Kamala Harris Prosecutor Quotes

As I sat alone in my new office, I recalled a time, as a young prosecutor, when I overheard some of my colleagues in the hallway. “Should we add the gang enhancement?” one of them asked. “Can we show he was in a gang?” the other said. “Come on, you saw what he was wearing, you saw which corner they picked him up on. Guy’s got the tape of that rapper, what’s his name?” I stepped out into the hallway. “Hey, guys, just so you know: I have family that live in that neighborhood. I’ve got friends who dress in that style. And I’ve got a tape of that rapper in my car right now.

I believe it is time for my Republican colleagues to put country ahead of party and join us and hold this President accountable. And it is far past time that a special prosecutor be appointed to oversee the FBI’s investigation into Russia.

When people trespass against others, they must be held accountable so that they become better people.

the ultimate goal of law enforcement is not locking people up, but rather increasing public safety.

Broken windows” became synonymous with a style of policing that more aggressively enforced vandalism and other property crime laws with an eye to shutting down this devolution. The idea was fix problems while they’re still small.

Violent criminals "They are emotionally out of control; they are convinced that they are so justified that it isn't even a crime; and/or that they won't get caught, so punishment won't apply. Put more simply, the are so angry, delusional, arrogant, or lacking in moral conscience that they don't care about the punishment". from Smart on Crime: A Career Prosecutor's Plan to Make Us Safe

...officials who don't differentiate between types of crime and just talk tough, about all of it, are really tougher on taxpayers, than they are on crimes. They're not reducing crime." D.A. Ronnie Earle

We can preserve an individual's crime right to legally own a gun, while regulating on weapons of war.

...crime is an issue that should be 100% non partisan." George Pratt Schultz

If we are not getting these offenders to stop committing the crimes, we're no being tough on crime." from: Smart on Crime: A Career Prosecutor's Plan to Make Us Safer

Charles 'Joe' Hynes began to remind people: Ultimate goal of law enforcement is not locking people up, but rather increasing public safety.

For me, to be a progressive prosecutor is to understand—and act on—this dichotomy. It is to understand that when a person takes another’s life, or a child is molested, or a woman raped, the perpetrators deserve severe consequences. That is one imperative of justice. But it is also to understand that fairness is in short supply in a justice system that is supposed to guarantee it. The job of a progressive prosecutor is to look out for the overlooked, to speak up for those whose voices aren’t being heard, to see and address the causes of crime, not just their consequences, and to shine a light on the inequality and unfairness that lead to injustice. It is to recognize that not everyone needs punishment, that what many need, quite plainly, is help.

thought about the fight I’d been able to lead, first as district attorney and then as attorney general, to stop defendants in hate crimes from using what’s known as the “gay and trans panic defense.” In 2002, a seventeen-year-old woman, Gwen Araujo, had been brutally beaten and murdered in Newark, California. Her killers, two of whom had been involved with her sexually, had tried to justify their actions in court by claiming that they had panicked upon learning that Araujo was transgender, to the point of temporary insanity. It was ludicrous. As district attorney, I had organized a conference of prosecutors and law enforcement officials from across the country to push back against the idea that criminal conduct could be mitigated by prejudice. And as attorney general, in that summer of 2014, I was working with the governor and state legislature on what would be a successful effort to ban such a defense statewide. I thought about how much that meant to me.