Correction request to the Los Angeles Times

Your Editorial of October 5, 2024 (“Endorsement: Reelect Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. George Gascón”) contains a significant and provable factual error and I request that you immediately correct this mistake. The Times incorrectly reported that the gun enhancement is duplicative because it adds “extra time for a defendant’s use of a gun when the charges already included armed robbery.”

This is factually inaccurate because there is no crime of “armed robbery” under the California Penal Code.

Section 211 of the California Penal Code states: “Robbery is the felonious taking of personal property in the possession of another, from his person or immediate presence, and against his will, accomplished by means of force or fear.”

https://law.justia.com/codes/california/code-pen/part-1/title-8/chapter-4/section-211/

Being armed is not an element of the crime of robbery.  Force or fear can be accomplished by yanking a purse forcibly off a woman’s shoulder, threatening to harm a person if they refuse to relinquish property, or physically restraining a person in order to take their property.

The only thing close to an “armed robbery” in California law is when a defendant is charged with robbery and the added enhancement of using a gun (PC 12022.5 or PC 12022.53), or a knife (PC 12022).

To report that the fictional charge of “armed robbery” makes the gun enhancement duplicative is 100% inaccurate and shows a complete lack of understanding of California law.

Please let me know when you have corrected this error, and feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Michele Hanisee
President
ADDA