A report from the ACLU of Southern California makes it clear – Los Angeles deserves better than District Attorney Nathan Hochman.

The report “Los Angeles Deserves Better – A Review of Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan Hochman’s First Year in Office” outlines five public policy issues L.A. County advocates and community members tracked during Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan Hochman’s first year in office. Hochman’s Year One record reflects a hardline approach to prosecution and a pattern of extreme and debunked approaches to crime that will likely increase mass incarceration.

The five public policy issues:

• Resurrecting The Death Penalty – Hochman reinstated the death penalty in L.A. County, despite California’s moratorium on capital punishment and the long-documented issues of its racially discriminatory use and failure to improve public safety. This serves to divert resources from proven anti-crime measures to costly death penalty prosecutions.
• Opposition to the Racial Justice Act – Despite publicly avowing to support the California Racial Justice Act (RJA), which bans the use of race in convictions or sentencing, Hochman filed an amicus brief to chip away at its protections, arguing that the “Bengal tiger analogy,” an example of “racially incendiary or racially coded language” specifically referenced in the RJA’s legislative intent, “is not one that appeals to racial bias.”
• Extreme Charging Practices – Hochman resumed sentencing enhancements and gang enhancements, which contribute to mass incarceration and racial bias, and used politically heightened moments like the California wildfires and political protests to showcase extreme charging, prescribing brutal punishments for theft and announcing dozens of charges against civilians, while issuing no charges against law enforcement officers accused of misconduct.
• Continued Support of Prop 36 – Hochman continues to support Prop 36, a measure that promised harsher penalties for theft and mandated “treatment” for drug offenses. Yet reports indicate Prop 36 is driving up the L.A. County jail population and is being used to target, arrest, and charge Black and brown people at far higher rates than white counterparts, and threatens funding for community-based reentry and diversion programs proven to reduce recidivism.
• Preventing the Adoption of Care-Centered Community Safety Solutions – Hochman’s office actively lobbied against several transformative justice initiatives and bills, including 1. AB 572: A bill requiring officers and DA’s to clearly identify themselves, disclose information, and prohibit coercive tactics when interviewing families who lost loved ones to police violence; 2. AB 704: Legislation seeking to seal records for people convicted before age 26; 3. AB 938, legislation providing processes to address convictions resulting from human/sexual trafficking or intimate partner violence.
  

The report also highlights concerns from advocates regarding D.A. Hochman’s style and conduct, with reports of him being hostile, dismissive, and condescending in meetings with constituents, advocates, and victims’ families who disagree with his positions.

Does this sound like someone representing the needs of Los Angelenos?

You can read and download the report from the ACLU of Southern California here —>>> “Los Angeles Deserves Better – A Review of Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan Hochman’s First Year in Office“