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“In towns and cities... there is no more important institution than the local paper.”
Warren Buffett
POLITICO IN OAKLAND — Attorney General Xavier Becerra has filed charges against the husband of Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey in connection with the March incident in which he allegedly pulled a gun on Black Lives Matter protesters at the couple’s home, according to a charging document obtained by POLITICO.
David Lacey was charged Monday in Los Angeles Superior Court with three misdemeanor counts of assault with a firearm regarding the March 2 incident, according to documents filed by Becerra’s office.
The charges come as Jackie Lacey, the county’s first Black district attorney, faces a tough fight with George Gascón, a Latino who previously served as San Francisco DA, to retain her seat in the nation’s second largest city. She has faced scrutiny from criminal justice activists who have cited her refusal to prosecute police officers who kill civilians and other tough-on-crime strategies — an opposition effort that has gained further steam this summer amid racial justice protests.
Lacey’s office was not immediately available Tuesday morning to comment on the charges.
The matter came to public attention with a video tweeted by Melina Abdullah, a Pan-African Studies professor at California State University, Los Angeles who helped found the LA chapter of Black Lives Matter.
She said she and other Black Lives Matter activists knocked at the front door of the Laceys’ home to speak to the DA. But David Lacey answered the door and “pulled a gun and pointed it at my chest,” Abdullah tweeted. Appearing to have his finger on the trigger, he is shown in her video saying, “Get off of my porch … I’ll shoot you, I don’t care who you are.”
A Los Angeles Police Department spokesperson said officers investigated a “possible assault with a deadly weapon” after they received a call for a disturbance.
Jackie Lacey in a press conference after the incident insisted that protesters were aiming “to embarrass me and intimidate me. But she also said her husband offered an apology because “his response was in fear … He meant no one any harm.”
Some leading politicians, including Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), have rescinded their endorsements of Lacey in recent weeks, with the Black Lives Matter movement gaining momentum this summer after leading demonstrations against the the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, who endorsed Lacey, has said he is reconsidering his support for her. Gascón also has won the endorsement of Sen. Kamala Harris and Rep. Maxine Waters.