In the ongoing drama resulting from the introduction of sweeping progressive reforms instituted by new (and hopefully shortest-serving) Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon, District Attorneys for the County have been instructed to not attend parole hearings on behalf of victims or victims families.  This policy has drawn the ire of many people including victims’ rights groups, who state that the change puts victims at risk of greater emotional harm in having to face these hearings alone. Of course, progressives would want rape victims, or the parents of a murdered child, to have to fight alone to keep the offending party behind bars.

When Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva was elected a few years back, I was not happy about it.  Villanueva came in promising sweeping progressive reforms, and began delivering on those promises one by one up until April of this last year, when he threatened to shut down gun stores at the beginning of the COVID-19 lockdown.  Then something changed.  What, I am not exactly sure, but Villanueva has suddenly made a hard right, landing praise from even pro-liberty, quasi-libertarian people like myself.

Now, I am prepared to offer him the highest of fives.

Villanueva has ordered that he will send Los Angeles County Deputies to parole hearings with the victims of crimes.

Again, I have no idea what happened with the good Sheriff, but credit where credit is due.  We need strength in a position like Sheriff.  It seems that the area of my agreement with Villanueva has not been in the policy necessarily but in the enforcement.  Too often, Police officials advocate for policies and agendas when they should be doing their one job: enforcing the law.  When unlawful dictates came from County officials, Villanueva simply stated it wasn’t his job to enforce unlawful orders.  When the DA refused to continue to do his job, the Sheriff stepped in and said, sorry, but we owe this to the process and to our jobs to keep these victims, and other future victims protected.

That isn’t to say people shouldn’t have the right to parole, but the point of a hearing is to weigh the risks associated with the early release of a particular offender.  Among those concerns should be how the release could affect victims or their families.

This is where the left completely loses me.

Follow this thought exercise with me.  It is purely hypothetical. You’d think that the party which spent months (and continues to) publicly attacking Brett Kavanaugh for a 30+-year-old alleged offense, suggesting he should be in jail, would also then immediately suggest (by their logic) that Christine Ford should be left to fight to keep him behind bars when he became eligible for parole.

What?

You’d think that the party that continues to push “protecting minorities” doesn’t want to protect the most vulnerable amongst us. (Of course aside from those pesky clumps of cells).  How could anyone look at a victim and actually believe their plight and still tell them to face it alone?  Completely insane.

What is even more insane is that Gascon ran on this trainwreck of policies and was still endorsed by the majority of the Dems in Los Angeles County and then elected by a majority of the electorate.