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Critics assail purpose, makeup of DA George Gascón’s use-of-force panel

Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón is drawing fire for both the makeup and mission of his newly formed panel to reexamine deadly use-of-force incidents by police.

Chief among his critics is former Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley, who claims Gascon “is looking to give himself cover on what he was already planning on doing, and that is filing (criminal charges) against law enforcement officers.”

“He is hell-bent on putting some law enforcement filing notches on his belt,” said Cooley, who has led rallies to recall the progressive district attorney.

“These use-of-force incidents were duly investigated by the agency (where they occurred) and independently by the District Attorney’s Office, and decisions were based on fact and law,” Cooley said. “Now Gascón wants to sit in judgment against officers who have already been cleared by dedicated, professional prosecutors. He wants a different result that is consistent with his bizarre ideology.”

The Los Angeles Police Protective League, which represents nearly 10,000 rank-and-file LAPD officers, had equally harsh words for Gascon’s 16-member Factual Analysis Citizen Consulting Team, which is made up of community members, activists, scholars, civil rights attorneys and former police chiefs. Gascon says the panel is necessary “in order to restore trust and move forward as a community.”

“If George Gascón was truly interested in taking an honest and impartial look at previous police use of force cases, he would not have stacked this panel with anti-police activists, individuals who make money by suing police departments and organizations who openly state they want to abolish the police,” the union’s board of directors said in a statement. “That’s not seeking justice, that’s pander politics at its worst.

“He’d make our community safer if he spent some time reviewing the cases of repeat offenders that he’s given a free pass to or treated with kid gloves.”

Panel necessary

However, Cristine DeBerry, executive director of the Prosecutors Alliance of California, said the panel and Gascón’s progressive policies are needed given the volatile relationship that police have with their communities.

“His critics have made it clear they’d rubber stamp and continue the injustices of the past if given the opportunity,” DeBerry said in an email. “There were scores of questionable cases — and virtually no prosecutions — and that alone cries out for an independent review, but several of the prior decisions were also stunningly incomplete, biased or both. There are cases where the basis for declining to prosecute ran directly contrary to the physical evidence.

“His predecessor’s decisions in use-of-force cases were further tainted by her acceptance of huge sums of money from the police unions representing officers under investigation, she said, referring to former District Attorney Jackie Lacey. “This is why D.A. Gascón and other prosecutors who recognize the import of impartiality in these cases are working to pass state legislation that requires prosecutors who take police union money to recuse themselves from investigating their members.”

Given Los Angeles’ “sordid history on police-community relations” in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police, there is perhaps no city in the U.S. where a review panel such as the one proposed by Gascón is needed, DeBerry said.

Facts about FACCT

FACCT will identify and prioritize use-of-force cases to review, including those in which there is contrary forensic evidence or witness testimony from civil or criminal cases.

Once cases have been identified, FACCT will work with law students at UC Irvine, who will review the files and make presentations to the panel on their findings. The group will be assisted by students from the Dornsife Trial Advocacy Program at USC.

The District Attorney’s Office ultimately decides whether additional investigation is needed, whether the matter needs to be assigned to a special counsel or whether criminal charges will be filed.

“Until there is a standard that mandates a shooting is lawful when it is absolutely necessary and the last resort, we are going to continue to have unnecessary shootings that cause public outcry and skepticism,” Gascón said in a statement. “We eventually need to create legislation that gives the county the ability to create a separate entity that can independently review these cases.”

Cooley believes that using college students instead of skilled prosecutors to review use-of-force cases is problematic. “You are going to have a biased, anti-cop panel select cases and then them turn over to ideological law students,” he said. “What could possibly go wrong?”

Controversial member appointed

Among the most controversial members of FACCT is 73-year-old Carlos M. Montes of Boyle Heights, who on his website describes himself as a nationally respected Chicano rebel and a revolutionary.

“I’m not a terrorist, I’m an activist,” he said in a phone interview.

Montes’ exploits spanning nearly five decades as an immigrant rights and antiwar firebrand are well-documented.

Carlos Montes speaks at Poor Peoples Campaign in 1968 as a member of the Brown Berets. He has been appointed to a panel to reexamine deadly use-of-force by law enforcement in Los Angeles County. (Photo contributed by Carlos Montes)

Montes was a co-founder of the Brown Berets, a militant Chicano organization in the late 1960s and ’70s inspired and compared to the Black Panther Party.

He was one of the leaders of the East Los Angeles Chicano  Blowouts, a series of 1968 student walkouts to protest inequality and racism.

Additionally, Montes was among the infamous East LA 13 indicted by a grand jury for conspiracy to disrupt the Los Angeles Unified School District. Charges against the group eventually were dropped.

In 1970, the California Court of Appeals overturned the indictments against the East LA 13.

Then, in 2010, Montes pleaded no contest to one count of perjury for failing to reveal a felony conviction when he bought a gun. He was sentenced to three years probation and 180 hours of community service,

More recently, Montes has been involved in social justice issues in the wake of Floyd’s death. He is proud of his legacy of activism and believes his unique perspective will benefit FACCT.

“I’m a rebel who asks the hard question and speaks up,” said Montes, who serves on the Boyle Heights Neighborhood Council’s Board of Directors. “I will bring perspective and an analytical look at objective evidence. We know police do lie and tamper with evidence.”

Alex Bastian, a special adviser to Gascon, said in an email that the panelists all “bring differing and wide-ranging work and life experiences to the table.” He did not discuss Montes’ background as an activist.

Gascón appointment, hires criticized

In addition to Montes, other appointments and hires by Gascón have been controversial.

In February, he angered some prosecutors with the hiring of Deputy Public Defender Tiffiny Blacknell, a political supporter who has described police officers as “barbarians” and advocated abolishing prisons. Several city councils in Los Angeles County have taken no-confidence votes in Gascon.

Cooley described Montes as a “questionable individual” appointed to an ill-conceived panel formed to feed Gascón’s ego.

“The facts or the law don’t matter to him,” Cooley said. “Gason has taken (progressive policies) to a new level. It’s got a lot to do with his personality and the fact that he’s a megalomaniac. It’s as phony as a 3-dollar bill.”


Source: Orange County Register

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