institute, Accessed 11/19/2019]. Finally, every defendant sentenced to death under Lacey was a person of color [ACLU, June 2019].
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George Gascón grew up in Los Angeles after his family immigrated from Cuba. An army veteran, Gascón served as a Los Angeles Police Department Officer for 30 years, rising to the rank of Assistant Chief of Operations. In 2006 he became Chief of Police in Mesa, Arizona, where he stood up to the hateful and anti-immigrant policies of then Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. In 2009, then-San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom appointed Gascón Chief of Police. Newsom turned to Gascón again in 2011 when he tapped him to be District Attorney to fill the seat vacated by an outoing Kamala Harris who had been elected Attorney General. During his tenure Gascón implemented reforms that are being duplicated across the country while overseeing violent crime and homicides drop to rates not seen in 50 years. After being elected to two terms, Gascón returned to Los Angeles to care for his elderly mother and to be closer to his two daughters and grandchildren in Long Beach. Gascón is married to Fabiola Kramsky, a three-time Emmy Award winning journalist and recipient of the “Premio Nacional de Periodismo,” the highest recognition given to journalists in Mexico.