Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney John McKinney announced that District Attorney George Gascón has disbanded the Victim Impact Program that handles abuse crimes.
McKinney has been very vocal about his displeasure in how the office has been running under Gascón and it is being speculated by 2UrbanGirls that he will run against him in the 2024 election.
All it takes is one election to change course to a new direction. Get ready to join me on this journey. #mckinney4la. #mckinneyforthepeople pic.twitter.com/dhVvo5xInF
— JOHN MCKINNEY #PROPORTIONAL JUSTICE (@johnmckinney_) January 23, 2023
Today, LADA Gascon disbanded the special victims unit known as VIP. The Victim Impact Program was composed of a specially trained group of prosecutors who handled child and adult sexual abuse, elder abuse, domestic violence, and other crimes involving vulnerable victims.
Before Gascon’s decision to eliminate the program, ten VIP units existed to vertically prosecute crimes regionally in courthouses throughout the county of Los Angeles. Gascon’s decision came in the immediate wake of an article published yesterday that highlighted his neglect and mismanagement of this important resource.
Gascon has spun the elimination of VIP as an “expansion” of the family violence and sex crimes divisions. He promises that the same specially trained prosecutors will handle these important cases but are being reassigned to “streamline” prosecutions. The reality is the VIP program is being eliminated as part of a two step process to reassign special victim prosecutors to fill holes in the rapidly decaying line operations.
Gascon is dismantling the District Attorney’s Office brick by brick and will continue to until it becomes incapable of carrying out its essential constitutional function in our criminal justice system.
This is yet another example of an incompetent leader and dysfunctional administration.
John McKinney
McKinney has handled the high-profile prosecution of South LA entrepreneur and rapper Nipsey Hussle’s killer Eric Holder.