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First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli called out California Democrats for watering down the state’s criminal law after federal law enforcement led the charge on a massive drug crackdown in the infamous Skid Row neighborhood on Thursday.
Essayli told Fox News Digital in an interview that California’s state and local law enforcement have worked with feds just fine, but that it’s the politicians who are getting in the way.
“Unfortunately, states like California have totally watered down their laws, their criminal justice laws. They’ve also emptied their prisons and closed prisons, so effectively, there’s not much of a deterrence on the state side. No one faces any serious consequences on the state side,” Essayli said.
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First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California Bill Essayli answers questions during a news conference outside the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department in Rancho Cucamonga on Friday, April 10, 2026. (Anjali Sharif-Paul, The Sun/SCNG)
“We work really well with our local law enforcement partners,” he continued. “Local law enforcement isn’t the problem. It’s more the governor, it’s the legislature, it’s these loud-mouth federal, you know, Congress members who all they care about is attacking the administration, attacking the president.”
Essayli did give credit to Mayor Karen Bass for approving the Los Angeles Police Department to participate in Thursday’s Operation Save Skid Row.
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“This is a climate in which you have people right now trying to defund the police. You have people trying to disarm the LAPD, and those people are on the side of criminals,” he added. “Anyone who’s calling for disarming the police is on the side of the drug dealers that we arrested today, they’re lunatics.”
Law enforcement officers look at encampments that had been taped off in Skid Row on Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026 in Los Angeles. Federal law enforcement officials, along with the Los Angeles Police Department, are targeting drug dealing in Downtown Los Angeles with “Operation Save Skid Row.” (Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Operation Save Skid Row saw federal and city authorities execute 28 arrest warrants and 44 search warrants in an effort to dismantle drug distribution networks in the notorious neighborhood.
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Over 100 law enforcement vehicles were involved in the operation, with arrests targeting members of multiple gangs, including the “Main Street Crips,” “Grape Street/Raymond Avenue Crips” and the “Pueblo Bishop Bloods.”
City workers clear encampments in Skid Row on Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026, in Los Angeles. (Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
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“We are no longer going to have open-air drug markets in the United States, let alone on Skid Row. And that is the reason you see so many homeless people who are experiencing psychotic episodes, who are unwell, they aren’t seeking help, it’s because you have people, like the drug dealers we are arresting today, keeping them addicted and taking their public assistance money to pay for their drugs,” Essayli said during a news conference on Thursday.