A Los Angeles County Sheriff hit back at District Attorney George Gascón on Monday for previously calling him “a pig” at a Dec. 9 press conference.
Gascón called Sheriff Alex Villanueva “a pig” for his criticisms of the passage of Proposition 47, which reportedly reduced several felony crimes to misdemeanors, according to KTLA 5.
“My dad used to say that when you wrestle with a pig, you both get muddy and the pig likes it, and that’s not a pig in terms of using the term as law enforcement,” Gascón said in an apparent reference to Villanueva.
Villanueva responded to the district attorney’s remarks by criticizing his performance in crime handling during an appearance on “Tucker Carlson Tonight.”
“I’m not going to get into the personal attacks, I’m going to focus on performance,” Villanueva said. “If you can’t do the job, you need to get out of office, plain and simple. Roughly 12,000 cases in his first year in office that he has not prosecuted that we made the arrest, did the investigation, established all the elements of the crime presented and they decide ‘well, our special order said we’re just not gonna prosecute at all.'”
“So that’s 12,000 times that the crook walked away scot-free. What kind of message is that selling to the criminal community?” he said.
The sheriff said that the county’s homicides have risen by “over 40 percent” this year and grand theft auto by 25%. He said Gascón has “continued down a failed path” as the crime rates continue to surge. (RELATED: Los Angeles District Attorney ‘Is Pro-Criminal, Anti-Victim,’ Says His Deputy, Who Wants Him Recalled)
Villanueva told Fox News host and Daily Caller co-founder Tucker Carlson that he instructs his deputies to continue to do their job despite the alleged inactions of Gascón. He said the press conference consisted of “woke” district attorneys that are against law enforcement.
“I tell all the deputies don’t do your job because someone else refuses to do his or her job. That’s what we have right now. That presser, he had all of his woke DAs from throughout the nation there but not a single DA from Los Angeles County. Not a single victim of crime, nobody here locally was going to tell him ‘hey, great job boss, thanks for what you’re doing,'” Villanueva said.
“Not a single one because it has been an absolute failure on all counts for the DA,” he continued.
Since the passage of Gascón’s crime reform, homicides rose by 46% and car thefts by 56% in comparison to late November of 2019, KTLA 5 reported. Property crimes decreased by 6.6%, as well as robberies by 13.6% and burglaries by 7.7%.
Gascón was hit with a lawsuit in December of 2020 from a union representing deputy district attorneys for trying to dismiss enhancements against a criminal accused of killing a Los Angeles County deputy. A judge ruled that his new policies violated California’s “Three Strikes” law, which states that an individual can have jail time added to their sentence if convicted of two criminal charges.
The district attorney also removed the death penalty for parents who allegedly killed and tortured a 10-year-old boy in May.