Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis Oversteps on De-Carcerate and De-Populate

Manuel Balce Ceneta

The Girl Boss Squad known as the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors need to lay off the sauce. They have just relinquished their COVID state of emergency, although the egregious Barbara “Not That Kind of Doctor” Ferrer is still in place at Los Angeles County Department of Public Health to bring it back again, and Lead Mean Girl Hilda Solis was part of the progressive crew that lost bigly when the First District Circuit of Appeals reversed course on Prop 22, allowing the voter-approved initiative that grants app drivers exemption from AB5 to mostly stand.

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But instead of focusing on mitigating the growing crime in Los Angeles County and staunching the flow of residents taking their tax dollars out of the county and the state, Solis and the Board of Supervisors have chosen to plow ahead on their WOKE agenda of criminal justice reform over common sense and reason. Solis continues to be the leader of the pack, as this is her last term as a Supervisor, and she has little to lose. So, Solis decided that a humanitarian crisis must be declared in order to empty out the jails and blunt the ability to prosecute and incarcerate criminal offenses. Fox News Correspondent Bill Melugin was one of the first to sound the alarm on this proposal, which dropped on Friday, and was scheduled to be discussed and voted upon at the weekly Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday of this week.

Solis took to Twitter to brag about this proposal, partnering with newly-minted Mean Girl Lindsay Horvath and OG Mean Girl Janice Hahn, couching it as a move to build a “mental health continuum of care.”

Right

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That is why I have authored two motions, one with @LindseyPHorvath and the other with @SupJaniceHahn, to remove carceral and traumatic institutions like Men’s Central Jail that have caused great harm and adopt an actionable plan to build out our mental health continuum of care.

From the “Proposal:”

To depopulate and decarcerate is a monumental task, and the Board is committed to redress historical wrongs, deeply rooted in systemic racism and prejudice, and reverse status quo responses to poverty, mental health and medical needs, and substance use dependencies. However, the authority and responsibility, unfortunately, does not rest solely on this Board.

Why is it their job to redress historical wrongs and deeply rooted systemic racism and prejudice? Part of their posted job description is to manage the Los Angeles County budgets and ensure the infrastructure and safety of Los Angeles County and its residents are maintained and upheld. So far they are doing a crap job on both those counts, so why are they trying to virtue signal and take on other tasks for which they are equally ill-equipped?

Inquiring minds want to know.

The Board has limited authority to decarcerate and divert as these authorities lie largely with the State, Legislature, Governor, Los Angeles Superior Court (LASC), and the Los Angeles County Sheriff. There are also several legislative changes and reforms that need to take place to safely depopulate vulnerable populations in the jails, such as those who have been deemed “medically fragile.”

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It is fortunate for the citizens of L.A. County that the BOS’s authority is limited; however, we have a California Governor who is on board with this nonsense and has already released thousands of violent offenders into the general population, and since the Girl Boss Squad were able to rid themselves of former Sheriff Alex Villanueva, they now have an L.A. County Sheriff who will do their bidding. Everyone knows that Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon is also an automatic buy-in. So, who are the final dominos? The courts, made up of the judges who have to review and rule on these cases, and deputy district attorneys who are sworn to defend the victims of the crimes these criminals will continue to perpetrate, no matter how much counseling and coddling they receive.

The Association of Deputy District Attorneys weighed in, and they are none too pleased.

The plan advanced by Supervisors Hilda Solis and Lindsey Horvath would declare a “humanitarian crisis” in the jails and advocate for or instruct several county agencies to evaluate, create and expand programs that would keep more people out of a jail, even after they are convicted of misdemeanors and some felonies.

Eric Siddall, vice president of the Association of Deputy District Attorneys, which represents about 900 LA County prosecutors, calls the proposal from Solis and Horvath “dangerous and reckless,” and claims it guts portions of the legal system without input from valuable stakeholders.

“The authors sought no advice from those who know and understand public safety issues,” he said in an email Sunday. “They seek to lower the jail population without addressing the root causes of crime or protecting the public.”

Siddall noted the proposal directs law enforcement to cite and release suspects for offenses such as illegally carrying a gun, domestic violence, possession of child pornography and some violent crimes, including residential burglary, robbery, and assault with a firearm.

“This catch-and-release program comes without any plan or infrastructure to protect the community from violent criminals apprehended by law enforcement,” he said. “Further, it creates no lockdown facilities for the mentally ill. This program benefits no one, except career criminals. We need to make sure the most dangerous offenders don’t get out, that first-time offenders don’t come back, and that those with serious mental illnesses get appropriate care and help. This does none of that.”

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That sounds about right. No “plan or infrastructure to protect the community” seems to be the default status of these woke supervisors. It’s all about virtue signaling, feel-good, change that you can’t believe in vibes, and the people of Los Angeles County suffer the consequences, while they continue to line their pocketbooks. Do an internet search on Solis and her long government career; there’s a laundry list of corruption and kickbacks dating before her turn as Secretary of Labor in the Obama administration. One of the engineers of all this feel-good criminal justice reform was none other than Mark Ridley-Thomas, who was just found guilty on seven counts of fraud and racketeering. So, it has little to do with “healing systemic racism,” and much to do with whose gonna pay them more; it’s as though that $335,145 of pay and benefits is just not enough.

After the Association of Deputy DDAs shot down Solis’ proposal, apparently other “stakeholders” on both sides of the issue weighed in. The Los Angeles County Police Chiefs Association declared that they were blindsided:

The Los Angeles County Police Chiefs Association says it was blindsided by the proposal, only learning about it on Friday, and believes it is conspicuously timed to occur during the same week as two major local law enforcement events — the Baker to Vegas Challenge Cup Relay and the Tri-County Police Chiefs Conference.

“In the midst of surging crime rates, pre-arrest decriminalization policies, and a complete shift away from sound public safety responses, it appears the County BOS is poised to exacerbate our current plight,” says a letter from the group to the supervisors, obtained by the Southern California News Group. “We do not stand against reform and we have been active participants in these efforts. However, we are concerned with the rushed motion under conspicuous circumstances, that does not allow for stakeholder participation.”

Solis and Horvath could not be reached for comment Sunday. Supervisor Kathryn Barger, the board’s lone Republican, won’t back the motion.

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Barger was the only BOS member who backed Villanueva, and who stood against Ferrer’s draconian rule during COVID; so if she keeps being the lone wolf on this Girl Boss Squad, she might want to get a food taster.

On Monday, just as sneakily as Solis tried to slip the proposal into the agenda, she quickly withdrew it. She made this statement to the San Gabriel Tribune:

However, Solis took the item off of the board’s agenda.

“Los Angeles County is subject to numerous federal consent decrees and settlement agreements, including those regarding the treatment provided for incarcerated people with mental health needs and severe overcrowding in county jails, including Men’s Central Jail,” Solis said in a statement. “They are expensive and getting into compliance is becoming more challenging as the population becomes more complex; and the conditions in the jails, as we have long known, are horrid and inhumane

“Nonetheless, since the motion was published, my office has received concerns from a variety of stakeholders — those who feel the motion is not doing enough and those who feel it is doing too much. To that end, I will be referring the motion back to my office so that I can continue to gather input from all stakeholders.

The goal now, she said, is to “balance the needs of public safety while also getting into compliance with our federal obligations. And in that process, I ask that county departments and agencies help us with meeting the need of our most vulnerable.”

“in compliance with our federal obligations,” is basically code for how much money they can bilk from the federal coffers. With this bunch, it’s all about the Benjamins. Solis apparently also lost Janice Hahn’s support, and her name was on one of the proposals! Mark my words, this will not die, and Los Angeles County residents need to keep their eye out for the Girl Boss Squad sneaking it in again. They love their WOKE Warrior status and their dirty money more than they love Los Angeles.

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