Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón on Thursday highlighted three recent cases in which his office secured convictions on hate-related charges and called for more awareness about hate crimes.
“We do not tolerate hate in our community,” he said during a press conference at the Hall of Justice, adding later that “the police are doing their job, we are prosecuting the cases.”
Gascón’s comments come nearly four years after he issued a widely criticized directive ordering prosecutors to stop seeking sentencing enhancements that allow for additional penalties for those convicted of hate crimes and certain other categories of offenses.
However, less than two weeks after filing the order, he changed his position and declared in a statement: Open letter from December 2020 that his deputies could resume filing for improvements “in cases involving the most vulnerable,” including victims of hate crimes.
In a telephone interview after the DA’s event, Nathan Hochman, Gascón’s opponent in the race for his seat, criticized Gascón’s “anemic efforts” to combat hate crimes and prosecute those who commit them.
“He’s misleading the public and trying to make them believe that he’s being proactive in trying to go after hate criminals… but the reality is that he’s not,” Hochman said.
Asked how his policies differed from those of his predecessor, Jackie Lacey, and from policies proposed by Hochman, the district attorney said the event was “not a political conversation” and that he would not discuss the campaign.
But his approach to prosecuting hate crimes “differs greatly from that of my predecessor,” Gascón said. “We have substantially increased the number of cases being prosecuted… In addition, our conviction rate far exceeds not only the state average, but also that of the previous administration.”
Asked to provide numbers to back up his claims about his office's conviction rate, Gascón said he didn't have those numbers on hand, but “I know we're getting very good results.” The campaign only provided information about his office's filing rate.
Between 2016 and 2023, the number of reported hate crimes in California has more than doubled, from 307 to 679. In 2023, the district attorney’s office filed 77 hate crime cases, according to figures from the state Department of Justice. Los Angeles County prosecutors filed charges in 84% of potential hate crime cases referred to the district attorney’s office by law enforcement last year, according to Gascón.
But Hochman criticized Gascón for not providing more details.
“The only statistic he thinks is worth looking at is the percentage of cases filed, but he doesn’t say how many cases were filed versus how many cases could have been filed,” Hochman said. “Of the hate crime prosecutions, how many of them resulted in jail time? How many of those people ended up being released on bail?”
Gascón was flanked by members of the advisory boards of his highly touted district attorney’s office, which represent the interests of groups that have been targeted by hate crimes in recent years in Los Angeles County, such as members of the Latino, LGBTQ+ and Jewish communities.
Robin Toma, executive director of the Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations, spoke Thursday in support of Gascón's efforts to combat hate crimes.
“When our community has been threatened by hate crimes, he has been there,” Toma said. “We need meaningful consequences for those who commit hate crimes, there is no doubt about that.”
Among the cases highlighted by Gascón on Thursday:
On August 21, Kevin Mumin was sentenced to four years in prison for a series of hate-motivated attacks against Latino men and the sexual assault of a girl riding the bus to high school.
Israel Hernandez was recently sentenced to four years in prison for the brutal, hate-motivated beating of a homeless African American man in December 2023.
On August 23, Klinton Dion pleaded guilty to one count of vandalizing a place of worship and placing a hate symbol on public property, both motivated by anti-Semitism. He was sentenced to two years and eight months in prison.
