Two woke prosecutors who gained office with the help of lefty megadonor George Soros could soon be ousted in recall efforts led by locals furious about their disastrous, soft-on-crime philosophies.
Pamela Price of Oakland, Calif., won election as Alameda County’s district attorney in 2022 with $1 million in cash from Soros-backed donors, while José Garza of Austin, Tex. is seeking a second term as Travis County DA after getting $447,000 from Soros cutouts, according to the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund.
But soaring crime in the two deep-blue cities have sparked victim revolts that could put both Democrats’ jobs on the chopping block. Price is facing a recall petition with nearly 75,000 validated signatures, while Garza could be removed due to to a lawsuit filed under Texas’ new “rogue prosecutor” statute.
“I’ve stood in the courtroom with families where the killer of their child walked out the door the same time they walked out the door — no probation, no ankle monitor, no nothing,” Brenda Grisham, who organized the Price recall effort, told The Post.
“What she’s doing is causing the increasing crime, and I don’t understand why she doesn’t see it,” Grisham said of the DA.
Robberies in Oakland were up 34% in the first three months of 2024 compared to the same period in 2023, when Price first took office. Auto thefts surged by 44% last year, to 14,700, according to KTVU, the highest in more than a decade.
Price herself — who insists on being addressed as “Madame DA Price,” according to reports — has been victimized: in October, thieves smashed the windows of her $90,000 SUV and made off with her work laptop.
Yet the former civil rights attorney has relentlessly pursued her campaign pledge that “the status quo must go” — by fighting “racial inequity and injustices” through policies that have let even violent criminals get off easy, critics contend.
Terrence McCrary Jr., 22, was slain by a stray bullet in 2016, allegedly fired by convicted killer Otis Wyatt as he targeted another man on an Oakland street. Price’s predecessor, longtime DA Nancy O’Malley, charged Wyatt with both men’s murders.
Price last year made a deal that saw Wyatt plead only to voluntary manslaughter — dropping the murder charge in McCrary’s death altogether.
“[Price] sat in there and told that mother, ‘I’m sick of this sh-t, I can’t bring y’all kids back,’” Grisham recalled of a meeting she attended with Florence McCrary, Terrence’s mom, and other victims’ families. “Her behavior is horrible.”
Alameda County’s board of supervisors unanimously voted to accept the recall petitions Tuesday, and will set an election date on May 15.
In Texas, a Travis County woman has filed a lawsuit aimed at removing Garza over accusations of “incompetency and official misconduct” — based on a 2023 state law meant to rein in progressive prosecutors.
The ultra-liberal Austin DA, in office since 2021, notoriously released a sexual predator who broke a female jogger’s leg in four places after chasing her while masturbating — letting Antonio Rios go with 10 years’ probation despite a rap sheet that included arrests for exposing himself to a 9-year-old child.
“He’s just unwilling to hold criminals to account,” said victim advocate Conny Branham of Round Rock, Tex. “This prosecutor is prioritizing the criminals, absolutely.”
Homicides in Austin hit a record high in 2021, Garza’s first year in office, and the murder rate has remained stubbornly high ever since.
Branham’s son Christopher, 26, was murdered in 2020 after being robbed and beaten by a gang of five perpetrators who posted video of their brutal attack on social media.
Nearly three years later, Branham’s family was left “absolutely disgusted” by Garza’s coddling of the thugs accused of killing him. The DA sharply reduced charges against all five suspects, charging none of them with capital murder.
“It’s like revictimization,” Conny Branham said. “Your family gets victimized once by a criminal, and then Garza comes in and treats you like you don’t matter.”
In February, she helped form Travis County Crime Victims RISE Against Garza, a private Facebook group for victims and their families that has grown to 152 members.
“We had no idea until just recently there were so many people out there he’s harmed,” she said, adding that Garza’s office has systematically flouted state victims’ rights laws.
“He is denying their right, their constitutional right, of providing victim impact statements,” she said — documents meant to influence plea deals and probation decisions.
“And we just hope that that comes out in the hearings … we really want him gone.”
A district judge was appointed to the Garza removal case last month and named Bell County Attorney Jim Nichols, a Republican, to represent the state as its prosecutor. An initial hearing has been set for May 31.
Virginia’s Republican Attorney General Jason Miyares plans to support both the Alameda County recall election and the Travis County lawsuit through the Protecting Americans Action Fund, the superPAC he formed with former Attorney General Bill Barr to defang the 75 left-wing DAs who have been elected with support from Soros’ $40 billion fortune.
“The far left has elected a group of rogue progressive prosecutors who are so extreme and soft on crime that even liberals in Oakland and Austin have had enough,” Miyares said.
Price did not respond to a request for comment, while Garza blamed “a few billionaires and MAGA Republicans” for the lawsuit, which was filed weeks after he defeated a moderate challenger in a Democratic primary.
“Now, their allies are wasting taxpayer money trying to undermine the decision of the voters of Travis County,” Garza said. “They failed once, and they’ll fail again.”
