Candidate for Los Angeles County District Attorney John McKinney joined the Dr. Drew show today to discuss his candidacy, how to combat rising crime in Los Angeles County, and the general feeling of residents who eagerly await the results of the upcoming election. You can listen to the full interview here.

Or you can watch the full interview by clicking the above photo.

Cities throughout California continue to wrestle with the impacts of crime.

Similar to Los Angeles County, the city of Oakland has seen disturbing acts of violence that deeply impacts residents and has created a cloud of fear around the city.

Things have gotten so bad that the Oakland NAACP issued a letter to city officials calling on them to declare a state of emergency. This is a clear cry for help.

I made an appearance on Fox News to discuss the situation in Oakland.

In reality, the way things are going in Los Angeles County right now, we may not be too far from Oakland. We can’t let this happen.

As Deputy District Attorney, I’m doing everything I can to keep Los Angeles safe and to ensure our residents have the simple assurance their government is working in the interest of justice.

I want to continue serving you and our residents as the next District Attorney. Please check out my interview and share it with your friends and family on social media.

Thanks for your continued support.

I’ll keep it brief. 

I’ve been critical of Los Angeles’ zero-bail policy. Zero-bail means that most people arrested for qualifying crimes are immediately released from jail after booking without conditions and without further inquiry by the courts.

This policy makes Los Angeles less safe. The idea that offenders are being released without bail under ANY circumstance is flat out ridiculous.

I recently went on The Morning Answer with Jen and Grant to discuss my opposition to this misguided policy.

In response to the City of Los Angeles reinstating it’s zero-bail policy, critically acclaimed rapper and actor 50 cent took to social media to declare the return of the policy means Los Angeles is “finished.”

That’s pretty deep.

Image Courtesy of Getty Images

While I don’t think Los Angeles is finished, a lot of work is needed to get our city back on track and restore public safety. I shared my thoughts with the New York Post on how this harmful policy makes our neighborhoods less safe and weakens our criminal justice system.

As I’ve said during this campaign, I’m all for having conversations about the fair application of the law, but the idea that criminals are being released without bail under ANY circumstance is flat out ridiculous.

Please check out the article and share it with your friends and family on social media.

Thanks for your continued support.

LOS ANGELES – Candidate for Los Angeles County District Attorney John McKinney today named Ron Low, a noted L.A. civic leader, attorney, philanthropist, and AAPI community advocate, as co-chair for his campaign to replace incumbent D.A. George Gascón in 2024.

Low formerly served as senior advisor to Los Angeles Mayor James Hahn and is a past mayoral commission appointee to the City of Los Angeles Board of Public Works.

McKinney calls Low “a personal friend, mentor and strong advocate for the Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities whose sound strategic advice has helped shape his policy views.”

“I’m grateful Ron agreed to serve as co-chair for my upcoming D.A. campaign,” McKinney said. “Ron has brought about positive changes everywhere he’s been involved and is deeply committed to serving the interests of the people of Los Angeles County.”

Low began his career as a youth correctional counselor operating and managing a group home for the California Youth Authority. Throughout his career, Low maintained close ties to the AAPI community, serving as lead counsel for the AAPI community in the redistricting lawsuit filed against the City of Los Angeles to protect the voting rights of the AAPI community’s registered voters. Low also served as a criminal prosecutor in the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office. 

“I’m honored to serve as campaign co-chair for my friend John McKinney in his quest to be District Attorney for Los Angeles County in 2024,” said Low. “John will be effective in combating the surge of violence harming AAPI residents and businesses in L.A. County and is the right leader to bring balance back to this critically important county office.”

Low, a life-long Democrat, earned his juris doctorate from Howard University School of Law and is a member of the State Bar of California. He earned a master’s degree in social work from California State University, Sacramento and his bachelor’s degree in criminology from U.C. Berkeley. 

For more information about Ron Low or the McKinney campaign, contact the McKinney for DA 2024 campaign team at media@mckinney4la.com.

LOS ANGELES – With nearly 25 years of successful prosecutions, Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney John McKinney has officially announced he will run for Los Angeles County District Attorney in 2024 and win.

“It’s clear that the criminal justice system in Los Angeles County is broken, and the time to fix it is now!” McKinney said of his announcement to run for LA County District Attorney. “Every day I speak with Los Angelenos who tell me more and more how unsafe they and their families feel walking our streets while living and working in our city. As a prosecutor committed to protecting the innocent through the fair and ethical prosecution of the guilty, it has been a painful experience over the past two years to watch Mr. Gascon inexplicably tilt the scales of justice to the extreme in favor of those committing crimes and away from those made to suffer them.”

McKinney was hired as a prosecutor by then-LA District Attorney Gil Garcetti in 1998. Since then, he has served four district attorneys, including Garcetti, Steve Cooley, Jackie Lacey, and Gascón.

McKinney led the successful prosecution of Eric Holder Jr. for the 2019 murder of American rapper, businessman, and community leader Nipsey Hussle. Holder’s defense attorneys put immense pressure on McKinney to have the charges reduced from first-degree murder to manslaughter. McKinney held fast and rejected the manslaughter defense, and the jury agreed, convicting Holder of first-degree murder in July 2022.

The career prosecutor is committed to restoring public trust and safety by committing the DA’s office to assess each case separately and each person individually, consistent with his belief in proportional justice. As evidence of his leadership characteristics, McKinney was one of the first publicly vocal critics of Gascon and his policies in a speech courageously delivered at the Hall of Justice on December 31, 2020.

“I am not running for District Attorney to offer platitudes to the failures and tragedies of our yesterdays; I am running for District Attorney to secure the safety and prosperity of the future for all Angelenos.”

Mckinney is no stranger to adversity. His life has been filled with challenges beginning with the death of both parents by age five, to surviving a street culture of rampant crack cocaine, crime, and violence, to his acceptance to the UCLA School of Law, culminating in a perfect trial record over 10 years in the elite Major Crimes Division of the District Attorney’s Office.

Meeting and overcoming some of life’s most difficult challenges, together with a 25-year career, has uniquely prepared Mckinney to lead the nation’s largest local criminal justice system.

McKinney’s achievements have clearly distinguished him as the “People’s Prosecutor,” making him the right man, for the right job, at just the right time!

For more information about the McKinney campaign, visit McKinney4LA.com or contact the media team at media@mckinney4la.com.