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[applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, please welcome lieutenant governor gavin newsom. >> welcome everybody. and thank you for being here on this special day, wonderful evening here admission high school celebrating our district attorney, george gascon. [applause] >> i was telling the d.a. when i was walking in, i remember going through a few of these things. it's one of those awkward feelings. you want to enjoy the moment and you want to celebrate and reflect on all the hard work and thank everybody for their contribution and the effort to the cause. at the same time you hope it goes on perfectly and look at it as a fond memory and make

sure folks like me don't speak too long. let me try to do my best to try to condense a few things. what an amazing journey. i'll be brief in this quick, quick description. imagine being george back in the 1950's living in cuban. that's where george came from. he was there watching his father lose his job because he had the audacity to speak up and express his political points of view. he watched his uncle spend more than 10 years in prison for doing the same. at just 13, talk about a vulnerable age, 13 years old, he makes his way to the second largest city in the united states of america speaking only spanish, uprooted from his home country, and he comes out to this state in this nation, learns english, learns the value of hard work and discipline, works his way through college at california state university system at long beach. joins the army, makes his way

as a young man to the los angeles police department and works his way up extraordinarily. in the wake of rampart, works his way up as assistant police chief in one of the largest police departments in our nation, distinguishes himself there so much so that he is recruited to facea, arizona, and then makes front-page news across this country because he has the courage, the same courage he learned as a young man to stand up and express his point of view when he stood up against the maricopa county sheriff and some of his outrageous views on immigration. [applause] >> and that's what got our attention out here where he may have taken the biggest risk of all, and that is by assuming a role of leadership here as our police chief, an outsider, something that all of you know, doesn't always work so well here in san francisco. and he distinguished his short time as police chief by really being the architect of some of

the celebratory news that mayor lee and others have been pointing to today around three years of historic declines in homicides and the reduction of violent crime that we have all enjoyed in the last 36 months. [applause] >> a big part of the reforms, the command staff accountability, bringing the discipline to the police department and bringing our inspectors. i remember coming in we want to bring our inspectors out of the hall of justice and out to the district stations, all of which proved successful and all of which demonstrated his courage and his leadership. it culminated just hours before i was on my out as lieutenant govern and kamala harris in as the new attorney general, we had to find a d.a. i realized i hadn't talked to my police chief of what he had in mind as a new district attorney. 10 minutes into the conversation, i knew he was

going to be appointed, i knew he was a lawyer, didn't know if he had passed the bar. i said to my chief of staff, is that a requirement of a d.a.? lo and behold, he tells me he did george, you were given just 12 hours to make a decision and he made another not rash decision, but a thoughtful decision, used his instinct, his skill, used his leadership capacity and assumed the role as district attorney of this city. and the last year once again, he has demonstrated his prowess, his leadership skills, his courage and through that effort and work, built on the extraordinary legacy of kamala harris and the victims unit and the work on truancy and building his own reputation, bringing community courts into the districts and into our neighborhoods, distinguished himself so much so that the voters overwhelmingly chose him as our new d.a. in san francisco. so, george, congratulations and i'm just honored to be up here and honored to be participating in this important day for you. [applause]

>> now the reason i was asked to do this was to introduce your mistress of ceremonies. as all of you know and all of you do know dianne feinstein, there are probably many less, well, a few of you clearly do, more of you i think do quietly, you know, what an extraordinary use big to us -- ubiquotous in this city. kissinger says no one less needs an introduction than henry kissinger. no one enjoys one more. that may have been better introducing willie brown saying that than dianne feinstein. i digress. i was just reminded of that quote. willie, don't take offense and please don't write about that on sunday. [laughter] >> i'm just, as diane knows, i'm a big fan that goes back to my high school days when i was that little nervous teenager

that was invited in the mayor's office. she asked me what i was interested in, a shakespeare class i was talking. next day, a beautiful book, collective works of shakespeare, 300 pages, it hasn't been open. i did open the first page, there is the mayor of san francisco, dianne feinstein. i still proudly have that book on my bookshelf. i have been a fan since then. boy, do you get to know someone on a personal basis and work with them and you get to admire them more. i drive around this city, i kid you not, i see so much of the work that you probably don't know senator feinstein thas has done. a lot of work at hunter's point cleaning up the shipyards, dianne feinstein's fingerprints are on all of it. the work in transbay terminal, you see it right now, dianne feinstein, work that is being done or soon will be done on treasure island, dianne feinstein. you drive around this city, cities large and small. and on a muni bus that goes on

time, dianne feinstein, you will enjoy third streetlight rail. dianne feinstein, willie brown, nancy pelosi, i can go on and on and on. it's an steroid list of accomplishments. you know everything she has done in the senate, but i want to just thank senator feinstein for all of the work she did to make this city better and i say this all the time. in baseball like, unlike politics, you get credit for saves. politics you don't often get credit for saves. the work she did to save this city from cuts, the work she did to fight for this city are extraordinary as well and that goes on an accomplishment list. i don't have time for that. i want to just close with this. my wife just finished a film called "misrepresentation." this is not an argument in favor of that film. we're 92nd in the world in legislative positions. in cuban they have woman more in legislative positions, in iraq, afghanistan, and china, an interesting fact.

think about dianne feinstein. first woman, member of the board, president of the board of supervisors, first woman mayor, first woman u.s. senator from the state of california, judiciary committee, intelligence committee, rules committee, first woman that in every one of these categories. she has broken every one of these barriers. an extraordinary leader, i can say this as i introduce her, the best is yet to come. ladies and gentlemen, senior senator from california, dianne feinstein! [cheers and applause] >> thank you, thank you. thank you very much. thank you. thank you, thank you. thank you very much, gavin. ubiquotous, oh, that's what it means, all right. i'm just so happy to be home. i'm so happy to be home and look at this stage where you have got two young brilliant leaders in gavin newsom and kamala harris and where you have three mayors, a present

mayor, two of us that are getting a little long in the tooth. wait until that. and all of us here to salute the next district attorney of the city and county of san francisco. yeah, gavin mentioned george gascon's record, working up to assistant chief in the los angeles police department, taking a leave, getting a law degree and coming back. i guess he was in the department from 1978 to 1987, is that right? a long time. obviously well thought of. the city attorney of los angeles is here today to salute him. a very distinguished justice is here today in justice mow renault to give -- moreno to give him the oath of office. one of the things i learned over a lot of years, ladies and gentlemen, is nobody does anything by themselves. it's all a team effort. so the assistant d.a.'s that

work with this new d.a., the judges that the cases are presented before, all of this is extraordinarily important. and i was very proud to support george gascon in this race for district attorney. and i did so because of his record, because of his consistency, because of his directness, because of his ability. i'm very proud that gavin newsom as mayor appointed him police chief and then district attorney and many times people who are appointed can't win in an election, but george gascon did win and today he is here on his own as an elected official with 62% of the vote in the city and county of san francisco. [applause] >> he is the 12th elected d.a.

and our first hispanic american district attorney. [applause] >> gavin mentioned all the various accomplishments that he has had introducing the chief of police here, a computerized crime tracking system, go ahead, that's an important thing. only more than one person should clap. [applause] >> only one thing i'm terribly jealous of is that during his tenure, murders in san francisco were the lowest they had been in half a century. [cheers and applause] >> i thought i was the one who did that. willie thought he was the one who did that. it was clearly gascon, the one who did that. he has also launched an aggressive program to reduce truancy in our city. bottom line -- he has been in

law enforcement for 30 years. bottom line -- no one has found fault in 30 years. that's a rare commodity. bottom line is he is a strong law enforcement supporter and i just view with enormous pride that you all are here today to say good luck, we are all part of the gascon team. thank you very much. [applause]

>> ladies and gentlemen, please remain standing for the singing of the national anthem. ♪ ♪ ♪ oh, can you see by the dawn's early light ♪ ♪ proudly we watched at the twilight's last gleaming ♪ ♪ through the perilous fight ♪ ♪ oer the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming ♪ ♪ and the rockets' red glare ♪

♪ the bombs bursting in air ♪ ♪ gave proof through the night that our flag was still there ♪ ♪ oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave ♪ ♪ over the land of the free and the home of the brave ♪ [applause]

>> i was remiss in not introducing the great mission high school jrotc who did the colors today. thank you for giving them a big round of [applause] ! [applause]

>> good evening, everyone. my name is gina and i'm a district vice president for the ymca of san francisco and executive director of the bayview hunters point ymca. i am so honored to be here tonight and to be part of the swearing-in ceremony for district attorney gascon. in my years of experience working in the community, i know that the most effective way to prevent crime is to invest in our city's young people now. most people think of the d.a.'s office as strictly a prosecutorial agency. i would like to convey today is that the d.a.'s office is so much more. for the last two years, the d.a.'s office has provided critical funding for the bayview hunters point ymca's center for academic re-entertry and empowerment, a truancy project in the form of a school that helps teens get back on track to finish their

education. 35 youths have graduated from high school. note, a majority of these youths have been out of school for two years. over the past 2 1/2 years, we served over 500 youth with 70% getting put back on track towards graduation. we are very excited this past summer when 10 care students got to participate in an internship program through the d.a.'s office where they experienced the ins and outs of the criminal justice system. on behalf of the ymca of san francisco, the wonderful partnership between our offices, i want to thank district attorney george gascon for his leadership. we look forward to continuing our work together by providing youth, the services and resources they need to be successful. [applause] >> i would like to introduce senior pastor aurelius walker.

[applause] >> to the honorable and district attorney george gascon, distinguished leadership guests, ladies and gentlemen of the city of san francisco by the golden gate, a world class city and you cannot have a world class city if you do not have a world class leadership as well as a world class people and a world class district attorney in the person of george gascon. will you be so kind to indulge with me in a prayer by bowing your heads. mercy and truth meet together,

righteousness and peace have kissed each other. truth shall spring out of the earth. the righteousness should look down from heaven. let judgment run down like water and righteousness as a mighty stream. as st. paul said, i quality, therefore -- exalt, therefore, suspect my indication, prayer, intersession be made to all men. kings and for all that are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceful life in all godliness and honesty. for this is the will, this is the good and acceptable in the sight of god, our savior, who have all men to be saved and come into the knowledge of his

truth. amen. [applause] >> well, it's my great pleasure to be a part of today's celebration and to district attorney george gascon, i want to welcome you to being the -- and good luck. [laughter] as the next chief elected law enforcement officer of the great city and county of san francisco. it's a great job. it's a great job. it's so great that i always have a smile on my face as i'm traveling between san francisco and sacramento listening to kcbs and they talk about some horrific crime and they want comments from the district attorney and of course, i'm always like, did we respond and i realize that is george's job. but it really is a great job, george. you get to work with wonderful

people like, of course, our now newly elected and soon to be inaugurated mayor ed lee. you get to -- [applause] >> you find that when you're the district attorney of san francisco, you definitely want to have friends in sacramento, in particular in the legislature because we have a very active office that is often finding ways that we can improve the laws and so we have found a great leader in senator mark leno who is here, of course. [applause] >> it's always helpful when the president of the board of supervisors was a former member of the office and that of course, is david chiu. [applause] >> and then when you got someone like dennis as city attorney who is always find his way into prosecution is helpful. so it's a great job. it's a wonderful job. i remember when gavin as mayor talked to me about the fact that he was going to bring in

this new police chief and i had actually heard about him from bill bratton, who was the police chief of los angeles before the current police chief, charlie beck. bill called me up and says there is this guy george gascon, he is considering to be the chief of san francisco police department. he is a really great guy, would you talk to him? and i did. and then he was appointed as police chief. i have to tell you, he would come down to the office at least on a weekly basis and we had many conversations over the course of a couple of years. and his perspective, the perspective of george gascon has always been the perspective of a leader in law enforcement who has, as a first priority public safety, but always with a mind toward how we can do the work better, how we can think about reform and how we can always aspire to that goal that we often call the smart on crime approach to criminal justice policy.

and so when he decided to run after being appointed by then mayor newsom, when he decided to run as district attorney, i was very excited to support him. and what i knew then was what we saw during the course of the last several months, which is that he understands the community. he has a way of understanding the power that we have as law enforcement to make decisions that have a very direct impact on the most vulnerable among us, but he also understands that that power must be respected and treated with a great deal of respect and regard in terms of how it can be used to empower our communities. i know that george gascon is the kind of individual as a leader in law enforcement who will make one of the greatest district attorneys of san francisco. [applause] >> he has talked with me many times about the men and women

of the san francisco district attorney's office who are the support staff, who are the attorneys, who are the investigators and about his desire to support their work and to continue its excellence. so as the former district attorney of san francisco, i know that we are in good hands as a person who lives in san francisco and cares still about this city no matter how far we travel and how big the state is. i know that in george gascon, we will have a future for san francisco that is really in large part in part of what we all are as the legacy that starts with the san francisco's d.a. office at least going back to pat brown which is having a d.a.'s office which is a model of what our state can do in terms of law enforcement and the smart on crime approach. so, george, i want to congratulate you and wish you good luck. you probably have that phone like i had, there is a phone that you have as elected d.a., greg in the audience knows this

as police chief, if it rings between 10:00 at night and 6:00 in the morning, it is never a good call. it is the work that also is incredibly gratifying in terms of knowing that whenever you stand before a jury or anyone else, you represent the people of the state of california and more importantly and equally important, the people of the city and county of san franciscoment thank you for that and thank you for the work on trunesi and back on track and wish you much success. i'm going to introduce a young man who represents a lot of what george stands for and cares about. his name is brandon santiago. he is a member of youth speaks. he is a high school dropout who will talk about his experience in the world and he is certainly an example of what george reminds us of all the time which is that we want to focus on public safety in a way that is about not only prosecution, but also prevention. brandon, why don't you come out here. [applause]