Supporters of the effort to recall Los Angeles DA George Gascon have until July 6 to raise more than 500,000 signatures. Wednesday, campaigners announced they were on track to raise the needed signatures by the July deadline.

NEW: The campaign to recall L.A. County DA George Gascon announces it has collected 125,000 signatures, has raised $3.5 million, and says they are on track to hit the 566,857 signatures needed by 7/6. They say returned petitions are “exponentially increasing” each week. @FoxNews

— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) March 16, 2022

Gascon is clearly getting nervous about the potential for this recall to succeed. Last month, he backtracked on some of his progressive reforms after his handling of the Hannah Tubbs case backfired badly. If you missed that story, Gascon’s office went easy on a man who had sexually abused a 10-year-old girl in a public bathroom. James Tubbs went on the run and was caught several years later. After being arrested for this heinous crime, Tubbs announced that her new name was Hannah Tubbs and that she was trans. Despite a long record of other crimes in the interim, Gascon treated Hannah as a juvenile because the bathroom attack happened about two weeks before Tubbs’ 18th birthday.

Despicable as that was, the story really took off when a Fox News reporter got hold of some jailhouse recordings of Tubbs mocking the child victim and suggesting his transition was a strategy to avoid being sent to a male prison. The DA’s office denied knowing about the recordings prior to being asked about them by Fox News but Deputy DA Jon Hatami said that was a lie and that he’d seen internal emails showing the DA already knew about the calls.

Since then, Gascon is doing what he can to present himself as really concerned about crime. Earlier this week he released a video offering tips on how to avoid being a victim of auto thieves:

Auto thefts in #LACounty are on the rise. District Attorney George Gascón gives tips on how to remain vigilant and protect yourself from becoming a #victim. #autotheft #theft #LADAOffice pic.twitter.com/680vdU9K8u

— George Gascón (@LADAOffice) March 15, 2022

Auto thefts and smash and grab robberies are a hot topic but it’s really just the tip of the iceberg. KTLA reported yesterday that crime in West Hollywood is up 137% compared to last year.

Crime in West Hollywood is up 137% from the same time last year, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

In February 2022, nearly 250 “Part One” crimes — which include acts of murder, rape, burglary, aggravated assault, arson and human trafficking — were reported, compared to 105 incidents in February 2021.

Here’s the full report on the jump in crime. As you’ll see, a security expert tells KTLA, “People are emboldened now. These criminals have absolutely no fear.” And why would they have any fear knowing that DA Gascon is committed to keeping as many of them out of jail and on the streets as he can manage.