there's an LMU hosted convo with Gascon right now, not going to live tweet it, but definitely will give some impressions

1. dude is really a cop, like i did not realize how many times he was chief of police

2. he picked fights with Sheriff Arpaio when he was CoP in Mesa, AZ

3. he brags about knowing Kamala and Larry Krasner, claims to be called "godfather of progressive prosecutors"

4. talks a lot about Prop 47 and it's benefits

5. says that LA DA would need to up to 400 staff investigating LAPD to match efforts in SF proportionally

6. touts support for original AB 392 (use of force update) and not a fan of compromise bill

7. q about police unions: Gascon says he's taken 0 cop union $ this campaign, but has taken small $ before 2014

8. asked bar association to change rules to bar DA candidates from accepting cop union $ and endorsements

9. LAPPL doesn't like him, he notes big spending

10. says that he likes labor unions but definite conflict with DA's and cop unions, also says cop unions are different than other unions

11. directly asked about #DefundThePolice: Gascon says term is not well defined right now, he pivots to "reducing the footprint" = cops will always exist, but should be smaller and with more limited role

12. must see how policing helps and harms, esp in areas like mental health, so we should divert that funding from police to mental healthcare and service workers, etc

note: he categorizes a mental health episode as "seeing a three headed monster" which is uhhh weird

13. says no role for guns and badges on campuses outside of extreme emergencies

14. says criminalizing students is very harmful, not just to students directly effected but to entire student body

15. talks about idea of using community ambassadors from reformed gang members and such

16. asked about racial justice: Gascon says institutional racism definitely exists, but some broken parts of policing aren't just race based

17. policing was based on very racist society, calls out connections to slave catchers, and institutional racism still a problem

18. the entire system is implicated from cops to prosecutors, so reforms need to be deep

19. says that reforms need to be informed by own accountability, need to have complete data picture to understand the problem

20. research revealed that in SF DA office race was still a factor, not overtly racist, but the system that was feeding the work was racist

21. Prop 47 helped to reduce disproportionality of Black and white prison populations

22. created an AI with Stanford lab, a blind charging system...so it takes electronic police reports, removes race and race proxies from reports, so when charging decisions were made there were no race considerations

23. once unmasked if the decision was different with race mixed in it required higher approval to charge

24. editorializing: wait, wut? this is both interesting and somewhat alarming, but also maybe AI is the wrong term, i know devs who do this stuff for med records

25. also Gascon is using the term "green people" as a proxy for race and i'm not stoked on the fact that he's too afraid to explicitly say Black people or Brown people when talking about race

26. asked about SF legacy: says that SF is the floor, not the ceiling, he's constantly evolving

27. takes a jab at Lacey for saying she's the same person she was in 1986

28. says he want to experiment, talk up Chesa and Chesa's record and background...actually Gascon gets quite animated talking Chesa

29. says he wants local knowledge and wants to know what people in LA need

30. asked about decarceration and mental illness: Gascon says we need to move away from cash bail, that will immediately have an impact

31. on mental health Gascon says he's conflicted over Lacey saying she's the mental health DA

32. says DA should be leading the charge on mental health diversion, not sandbagging like Lacey

33. speaks to need for more funding, perhaps turning to non profits around LA county

34. says we need more places to divert people to

35. 40% of the people in county jail everyday have some mental health issue, incarceration does not help, esp severe mental illness

36. q about gang injunctions: Gascon will not use gang injunctions, then gives primer on injunctions

37. acknowledges that he used them while an LAPD officer, notes that it strips target of most constitutional rights

38. notes the metro scandal about false gang affiliation records

39. says that he now understands how broken that system is, but was a part of that system

40. says consequences were "unintended"...so i guess judge that as you will

41. pledged to not seek injunctions early in the campaign, wants to stop over criminalizing Black and Brown kids

42. q about sexual violence: says that in SF he prosecuted at 2x national rate but national rate is very low

43. he made some reforms to increase work, found victims often revictimized

44. he focused on providing support for survivors first then collecting evidence, wants to bring to LA

45. <this is a bit at odds with stuff i've heard from folx in SF about his record on sexual violence>

46. says prosecutors often focus on winning case, not helping victim

47. advocates restorative justice when possible

48. talks about body attachment used against sex workers and prosecutors who prosecute victims for not testifying, says that's wrong

49. q about Villanueva: Gascon says he will hold LASD accountable for crimes and that the DA must have a clear message that as chief LEO he will hold LA cops to high standard

50. <he's very light on specifics, outside of promising to prosecute crimes>

51. hosts have both endorsed Gascon, definitely a friendly call, a bit of a fundraising ask at the end

52. last question is a real hard question: how can people get involved? how are you going to win?

53. Gascon says to engage, read the platform, etc...all boilerplate campaign stuff

54. says no contribution is too small, a tried and true progressive flag...talks average contributions, def setting up as more populist than Lacey

55. cites big cop union spending against him

56. says "grassroots" so mark that square on the card, 500 volunteers, influencers!

57. notes mail in ballot for November, concerned about making sure people can vote

58. EXPLICITLY SAYS: I don't think the County will provide people with the resources they need to vote

damn, shading the LACRR...

59. cites primary and how he had another progressive in the race but doesn't mention @Rachel4LA

60. says overcoming apathy is the path to beating Lacey

61. says go to website, but doesn't say what the website is

62. reps virtual fund raisers, 1 hr long convos like this one i imagine

63. well that's that...one note, George has some very symmetrical bookshelves and it's kind of bothering me

UPDATE: it is a shutterstock background image!