Four years ago, in the heat of our “social justice” summer, the people of Los Angeles decided to make a man named George Gascon their District Attorney. Gascon’s politics had met their moment; he was a pure vessel of Black Lives Matter orthodoxy, denouncing the legal system as inherently racist and promising to slash criminal penalties and empty jails.

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Once he assumed office, Gascon held to his word. He stopped enforcing many misdemeanor crimes. He gave thousands of prisoners early release. He slashed felony sentences. He hamstrung prosecutors with new rules on bail and parole.

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Gascon is up for re-election in November. We went to Los Angeles to investigate how his experiment has been going, to watch Gascon's grand visions collide with reality.