In 1970, a 17-year-old black militant pulled a gun from beneath his coat at the Marin County Hall of Justice.
asserted
militant → pull → Justice
He took control of Courtroom 3, distributing weapons bought by Angela Davis to three inmates, including one on trial for assaulting a prison guard.
asserted
He → take → guard
They took the judge, prosecutor and three jurors hostage.
asserted
They → take → judge
The vigilantes failed to break the legal system.
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vigilantes → fail → system
Today, a new crop of radicals in California is pursuing that goal by other means.
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crop → pursue → means
These activists hope to infiltrate the judiciary and use the levers of power to upend American justice.
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activists → hope → justice
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asserted
Report → start → news
Across two recent election cycles, hard-left activists spent nearly $1 million on a slate of judicial candidates, electing three judges committed to remaking the county’s criminal-justice system.
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activists → spend → system
For the ideologues behind the campaign, this the opening move in what they hope will be a national takeover of the judiciary.
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they → open → judiciary
One architect of the takeover is La Defensa, a “femme-led” advocacy organization whose founders want to end incarceration in Los Angeles County.
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founders → lead → County
The group says that it “belong[s] to” several “communities,” namely “Chicanx, queer, immigrant, undocumented, working class people with incarcerated loved ones.”
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it → say → ones
La Defensa was founded in 2020 by current LA council member Eunisses Hernandez and Ivette Alé-Ferlito, both of whom want to abolish prisons.
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both → found → prisons
“Electing progressive judges serves as a harm-reduction measure that disrupts power, it can only be effective as part of a broader abolitionist strategy,” Alé-Ferlito wrote in 2023.
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Ferlito → elect → 2023
“It will take collective action to end incarceration in all its forms.”
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It → take → forms
The group is becoming a powerhouse.
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group → become → ?
Its political arm, Justice PAC, has received high-dollar donations from Liz Simons, heiress to Renaissance Technology founder Jim Simons’s fortune, and Patty Quillin, the wife of Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings.
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arm → receive → Hastings
La Defensa is linked to the Soros-funded Tides Advocacy network.
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Defensa → link → network
Many judges are former prosecutors who believe in punishing criminals.
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who → believe → criminals
La Defensa wants to change that.
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Defensa → want → that
As part of its “Defenders of Justice” slate, the group funded the judicial campaigns of six former defense attorneys and one civil rights lawyer across the 2022 and 2024 election cycles.
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group → fund → cycles
Multiple candidates on the slate seemed to sympathize more with criminals than with their victims.
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candidates → seem → victims
La Defensa’s PAC spent at least $910,000 on judicial candidates from 2022 through 2024.
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PAC → spend → 2024
Their donations helped elect three former public defenders: George Turner Jr., Ericka Wiley and Holly Hancock.
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donations → help → defenders
The new judges’ backgrounds and ideologies open a window onto La Defensa’s vision for the future of LA County’s justice system and beyond.
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backgrounds → open → system
He studied race, class, and gender as an undergraduate at the University of California, Los Angeles, before attending UCLA’s law school, where he studied under some of the founders of critical race theory, including Kimberlé Crenshaw.
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he → study → Crenshaw
After graduating, he served as a public defender in Los Angeles County.
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he → graduate → County
He named his three sons after his “favorite revolutionaries,” including slave-rebellion leader Nat Turner, black nationalist Malcolm X and Chicago Black Panther leader Fred Hampton.
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He → name → Turner
Turner’s educational background and years defending accused criminals have apparently convinced him that America’s criminal-justice system is racist.
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system → defend → him
He’s even come up with a novel analogy for a courtroom.
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He → come → courtroom
“It’s kind of like a slave ship,” Turner said on a podcast in 2020.
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Turner → ’ → 2020
“I see black men brought in in chains every day in a big wooden box and someone decides whether or not they’re going to be free or not.
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they → see → box
And it’s my job to do what I can to try to get them out.”
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I → ’ → them
He and other candidates on the “Defenders” slate believe that crime is often caused by factors like poverty.
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crime → believe → poverty
The idea: If you provide housing, jobs and other services, crime will plummet.
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crime → provide → housing
“Circumstances are the reason why [most people] come before the court,” Turner said.
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Turner → come → court
“Putting folks in cages, it just doesn’t work.”
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it → put → cages
In keeping with that view, Turner centered his campaign on the fight against “mass incarceration.”
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Turner → keep → incarceration
He pledged to focus on applying laws “aimed at decreasing the number of those incarcerated” to “help create a more just and equitable society.”
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He → pledge → society
Turner appealed to a broad coalition of left-wing voters.
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Turner → appeal → voters
He was endorsed by supposedly mainstream groups like the LA County Democratic Party, the Public Defenders Union Local 148, California Progressive Alliance and the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor.
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He → endorse → Labor
…and 19 more, not listed.
The Aporia
