by Elka Worner
In his bid to unseat District Attorney George Gascon in the March 2024 election, veteran prosecutor John McKinney promises to restore public safety, prioritize victims’ rights, and ensure the punishment fits the crime.
“The surge in crime, homelessness, and despair in Los Angeles is unacceptable,” McKinney said Sunday at the Great Room Café in Redondo Beach.
The 25-year prosecutor railed against Gascon, whom he said, “values the rights of offenders more than victims.”
McKinney has successfully prosecuted 40 murder cases and hundreds of felonies. He said a lot of crime in Los Angeles County is “not committed out of desperation” but because “people see an opportunity.”
“They calculate the risk and either they do it or stay on the sidelines,” he said.
“All these folks running into these department stores today in broad daylight, that wasn’t happening five years ago. Something changed.”
That change was a new District Attorney who lowered the risk (of committing crime) by eliminating consequences, he said.
McKinney, a Democrat, said he is uniquely qualified to bring about the much-needed change in the office, given his track record as a prosecutor and his unique background.
“I’m a kid who was dealt a bad hand in life, didn’t fold, didn’t make excuses, worked his butt off, worked his way through college, law school, made something of his life and then went into public service for 25 years,” he told the audience.
The 55-year-old Baldwin Hills resident was born and raised in Passaic, New Jersey. His mother died when he was two years old, and his father passed away three years later. He was raised by his oldest sister, a single mom who had three children of her own and worked full time.
“She instilled the values of hard work, persistence, sacrifice, respect for others, and service to others in all of us,” he said of his sister.
As a teenager, McKinney lived through the crack cocaine epidemic of the 1980s, and saw his friends succumb to addiction and “hustling on the streets for fast and easy money.”
“For those who survived those dark days, we never want to see that history repeated.”
After graduating from Rutgers, McKinney moved to California to attend UCLA Law School.
He joined the District Attorney’s office in 1998 as a prosecutor in Compton. He handled sex crimes, rapes and child molestation cases in the Victim Impact Program, or V.I.P. Unit.
McKinney rose through the ranks, joining the Hardcore Gang Division and finally the elite Major Crimes Division, where he prosecuted high profile and complex cases, including mass shooting and serial murders.
McKinney secured a first-degree murder conviction from the man who shot and killed Los Angeles rapper “Nipsey Hussle.” He also successfully prosecuted three juveniles charged in the beating death of a USC engineering student from China. The three juveniles were driving around campus looking for someone to rob. They beat the victim with a baseball bat and wrench, causing skull fractures and brain hemorrhaging.
If elected, McKinney said he would make public safety his number one priority and hire more prosecutors. “We’re down 250 attorneys from what we’re budgeted for,” he said.
In September 2022, Gascon moved the veteran prosecutor from the high-profile Major Crimes Division to the East Los Angeles Courthouse, where he now oversees two prosecutors who handle misdemeanor cases.
“We’ve had trials come up where people want their day in court and we’ve had to tell them ‘We’ve got no lawyers to do your case,’” McKinney said.
Because of Gascon’s policies, morale is down at the largest local prosecutorial office in the country, McKinney said.
“We have been handcuffed, gagged…and told to do things that are counterproductive and counter to justice,” he said. “We’ve had enough. We want change.”
McKinney wants to make sure crime is prosecuted, “that outcomes are proportional to what the person did and their background,” and that people feel safe in their communities. He urged people not to give up on Los Angeles and California.
“Don’t leave the state and go to Arizona, Texas or Florida,” he told those gathered for the meet and greet. “Stay here, we can make it better.” ER
