As seen in the Los Angeles Sentinel
“I think Mr. Gascón has taken us a little too far to one side, and we’ve lost our ability to hold people accountable. If we can’t hold people accountable, we can’t rehabilitate. We can’t correct behavior. We can’t make people who are actually victims of crime feel that they’ve received some sense of justice, so that’s really what’s driving me,” said prosecutor John McKinney, who is running for Los Angeles District Attorney.
McKinney, who has handled many high-profile prosecutions for the DA’s office for over 25 years, feels that there is a void in law enforcement at the district attorney level, and he wants to try to help young people avoid the criminal justice system altogether.
“I have this amazing life experience of growing up low-income without a father, raised by a single female during one of the most troubling periods in our history, that being the crack cocaine epidemic when violent crime was much higher,” McKinney said. “I think I didn’t realize it then. But that was a classroom for me. That served me later in the role that I would have as a prosecutor.”
Growing up in that environment allowed McKinney to understand the pitfalls that young Black and brown men face at an early age. He also witnessed many of his friends fall into the drug hustle and the criminality and victimization that goes with that. As tricky as a DA’s office can be, McKinney said that it never came close to the adversity he experienced by 10 -years- old.
Click HERE to read the full story in the Los Angeles Sentinel.
