Two Los Angeles-area police officers are dead after an ambush shooting by a felon who reportedly should have been behind bars.
The criminal is dead now, too, but so are El Monte, California, police Cpl. Michael Paredes and Officer Joseph Santana.
And Hollywood conservative James Woods is blasting the man he believes is responsible: Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón.
According to KTTV-TV, the shooting took place Tuesday at a motel where police were responding to a reported stabbing.
The gunman was identified as Justin Flores, 35, a man who was on probation after pleading no contest to a charge in 2020 of being a felon in possession of a firearm, according to KNBC-TV. At the time, prosecutors dropped two other charges against Flores – being a felon in possession of ammunition and possession of methamphetamine, the station reported.
In a Twitter thread posted Wednesday, Fox News national correspondent Bill Melugin, citing law enforcement sources, reported that Flores had received the “absolute bare minimum” sentence for the firearms possession charge — two years’ probation.
Under California’s “three strikes” law, which requires prosecutors to take criminal defendants’ previous records into account when making prosecution decisions, Flores should have been sentenced to between two-and-a-half and three years in prison, Melugin reported.
Gascón, however, had refused to enforce the “three strikes” law, so Flores got the slap on the wrist of probation, according to Melugin.
An appeals court ruled on June 2 that the Democratic DA had overstated his authority and that he “is an elected official who must comply with the law, not a sovereign with absolute, unreviewable discretion.”
Do you hold this prosecutor responsible for the officers’ deaths?
That came too late for Paredes and Santana.
And that had James Woods — and no doubt countless other Californians and Americans — absolutely livid.
Gascón is already the subject of a recall campaign, like the one that brought down his fellow progressive prosecutor Chesa Baudin in San Francisco last week, and Woods made a point of mentioning that.
“Let’s put it as simply as we can,” Woods wrote in a Twitter post linking to a Fox News article about the appeals court decision.
“If George Gascon obeyed the law these two El Monte police officers would be alive today,” he said.
“George Gascon has blood on his hands. Not only should he be recalled; he should be in prison.”
Let’s put it as simply as we can. If George Gascon obeyed the law these two El Monte police officers would be alive today.
George Gascon has blood on his hands. Not only should he be recalled; he should be in prison. #RecallGascon https://t.co/Z3ue2NuJPo
— James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) June 16, 2022
Plenty of social media users agreed with him – especially about the recall drive.
I’ve signed the recall petition.
I suggest all in a position to do so, do so.
— Ford_Corvette (@ford_corvette) June 16, 2022
Time to take the trash out
— Mr. B. (@MR_B_GONE) June 16, 2022
Indeed. And he should pay restitution to the police officers families for life.
— @ActionJax (@ActionJax8) June 16, 2022
And then there was this:
This is happening across the country, catch and release
— (@imcobble) June 16, 2022
“This is happening across the country, catch and release,” one user wrote.
That sums it up pretty well. As the country is dealing with a surge in violent crime, prosecutors whose campaigns are often financed by billionaire puppeteer George Soros have been laying waste to criminal justice systems in cities across the U.S.
Larry Krasner in Philadelphia, Alvin Bragg in Manhattan, Kim Foxx in Chicago and other so-called prosecutors have benefited from Soros donations only to bring lawlessness to their cities – and the citizens they’re supposed to protect.
As Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass wrote back in July 2020, describing that connection:
“These prosecutors are among the few politicians in America who have delivered on their promises. They promised to empty their jails through the social justice warrior policy of ‘decarceration.’ They also help give repeat, violent criminals little or no bond when arrested.
“And in many of the violent cities, the prosecutors have delivered on their promises, not to keep the violent in jail, but to let them out.”
Gascón also enjoys the backing of Soros, as an extensive, damning Heritage Foundation report in 2021 documented. But he might stand out even among this contemptibly contemptuous lot.
Not only was a felon free to murder two law enforcement officers, apparently thanks to the lax pro-criminal policies of the man in charge of law enforcement in Los Angeles County, but county taxpayers could be on the hook to pay for the funeral of the man who killed those officers.
A post in Melugin’s thread notes another of the district attorney’s policies: One in which the DA’s Bureau of Victim Services would “contact the families of individuals killed by police and provide support services including funeral, burial and mental health services immediately following the death regardless of the state of the investigation or charging decisions.”
There appears to be no limit to the insanity.
Meanwhile, another post in Melugin’s thread notes that the LA County DA’s office had issued a statement regarding the Flores case.
Flores’ original felony conviction stemmed from a 2011 burglary case that got him a two-year prison term, according to KNBC.
NEW: LA DA @GeorgeGascon office issues a statement regarding this case.
Their position is that placing a convicted felon gang member with a strike on his record on probation for possession of a gun by a felon was a “consistent” resolution at the time. @FoxNews pic.twitter.com/o0Q0ycrRT5— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) June 16, 2022
The home he burglarized belonged to his grandparents, according to the statement Melugin posted. And at the time of his sweetheart deal stemming from the 2020 arrest, Flores “did not have a documented history of violence.”
Well, he does now – or rather he would if he were not already dead, after engaging in murderous violence that killed two men whose careers were spent in preventing crime.
Of course, there’s no way for a human being to predict the future behavior of another human being. Gascón’s office can hardly be faulted for not realizing that the probation deal it gave Flores would turn into a death sentence for two police officers.
But all prosecutors had to do in the case was follow the law of the state of California – a law Gascón thought he had the power to override.
An appeals court has ruled differently, but it’s too late now for two law enforcement professionals, their families and their communities.
Is Gascón directly responsible for those deaths? No. That’s a criminal named Flores, who is now beyond the reach of earthly courts – his judgment is in Other hands.
But Woods, a once-prolific Twitter user who remains one of the few big names in Hollywood who champions conservative causes, is right about Gascón’s role in this tragedy:
It was Gascón’s progressive policies that made it possible. And for that, he, and every other progessive prosecutor, should pay.
