California Crime Rise Sparks Reckoning for District Attorneys

Anti-crime activists are trying to recall progressive district attorneys in California, amid rising concerns about street crime.

One Los Angeles-based former prosecutor told Newsweek that DA staff have become demoralized by policies that put repeat offenders back on the streets without having to post bail. Viral videos of thieves openly looting California stores has added to the sense of outrage.

On November 19, a flash mob ransacked a Nike store in Los Angeles, stealing $12,000 worth of goods while shoppers stood by. Footage released by the Los Angeles Police Department's Commercial Crimes Division shows a group of young people ripping clothing off the racks and carrying bags full of merchandise. Police say the group, which consisted of 17 suspects between the ages of 15 and 20, fled in five different vehicles.

Residents are campaigning to recall District Attorney Pamela Price in Alameda County in the San Francisco Bay Area, while Chesa Boudin, the district attorney for San Francisco city, was recalled last year.

The Los Angeles County DA George Gascón successfully fought off two recall attempts in two years and faces another one next year. Gascón's opponents were quick to use the Nike video to call for his recall.

The prosecutors who are now coming under fire had sought to break with traditional measures of being tough on all crime and have reduced prosecutions of lower-level offenses with the aim of cutting mass incarceration. Widespread calls for new approaches to justice gained momentum in the United States after the killing of George Floyd by a police officer in 2020, but attitudes in some places have since swung back.

Nathan Hochman posted the Nike video on X, formerly Twitter, with the words: "Because Gascón believes retail theft is a low priority, we're seeing a massive increase in cases like this. As your next DA, I will lead a task force to confront retail theft gangs." Hochman is a former assistant U.S. attorney general who is running for the DA post against Gascón.

A survey released by the Public Policy Institute of California in February 2023 found that "an overwhelming majority of California adults say violence and street crime is either a big problem or at least somewhat of a problem." Thirty percent said it was a big problem, and another 46 percent replied that it was somewhat of a problem in their community.

The share of adults saying it is at least somewhat of a problem has increased by 11 percent since February 2022, the institute said.

"Nearly half of African Americans say it is a big problem, compared to about three in ten or fewer among Asian Americans, Latinos, and whites," the Public Policy Institute of California survey added.

Earlier this month, the institute noted new FBI crime data showing that, as of 2022, California's violent crime rate was 31 percent higher than the U.S. average. "This divergence is driven largely by aggravated assaults, which have been declining nationwide while rising in California," the institute said.

The recall campaigners say that the district attorneys are tailoring their prosecutions to avoid jailing suspects, while supporters of the district attorneys say the campaigners are motivated by anti-Black racism.

The recall efforts received a major boost in June 2022 when San Francisco voted to recall its progressive District Attorney, Boudin, who had set lenient prosecution policies in place.

Politics news site Politico said that his opponents "seized on viral videos of brazen incidents of shoplifting and smash-and-grab robberies, which were amplified by conservative media."

Alameda County has more than 1 million residents, many of them living in Oakland, its largest city. The recall effort against Price has been boosted by a draft policy directive she issued in March, in which she instructed prosecutors to seek the minimum prescribed sentences and offer probation whenever possible. She also instructed them not to seek sentencing enhancements, which are sometimes sought where firearms or violence are used in crimes. Her freeze on sentencing enhancements offers exceptions in case of vulnerable victims, such as elder abuse, child abuse or hate crimes.

Gascón enacted similar policies after taking office. Newsweek sought email comment on Wednesday from Price and Gascón. Hoon Chun, Gascón's head deputy DA, said he would pass the query onto the office's communications department.

Last week, Price launched her "Protect the Win" campaign to fight the recall.

Chris Moore, a campaigner with the pro-recall group Save Alameda for Everyone, told Newsweek that Price is "very soft on crime."

"She has instituted policy directives that don't allow DAs in Alameda County to properly charge criminals," Moore said, adding that firearm offenses have risen in Oakland since Price took office last January.

"Her policy promotes the use of firearms in robbery. Criminals know she won't charge a firearm enhancement if they're caught," Moore added.

Moore noted the case of Carl Chan, the Asian American president of Oakland's Chinatown Chamber of Commerce. He was badly beaten by a parolee in Oakland's city center in April 2021.

The perpetrator, James Lee Ramsey, was arrested and appeared in court in November 2021. Chan told the court that other Asian Americans are afraid to walk on the streets. Chan co-founded SAFE and strongly supports the recall of Price. Brenda Grisham, the other co-founder, lost her son to a violent murderer, Moore said.

SAFE announced earlier in November that it has already collected more than 70,000 signatures, with another 5,000 needed to put the recall on the ballot in June 2024.

SAFE members are incensed that the Alameda Board of Supervisors are considering an ordinance that would make the recall efforts much more difficult. The ordinance would be put to voters in a special election on March 5 and would increase the signature requirement and delay the recall vote until at least November 2024.

Professor Melina Abdullah, former chair of Pan-African Studies at California State University, is co-founder of Black Lives Matter Los Angeles. She told Newsweek she believes the recall efforts will not succeed.

"I think the recall effort against DA Price will fail, just as the two attempted recalls of Los Angeles DA Gascón failed.

"Alameda County voters elected Pamela Price because of her courage. She wasn't a middle-of-the-road candidate and is not a middle-of-the-road district attorney," Abdullah said.

Abdullah added that she believes more recall efforts may emerge "as we witness a progressive political resurgence, especially in the Bay Area."

Neama Rahmani, a Los Angeles attorney and former federal prosecutor, told Newsweek he is strongly in favor of the recall effort. Rahmani, whose parents came to America to escape the 1979 Iranian revolution, rejects the racism charge and said the progressive crime policies have left prosecutors demoralized.

"Gascón has received a lot of criticism for being soft, and justifiably so. There is a perception that property and violent crime has increased in California, particularly in metropolitan cities, and elected prosecutors have not done enough to combat it."

"With policies like no cash bail, not prosecuting as many misdemeanors, and not charging sentencing enhancements, those who commit crimes are not held accountable or are freed pending trial," he said.

Rahmani, who is co-founder and president of the West Coast Trial Lawyers law firm, said that "rank-and-file prosecutors have revolted, and morale is low because you essentially have defense attorneys sitting as district attorneys."

"Gascón narrowly avoided a recall last year, and I would be surprised if he is able to keep his seat in 2024," Rahmani said.

That view is rejected by Los Angeles-based Bina Ahmad, a senior staff attorney at Civil Rights Corps and former public defender. She told Newsweek that racism lies behind the recall efforts.

"We've seen this 'crime is exploding' racist gaslighting for generations, regardless of whether crime is up or down. And it's always used to justify more police, more prosecutorial power, more putting Black and brown people in cages. Yet funding more police and creating a harsher incarceration system has never made communities safe," Ahmad said.

"The real crime being committed here is that people are more and more food insecure, housing insecure, financially insecure. In the richest country in the world. It's truly a violent act to fund more police and demand harsher prosecutors rather than feed and care for people," Ahmad added.