Los Angeles County officially has a new District Attorney now that Nathan Hochman replaced George Gascón with 60% of the vote, and during his swearing-in he stated that gang members “will no longer get a free pass on enhancements.” ) when they commit violent crimes.”
“We will eliminate extreme blanket policies that prevented prosecutors from going to families of victims who had lost a son, daughter or relative when the murderer was before a parole board seeking his release from prison early,” Hochman said.
“Those policies were heartless and are eliminated as of today.” [ayer]”.
It was former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger who swore in the county’s 44th prosecutor in history during a ceremony in front of the city’s Courthouse, where Vivienne Vella, Hochman’s wife, was also present.
The building was literally armored with police, sheriffs and private security agents; The streets surrounding 211 Temple Street were closed to vehicular traffic.
“District attorneys should have only two things as their lodestar: the facts and the law,” District Attorney Hochman told the cheering crowd, while highlighting his rejection “of broad extreme policies on both sides of the pendulum: release policies that predetermine that certain crimes and some criminals will not be prosecuted and mass incarceration policies that are also not anchored in facts and law.”
Both Schwarzenegger and Hochman emphasized the importance of public safety and justice during the event.
Schwarzenegger highlighted the city’s crime problems, while Hochman outlined his vision for a balanced criminal justice system, rejecting extreme policies and advocating for individualized case evaluations.
Warning to children and young students
Hochman, 61, of Jewish descent, emphasized community involvement, working groups on key issues such as homelessness and fentanyl.
“We are going to enact what I call a before, during and after agenda, because basically there are two main conduits for criminal activity,” the new prosecutor added. “There are the children and then the prisoners who are released from prison.”
He explained that before the district attorney’s office works with law enforcement and even former prisoners to get into schools, “we have to educate kids in fifth grade, middle school and high school about the consequences of bad behavior.” decisions. Because if we can change that and start to eliminate or reduce the number of young people who make those bad decisions by letting them know what they are like, we will save a lot of criminal activity and a lot of victims in the future.”
He also highlighted the importance of deterrence and rehabilitation to reduce recidivism rates, with the goal of achieving a safer Los Angeles County.
The new prosecutor replaces George Gascón in command, who implemented more humane progressive policies in the application of criminal justice, after there was already talk of excessive incarceration in previous administrations.
However, Gascón was a constant target of attack and was held responsible for the wave of massive robberies that occurred in Los Angeles, despite the fact that this phenomenon occurred in various parts of the nation, including in conservative states.
“At least the law should change where thefts under $950 are not punished,” said Margarita Torres, owner of a wig store.
“Since 2020, I have been robbed seven times and no one has been charged,” Torres said. “I don’t think that a person like George Gascón was to blame, but rather the police who don’t go out to patrol the streets.”
‘No to mass incarceration’
Hochman assured that he would eliminate general policies that prohibited prosecutors from bringing charges based on facts and laws, and would bring back “enhancements”, that is, the aggravating factors of a crime, particularly in gang cases.
In this sense, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna told Hochman in his speech that, in conversations he has had with communities, people do not want “mass incarceration.”
“Your job will not be easy,” Luna warned the new prosecutor. “Los Angeles County residents expect and deserve much from our organizations. “They expect us to partner with each other and our communities to prioritize public safety.”
Luna noted that in the November election, Angelenos voted “decisively for greater accountability” by electing Nathan Hochman.
“They want law enforcement to support the men and women who sacrifice and risk so much to keep our entire county safe,” he added. “[Pero] “Many of our residents have told us clearly that they do not want mass incarceration, but they do want someone who will stand up for every person who becomes a victim in our county.”
The Menendez brothers
Hochman said he will form task forces to address issues such as homelessness, fentanyl poisoning, human trafficking, hate crimes, organized retail crime and residential burglaries.
He explained that he would create advisory committees to provide the community with a direct line of communication with the Prosecutor’s Office, and that he would implement a “before, during and after” agenda to deter crime and reduce recidivism, including working with law enforcement and former prisoners. to educate young people, support victims and provide job skills and training to prisoners once released.
The new prosecutor takes office amid the granting of clemency and/or a new sentence for brothers Lyle and Erik Menéndez, who murdered their parents, José and Mary Louise “Kitty” Menéndez, in their Beverly Hills mansion, in 1989.
After the success of the Netflix series “Monsters”, it was revealed that the brothers were sexually abused by their own father. The hearing of the brothers’ case was postponed until January 30 and 31, 2025.
‘Social experiment’
Traci Park, councilwoman for Los Angeles District 11, congratulated her “friend,” Nathan Hochman, and welcomed him on a day “where we all share a new sense of relief and hope.”
With George Gascón gone, Park criticized that “for too long we saw Los Angeles descend into chaos and anarchy, home burglaries, retail thefts, muggings and vandalism everywhere, illegal bicycle chop shops , blocked sidewalks and alleys, thieves who destroyed our infrastructure and train robberies with people obtaining millions of dollars in goods.”
Park further listed “drug dealers who spew deadly poison onto our streets in broad daylight, making and keeping people sick and addicted, and living on our streets. The police arrested the same criminals over and over again, only to see them back on the streets free to reoffend whenever they wanted.”
He said that for years, politicians tried to tell the population “that criminals would magically stop committing crimes if we released them and asked them to behave.”
“We were told that legalizing hard drugs would eliminate the consequences of crime and make our neighborhood safer,” he added. “Our families, businesses, neighborhoods, we were all test subjects in a society soft on crime. The criminals are the victims. The police are the enemy. “The social experiment failed.”
‘He’s a liar’
Melina Abdullah, co-founder of the Los Angeles chapter of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, believes that Nathan Hochman, the newly sworn district attorney of Los Angeles County, has come to power “by lying to people” and opposes the repeal of progressive reforms such as ending the death penalty and police accountability.
Abdullah, an academic at Cal State Los Angeles, told La Opinión that she is concerned that the new prosecutor will not prosecute the Long Beach police officers who shot and killed Brandon Boyd in front of a community church. Boyd, who was facing a mental health crisis, died on November 19.
“He is a liar. Hochman began his campaign based on lies, infusing
fear, trying to make people afraid of things that are not really there
happening,” said the activist.
“There is actually a reduction, a double-digit reduction in violent crimes,
not an increase. So George Gascón’s policies were effective in
“to make communities safer, not to generate more crime,” he added.
“So we should be afraid that Hoffman will come and intend to reverse the
very effective policies that really help build safer communities, like ending the death penalty and police accountability,” he said.
Abdullah recalled that, under the administration of former prosecutor Jackie Lacey, 22 people received death sentences: 13 Latinos, eight African-Americans and one Asian.
“Former prosecutor Lacey decided to file criminal charges against a single officer; while George Gascón did it to more than 150. Nathan Hochman has said that not only will he refuse to prosecute the police, not only does he believe in terrible policies like qualified immunity, but he wants what Donald Trump wants. “He wants total immunity for the police.”
In this way, he added, what can be expected is not only that it does not present
charges against police officers who violate people’s rights, but until
Hochman abandons all cases that are moving through the courts.
“So it’s really disgusting and outrageous what he wants to do. everyone should
be up in arms about Nathan Hartman’s approach to policing and his refusal to
hold the police accountable,
During his inauguration as the new district attorney of Los County
Angeles, Nathan Hochman made it “very clear that the vast majority of agents
law enforcement are doing a difficult and dangerous job extremely well.”
“Those officers deserve my respect. Those officers deserve my adoration and, as a prosecutor
district, you will get my full cooperation.”
Protest against the inauguration of Nathan Hochman
At the intersection of Spring and Temple streets, a group of people gathered.
They demonstrated against Hochman’s policies, considering that the renewal
of aggravating circumstances in the cases of people linked to gangs “would greatly affect
the communities of Chicanos, Latinos and African Americans.”
“We are going to fight against these laws,” declared Gabriel Quiroz Jr., a member of the
Boyle Heights CSO community organization. “I think they will bring racist laws
that will affect those who have less money than them.”
For his part, Michael Williams, a member of Black Lives Matter, considered that
reintroducing the application of aggravated punishments in criminal cases for participating in gangs will be very unfair and risky.
“In court it has been shown that the fi “The county district attorney’s office has falsely placed African-Americans and Latinos in databases, which means they will only mass incarcerate African-Americans and Latinos.”
“The other thing we know is that this prosecutor has said that he does not intend to
prosecute officers who kill people and our communities should not
accept that…, we must fight,” he concluded.