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b'Having survived multiple recall attempts in his first term, Los Angeles District Attorney George Gasc\\xf3n officially launched his reelection in October at the SEIU Local 2015 office in front of a room full of supporters \\u2013 many of them health care workers.\\n\\nThe DA noted his mother, an immigrant from Cuba often had to toil, working for below minimum wages.\\n\\nThat has translated into a commitment to fight for working people.\\n\\n\\u201cWe don\\u2019t talk about one of the biggest crimes in our history,\\u201d he explained. \\u201cIt\\u2019s a theft of wages. A theft of labor. Billions of dollars each and every year \\u2013 which impacts all of us by the way, because when you steal from workers, you\\u2019re stealing from the tax base of our community. You\\u2019re stealing from families. You are taking food away from babies. You are often precluding people from having a roof over their heads.\\u201d\\n\\nGasc\\xf3n also noted that despite the decline in crime, he is being attacked for being soft on crime.\\n\\nHe said, \\u201cI find it interesting when Republicans like Ron Desante and fellow presidential run also out on TV and says, while he\\u2019s in la, he talks about how crime is out proportion here and how burglars are now being prosecuted and organized retail theft because of George Gasc\\xf3n.\\u201d\\n\\nHe said one of his staffer Googled organized retail theft in Florida.\\n\\n\\u201cThe first thing that pops up is videos of people storming stores in Miami and other parts of Florida. And then we went to Houston and we looked at some other southern cities. And guess what? It\\u2019s a national problem,\\u201d he said.\\n\\nHe noted that they aren\\u2019t pointing this out because it doesn\\u2019t fit their narrative.\\n\\nHe said, \\u201cWe need to make sure that we do not embrace the narrative that the Republicans have been using for the last 40 years. You can go back to Nixon when we were talking about the war on drugs and the war on crime. And it\\u2019s the same thing. And it cycles over and over and over again. Even though today as a nation, we have historically some of the lowest numbers of crime that we\\u2019ve ever had.\\u201d\\n\\nHe added, \\u201cNow we\\u2019re seeing crime going down at a very rapid rate and hopefully soon approaching pre pandemic times. And some people say, well, we don\\u2019t believe those numbers.\\u201d\\n\\nGasc\\xf3n pushed back noting that those are the numbers from LAPD and the Sheriff\\u2019s Department.\\n\\n\\u201cYou believe those numbers two years ago. Why don\\u2019t you believe it today? We don\\u2019t make the numbers,\\u201d he continued. He added, \\u201cBut you know what it really tells us is that we can have reform and safety.\\u201d'