Last Friday, Union Pacific officials received a response to their letter to District Attorney George Gasćon, but it wasn’t the response they were expecting.
On December 20th, Adam Guerrero, Union Pacific’s Director of Public Affairs, penned a letter asking D.A. Gasćon for assistance with securing the company's rail lines in the Northeast L.A. neighborhood of Lincoln Heights. Stating that thefts were up 356% on the year. At the same time, noting that they were averaging 90 containers being broken into a day and a 160% increase since December. The letter also took a shot at Gasćon's progressive no cash bail policy, saying, “Criminals boast to our officers that charges will be pled down to simple trespassing - which bears no serious consequence.”
Gasćon responded with strongly worded facts, noting that Union Pacific filed fewer criminal cases with his office in 2021 (47) than in 2020 (56) and 2019 (78).
“In a sharp decline, in 2021, 47 such cases were presented for filing consideration, and over 55% were filed by my office. The charges filed included felony and misdemeanor offenses alleging burglary, theft, and receiving stolen property, said Gasćon.
He continued by saying, “Of the 20 cases that were declined for filing, 10 were not filed due to the insufficiency of the evidence presented to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt, which is our ethical standard to file a criminal case. The other 10 declined matters involved offenses such as allegations of unhoused individuals within 20 feet of the railroad tracks and simple possession of drugs for personal use, not allegations of burglary, theft, or tampering. Although homelessness is a serious issue, it is not one that we can fix through expending resources of the criminal legal system.”