When progressive crusader George Gascon swept into the LA County DA's office in late 2020, he issued a bunch of orders about how crimes would be prosecuted under his tenure. One of those was a blanket refusal to charge any juveniles as adults.

That backfired on Gascon in a big way when it was revealed that one sex offender Gascon's office tried as a juvenile was laughing about gaming the system in jailhouse phone calls. Gascon admitted he'd made a mistake in that case but it wasn't the only mistake he'd made.

Shanice Dyer was a member of the Crips gang and committed a double murder when she was 17-years-old. Gascon's predecessor planned to charge her as an adult but his election, and the blanket policies he issued on day one, changed that.

Nearly five years ago, Alfredo Carrera and his friend, José Flores Velázquez, were murdered in South Los Angeles simply for standing in a gang's territory...

Neither man was gang-affiliated. Alfredo was about to become a father, and Jose, a student at UCI, had just accepted a job with NASA...

Seventeen-year-old Shanice Dyer, a member of the East Coast Crips, was charged with premeditated murder by then-District Attorney Jackie Lacey and was set to be tried as an adult. However, that changed when George Gascón took office in 2020...

As a result, Shanice Dyer was tried as a juvenile. Despite being convicted of two murders, she was in custody for less than four years.

Carrera and Velazquez were taking presents out of their car for a baby shower when Dyer murdered them. Another bystander down the street was shot in the back while putting his infant child into his car. For all of this mayhem, Shanice Dyer got less than four years. That's George Gascon's idea of justice. 

This month, Shanice Dyer was arrested again for murder.

In the recent case, prosecutors allege that in June she lured Joshua Streeter, 21, to a Pomona strip mall where he was shot dead. Although not accused of pulling the trigger, Dyer, now 22, is again charged with murder.

The union that represents Deputy DA's did not hold back in it's statement on the charges.

The release of Shanice Dyer, once charged with two brutal murders and now accused of yet another killing, is the latest and most painful chapter in Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón’s tenure. A tenure marked by the betrayal of the public trust, the abandonment of victims, and a total disregard for accountability and justice. Gascón’s policies, designed to rectify perceived systemic imbalances, have instead endangered the community by coddling violent offenders like Dyer, who should never have been given the chance to claim yet another life...

The case against Dyer was ironclad. She admitted to pulling the trigger. The murder weapon was linked to her, and it was clear she acted to further the interests of her gang. Under previous District Attorney Jackie Lacey, prosecutors filed a petition to try Dyer as an adult—a logical decision given the heinous nature of the crime and the fact that Dyer was nearly 18 at the time. But as the case moved through the court system, the pandemic delayed proceedings. And then George Gascón was elected District Attorney...

Attorney Kathy Cady, representing the victims’ families, filed writs and appeals to challenge Gascón’s policies, but they were met with resistance every step of the way. Gascón, in his unwavering commitment to his ideology, refused to budge. He claimed he was motivated by the need to rectify racial imbalances in the criminal justice system, but in doing so, he completely ignored the rights and safety of the victims and their families. The people Gascón was sworn to protect...

The cost of Gascón’s ideology is measured in blood. It is measured in the lost potential of people like Jose Flores, who could have contributed to society in immeasurable ways. It is measured in the grief of families who will never see their loved ones again. And it is measured in the growing sense of fear and frustration felt by communities throughout Los Angeles County, who watch helplessly as violent criminals are released with little to no accountability.

Compare that to the anemic response from Gascon's office.

Tiffiny Blacknell, Gascón’s chief spokeswoman, said it was unlikely Dyer’s initial case would have met the standard for a transfer to adult court even if Gascón had allowed pursuing that option in 2021. Blacknell said the teen had no criminal history, and “evidence indicates that she was told to commit the crime by someone of greater influence due to age and status in the gang,” which is a factor when determining whether a minor can be transferred to the adult system.

Blacknell said another teen suspect involved in the killings was also tried as a juvenile and “is now doing well on probation.”

The argument here is that one of the teens who got away with a double murder hasn't killed anyone else which proves...what exactly? That Gascon was half right? That letting people off after a double murder works some of the time? Is Tiffiny Blacknell suggesting this somehow balances the scales? Honestly, I think that's what she's saying. That even though yet another person is dead thanks to his policies, Gascon has no regrets because at least the other murder is "doing well on probation."

You know who else was doing well in probation? Denmonne Lee.

When he was 16, Lee took part in an Antelope Valley gas station robbery that ended in the death of former Marine John Ruh. Lee, who was acquainted with the victim, had planned the 2018 robbery and provided a weapon to his co-defendant, according to court records. Although Lee wasn’t the shooter, he was charged with murder.

But when Gascón took office two years later, as Lee’s case was making its way through the court system, he barred prosecutors from trying juveniles as adults. Lee was convicted and ordered held at the county’s Secure Youth Treatment Facility in Sylmar until he turned 25.

Lee “responded very well” to programs in custody, authorities said. Within a year, probation officials moved him from the high-security Sylmar facility into a rehabilitation-focused setting in Malibu. After being released to a halfway house last June, Lee enrolled in community college and found work at a local nonprofit.

And then, in April, he was arrested and charged with playing a major role in another homicide.

The best that can be said about Gascon is that he's not the only woke ideologue in California putting social justice before actual justice.

Winning a motion to transfer a teen to adult court in California has become increasingly difficult, in part because of a 2022 Assembly bill that Gascón supported. The legislation requires prosecutors to prove “by clear and convincing evidence” that a youth can’t be rehabilitated in juvenile custody before a judge can approve a transfer.

Some prosecutors argue the new standard borders on the impossible. In 2022, an Inglewood judge decided a teen who was accused of gunning down his girlfriend and her sister in Westchester before setting the crime scene on fire still did not meet the standard for transfer to adult court.

Getting rid of George Gascon in next month's election will be a good start but there are plenty more ideologues just like him in California who are out there doing damage. Until regular people get sick of this trend, it's going to continue.