One minute (literally) after he took his oath of office, Gascon issued nine policy directives—diktats really—that would apply to virtually all potential cases, all incoming cases, all ongoing cases, and most past cases handled by his office.

In addition to directives saying he would not authorize his deputies to seek sentencing enhancements or the death penalty no matter how vile or violent the crime, he issued a directive eliminating cash bail, and another one related to his goal of not criminally prosecuting most misdemeanor offenses.

The “Unfairness of Cash Bail” subsection of his Pretrial Release Policy Special Directive claims that cash bail creates a “two-tiered system of justice” that lead to “unnecessary incarceration” and harms “individuals, families and communities.”

In fact, under this policy, he prohibited his deputy district attorneys (all 1,000 of them) from requesting cash bail for any misdemeanor, non-serious felony, or non-violent offense, regardless of the extent of a defendant’s criminal history.

As we explained in our research paper, “To make matters worse, prosecutors are not allowed to oppose a defense counsel’s motion to remove or modify a defendant’s conditions of release, nor can prosecutors oppose a defense counsel’s request to waive a client’s appearance at ‘non-essential’ court appearances, nor can prosecutors oppose a defense counsel’s request that a judge not issue a bench warrant against the defendant for not showing up.”

That helps explain why fourteen people who were arrested for their involvement in the smash-and-grab robberies have now been released under Gascon’s radical zero-bail policies.

The LA police chief explained that under these policies police can “book and process, identify you, and then your arraignment date is three or four months from now,” that the “vast majority of crime is committed by relatively few people,” and that “when the few people are constantly gaming the system to understand its weaknesses,” it allows them to “prey upon society.”

Of course, Gascon says that it is “exceptionally rare that individuals willfully flee prosecution or commit violent felony offenses while released pretrial.”

But while released pretrial or on probation, some criminals obviously do commit violent crimes. How else can you explain the actions of Marquise Hulse of Los Angeles? He followed someone home and carjacked that person at gunpoint while on felony probation for burglary, possessing a firearm, and evading arrest. And guess what? He was wearing two GPS ankle monitors at the time he committed the armed carjacking.

The divergence between the nonsense being spewed by rogue prosecutors like George Gascon and Chesa Boudin and the facts on the ground probably explains why calls to recall Gascon are growing louder and why Boudin actually faces a recall.

Unfortunately, rather than pushing back against the rogue, radical policies of these DAs, the Biden administration has chosen to reward them by nominating Rachael Rollins, the Suffolk County rogue DA that oversees Boston, to the U.S. Attorney—the chief federal law enforcement officer—in the state of Massachusetts.

The U.S. Senate confirmed here in a 50-50 vote on Dec. 8. Vice President Kamala Harris had to cast the tie-breaking vote.

This is the same Rachael Rollins who gleefully published a list of fifteen crimes you can commit in Boston and not face prosecution. Those crimes include distribution of any illegal drug; resisting arrest; and breaking and entering a home.

Never mind that, as we previously explained, “a violent career felon can break into your home, be in possession of cocaine, plan to distribute that cocaine to others, and resist arrest after you call the police, and all the charges will be ‘outright dismissed,’ so long as the reason he broke into your house ... was because he wanted ‘to sleep’ or was ‘seeking refuge’ from the cold.”

As Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) explained, Rollins previously said that as a prosecutor she was “going to battle” against the U.S. Attorney on “opioids, marijuana, and immigration.” The very same laws she is now required to enforce as the United States Attorney.

Call us visionaries, because we warned almost a year ago that President Joe Biden would get steamrolled by the radical Left and nominate rogue U.S. Attorneys. Rollins is likely the first of many.

But really the rogue prosecutor movement, in general, should terrify us all. It’s a movement that fundamentally seeks to transform our criminal justice system—for the worse. It leads to lawlessness and increased crime.

These rogue prosecutors with the backing of a few left-leaning liberal billionaires usurp the role of state legislatures, refuse to prosecute entire categories of crimes they simply disagree with, coddle criminals, and forget victims and their families in the process.

It’s nice to see some in the media finally waking up to the fact that rogue prosecutors—whom they call “woke prosecutors”—are a huge problem. But this cancerous movement will continue unless and until the people most affected by these policies—black and brown inner-city men and women—say enough is enough, and influence liberal elites in those cities to stop supporting pro-criminal rogue prosecutors.

Zack Smith is a Legal Fellow in The Heritage Foundation’s Meese Center for Legal and Judicial Studies.

Charles D. Stimson, a senior legal fellow at Heritage, manages The Heritage Foundation’s National Security Law Program.

Image: Reuters.