Daily News: LA DA’s plan to downsize DA’s gang unit concerns top deputies, demoralizes prosecutors
In a Zoom call with dozens of wary deputy district attorneys, two top lieutenants of Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón acknowledged it will be “an uphill battle” to quickly implement his controversial plan to downsize and rebrand the office’s vaunted Hardcore Gang Investigations Unit.
For nearly an hour last week, Maria Ramirez, director of the Bureau of Special Prosecution, and Larry Droeger, prosecution support operations director, consoled and tried to reassure more than 30 prosecutors about the future of the scaled-down operation, according to a recording of the Zoom meeting obtained by the Southern California News Group.
Many of prosecutors on the call have already been transferred from the hardcore unit or will be soon moved to branches and area offices throughout Los Angeles County, where they will possibly receive less high-profile assignments.
“This sucks, you know,” Ramirez told the deputy district attorneys during the Zoom meeting. “I’m trying to just sort of make the best of it. And it’s going to be kind of an uphill battle. But in the end, you know, we have to just remember why we do what we do, and remember that we do it for the communities and to keep the community safe, and to put bad guys away.”
