Gascón announced the promotion on Friday
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Orange County, Calif. District Attorney Todd Spitzer discusses Los Angeles County DA George Gascón declining to pursue the death penalty for an alleged cop killer.
Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón has promoted a former public defender to his chief of staff who has called the Los Angeles Police Department "barbarians."
Tiffiny Blacknell, who has served in the district attorney's office as a grade 4 prosecutor, special advisor, and chief of communications, was promoted to be Gascón's chief of staff on Friday, multiple sources tell Fox News. Her new role will begin Jan. 16.
During the protests following George Floyd's death, Blacknell made a post on X referring to the Los Angeles Police Department as "barbarians," and "an occupying army," and used the "#DefundPolice" hashtag.
In a previous post on X, she also said that "prison is obsolete," calling on Americans to "reimagine America without it."
LA DA GASCÓN HIRES LAWYER WHO CALLED LAPD 'BARBARIANS,' SAID PRISONS SHOULD BE ABOLISHED
Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón, left, and Tiffiny Blacknell. (Los Angeles District Attorney's Office)
"Angela Davis said it years ago. Prisons disappear problems, they don’t solve them," she wrote. "We’ve been warehousing people for a generation it's time to free America."
Blacknell has also posted a picture of herself wearing a shirt which read, "the police are trained to kill us."
She faced heavy criticism in 2020, after allegedly going behind the backs of the prosecutor and the victim's family in a gang murder case to offer a "sweetheart" plea deal.
LOS ANGELES COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY GEORGE GASCON CREATING RACIAL JUSTICE ACT SECTION
Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón speaks during a press conference. (Keith Birmingham/MediaNews Group/Pasadena Star-News via Getty Images/File)
The former prosecutor also posted during a series of looting in May 2020, that she was a looter during the 1992 Rodney King riots.
Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón arrives at a news conference in October to address the allegation that hotels are using staffing agencies to hire homeless migrants as replacement workers for strikers at Le Meridien Defina hotel in Santa Monica. (Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images/File)
"I was a "looter" in 1992. I was 15. I was furious, sad and scared. I had no way to process my emotions about the murder of Latasha Harlins or the beating of Rodney King. So we went out and we watched our city burn. And when the opportunity arose, we took some s--t," Blacknell wrote. "So please don't come on my page complaining about protestors or looters. Don't text me SHIT about the Whole Foods in West Hollywood and your beloved Santa Monica. My whole community was leveled. Cry me a river! NORDSTROMS WILL BE OK. All this respectability by Black folks and complaining by Westside white liberals is maddening."
Fox News Digital reached out to the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office for comment.
Bill Melugin currently serves as a national correspondent for FOX News Channel based out of the Los Angeles bureau.
