The DA Contest Will Likely Continue - Part 3

For parochial reasons unrelated to the present protests, we have on this blog been keeping readers informed about the upcoming DA election in LA County.* Nonetheless, the protests have highlighted that race. Faculty may have an interest in the outcome of that race for reasons noted below. First, from the LA Times:

Huge protest in downtown L.A. targets DA Jackie Lacey

More peaceful demonstrations occurred across Southern California on Wednesday, with thousands converging at the Los Angeles civic center to protest Dist. Atty Jackie Lacey. The downtown protest was the biggest of numerous marches to express outrage at police brutality and the killing of George Floyd. There were marches in Hollywood, Whittier, Hancock Park, Long Beach, West Hollywood and Newport Beach. Lacey has long been a target of some activists, who have criticized her for not prosecuting more police officers for misconduct. She’s locked in a runoff for reelection. Thousands were standing in Grand Park in front of the criminal courthouse...

Full story at https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-06-03/huge-protest-in-downtown-l-a-targets-da-jackie-lacey-others-demonstrate-around-southland
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Second, from our most recent post on this subject back in March just after the primary:

Yours truly might note in addition something discussed in earlier blog posts. LA County DA Jackie Lacey is running for re-election and has a significant opponent in George Gascón. Lacey's predecessor as DA brought a criminal case against a UC faculty member for a tragic lab accident that should have been dealt with as a civil case. It was hoped that when Lacey was first elected she would take a different approach to that matter which she inherited, rather than pursue the criminal case, which at one point sought to charge the entire Board of Regents. Instead, she went ahead with the case as it stood. UCLA defended the faculty member and eventually the case largely dissipated and was settled. But in the course of the DA's efforts, another faculty member was charged in a totally-unrelated case on spurious grounds that were eventually dropped. It appeared that the DA's strategy at the time was somehow to hold the second faculty member as a kind of hostage to push for some kind of deal on the lab case. If that was the strategy, it failed. The bottom line here is that you might want to consider this history in making your choice in the DA race.

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*http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2020/03/the-da-contest-will-likely-continue_18.html