500 signatures reached
To: Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman
DO NOT Drop the Charges Against the Cops Who Killed #ChristopherDeAndreMitchell
Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman needs to withdraw his motion to dismiss the charges against former Torrance cops, Matthew Concannon and Anthony Chavez, who face felony manslaughter charges for the brutal murder of Christopher De’Andre Mitchell on December 9, 2018. A grand jury was convened by progressive former District Attorney George Gascon. The grand jury chose to indict the two Torrance cops, who shot 23-year-old Christopher within 12 seconds of approaching him as he sat, alone, in a car in a grocery store parking lot. Video shows that Christopher did his best to comply with every single one of the conflicting orders that he was given.
The decision to indict cops for killing Black people is a rare occurrence, happening only about two-percent of the time and under the most egregious of circumstances. Getting Concannon and Chavez charged is a major feat that comes out of years of intense protest and advocacy, led by his family, the Black Lives Matter Torrance team, and community. Now, DA Hochman wants the killer cops to walk free. We are calling on the District Attorney to abandon his motion to dismiss and pursue this prosecution.
Nathan Hochman ran and won the District Attorney seat in 2024 as the conservative alternative to Gascon’s progressivism (despite the fact that violent crime dropped significantly under Gascon’s short tenure). Hochman’s campaign was backed and heavily funded by police associations (which some call police “unions”) and right-wing interests. His refusal to prosecute Concannon and Chavez or bring charges against any cops during his tenure, is emblematic of his unabashed alignment with police.
Anthony Chavez was fired from the Torrance Police Department, however Matthew Concannon is still an employee. Both have a temporary suspension of their police certification under the #KennethRossJr Police Decertification Act of 2021, a law fought for and won by families of those killed by police violence, Black Lives Matter- California, and a coalition of community organizations. .
Now, after two years of pretrial hearings, a judge who affirmed his willingness to allow the case to proceed, and a favorable ruling from an appellate court, the District Attorney seems to be abandoning his role as prosecutor, instead acting as de facto defense for police. This is unacceptable, reprehensible, and represents a continued threat to the County of Los Angeles.
Why is this important?
It is simply unacceptable that the County’s prosecutor take a “tough on crime” position, but give a nod to crime, violence, and even murder when committed by police. DA Hochman has demonstrated that he stands as a protector of even the most corrupt and heinous of police, not for the people of Los Angeles. Dropping the charges against killer cops Concannon and Chavez would be a grave miscarriage of justice. Police should be held to a higher standard, not shielded from accountability. Any semblance of justice has always come from the people demanding it for ourselves and that is what this petition is calling for; police accountability should be the standard, not an anomaly. The dismissal of these charges sets a dangerous precedent that sends a message, not just to Anthony Chavez and Matthew Concannon or the Torrance Police Department, but to police in all of Los Angeles County that they can continue to kill with impunity.