This week, Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón’s ouster moved a little closer to reality as the Los Angeles County Registrar approved the petition to recall the Soros-backed, ultra-progressive, activist official.
But Gascón isn’t the only California DA in trouble. San Francisco residents are unhappy with DA Chesa Boudin due to the surge in the city’s crime rates.
“We, out in the neighborhoods, and I’ve lived here for 40 years, we don’t see crimes decreasing,” said Caryl Ito.On the west side of the city, Ito said she’s exhausted with the home break-ins, and she wants change in the district attorney’s office.“Chesa Boudin believes in restorative justice and reform, and we all want that,” Ito said. “However, I think he’s forgetting about the victims.”If there is one person at the center of San Francisco’s crime discussion, it is Chesa Boudin; a social justice-minded reformer who campaigned on a platform of decarceration, ending cash bail.
The frustration on the social justice approach to crime has escalated to Boudin now blaming the police for the crime crisis.
District Attorney Chesa Boudin claimed Sunday that placing blame on his prosecutors for crime in San Francisco’s neighborhoods is miscast and should be focused on the police officers union and a poor clearance rate of crimes that are reported to police.In an interview with KPIX 5’s Ken Basida, Boudin didn’t mince words when it came to a public perception that he is soft on crime — a belief that has spawned two recall campaigns demanding his removal from office.“Come down to the courthouse and watch what we’re doing,” he said. “Any day of the week, any courtroom. You will see my veteran prosecutors handling cases ranging from shoplifting to murder and doing it with dignity and integrity and doing with zealousness.”Boudin said the blame should be placed further down the investigative chain.“The reality is the POA (police officers union) needs someone to point the finger at and this isn’t a new issue,” he said. “Look they were blaming (Vice President) Kamala Harris and attacking her when she was the district attorney. This is an age old problem in San Francisco because the POA wants to get away without doing their job. They want to get away with allowing their officers to send racist text messages, to use excessive force against the community and to engage in systematic violations of civil rights of Black and brown drivers on our streets. And I’m pushing back and demanding that they modernize, that they reform and that they respect all the members of our community.”
I suspect the approach isn’t going to be as effective as Boudin hopes. The Recall Chesa Boudin committee has been passing around its petition and appears on track to have the required signatures by an August deadline.
Richie Greenberg, the recall committee’s principal officer, pointed to a marked increase in the speed and number of petitions gathered, which a raw count has put the tally approaching 20,000 or forty percent.”We have not yet reached the half-way point in the calendar, so we have plenty of time remaining to the August 11th deadline,” explains Greenberg. “We see [District Attorney] Chesa Boudin has suddenly scheduled community outreach events in reaction to our success, in attempts to counter the negative publicity building against him. He’s concerned, even scared for his job, as he should be.”
Boudin was slated to attend one of the community outreach events for a victimized Chinatown store owner. He failed to show.
Nearly a week after a brazen assault and pepper spray attack on a Chinatown business owner, community members and media gathered, expecting to see San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin appear at the store. Boudin did not appear, leaving some wondering why….Boudin has appeared at Asian American events such as rallies and marches in recent weeks in a show of support against the attacks on the AAPI community….Boudin never ended up showing up at the store and instead the growing group was met with members of the DA’s office, who hurried inside to meet with Fanly and members of the Chinatown Merchants United Association. The press was instructed to stay outside, citing the need for privacy due to the suspect being a minor.
If you want to see diversity in action, check out the Safer Without Boudin recall group’s webpage!
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