LA's Broken Criminal Justice System

District Attorney George Gascon is a bad joke at best.

The writer Friedrich Torberg wrote a funny book titled Tante Jolesch or the Decline of the West in Anecdotes about Vienna’s delightful coffee house culture before the Third Reich took over the city in 1938. One of the most amusing characters in the book, who seems to spend most of his timing hanging out at the Cafe Herrenhof, is the criminal defense attorney, Hugo Sperber.

One day, while chatting with Torberg over coffee, he says he’s going to boost his practice by hanging a sign in front of his office that reads, “Robbers, murderers, and child molesters go only to Dr. [of Jurisprudence] Sperber!”

I was reminded of this while researching the strange case of the armed man, disguised as a U.S. Marshal, who demanded to meet presidential candidate, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. All at once he violated two California state gun laws (including carrying a concealed weapon without a permit) and the federal law against impersonating a federal agent.

The response of the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office and the FBI? Nothing. No interest whatsoever. Consider the following:

• The case was downgraded to a misdemeanor and referred to the City Attorney’s office.

• The heavily armed man impersonating a U.S. Marshal was allowed to post $10,000 bail and go free.

• When his defense attorney “raised a doubt about his mental competence,” the criminal proceedings were suspended pending a psychiatric evaluation.

• The scheduled October 3 hearing to evaluate his mental competency was “continued”—i.e., postponed to a later, to be determined date.

• Had it not been for the diligence of an LAPD Detective who took great time and effort to submit a firearms restraining order to the court, the man would have gotten all of his guns back, even though his attorney declared him to be mentally impaired.

In other words, if you are arrested for violating multiple gun laws and impersonating a federal agent in the act of demanding (on the authority conveyed by your U.S. Marshal disguise) a personal encounter with a presidential candidate, all you have to do make a bunch of crazy-sounding statements.

On the strength of your defense attorney’s “doubt” that you are sane, you’ll be turned loose with your guns, and who knows if and when you will be evaluated by a shrink.

While you are at it, go ahead and talk about your longstanding contact and communication with QAnon, because as long as RFK, Jr. is the possible target of QAnon activities, the FBI isn’t concerned about Q’s professed followers.

In effect, Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon is also a criminal defense attorney along the same lines as Dr. Sperber in Tante Jolesch.

Robbers, murderers, and child molesters go only to Dr. Gascon!