Chesa Boudin SF DA
kochs libtard into crim justice reform not many years back, before trump tribal polarization?
davis sacks funded brooke jenkins 3rd way 3 26 oberndorf VC
see fox hanity ingraham
alienation/anomie of covid lockdown --> violent (gun) crime spike vs robbery?
aug 15 https://kpfa.org/episode/law-disorder/
never got dime from soros, but claim led to chain/web of links of "evidence"
neighbors for a better SF, obendorf 4.5$M
115K$ for 6 mos, lied about vol.
---
3RD WAY
Don't Listen To These Losers
3 10? 26
4:02
here in this third way conference it's
4:03
the loser Biden people that are trying
4:06
to make sure that they still have
4:08
influence within the Democratic party
4:10
this is uh San Francisco DA Brooke
4:13
Jenkins. Uh she's on stage with Matt
4:15
Alacius and Alshus
4:19
uh Massachusetts congressman and uh the
4:23
mayor of uh uh is it Cleveland, Ohio?
4:27
Now the mayor from Cleveland, Ohio is
---
pop info
for several years, Walgreens and other major retailers have been sounding the alarm about an alleged spike in shoplifting, describing it as an existential threat to their business. These dramatic claims generated a nationwide media frenzy.
Now, Walgreens is quietly backtracking.
In a conference call with investors on January 6, Walgreens Chief Financial Officer James Kehoe was asked how shoplifting and related problems impacted the company's financial performance. Kehoe admitted that “maybe [Walgreens] cried too much last year” about the issue, adding that the drugstore chain probably spent “too much” hiring private security companies.
Kehoe added that theft at Walgreens had “stabilized” and the company was "quite happy with where we are." Walgreens’ “shrink” — an industry term for inventory losses from theft, damage, or administrative errors — had gone down from 3.5% of sales last year to roughly 2.5% in its last quarter. Walgreens declined to specify how much of the "shrink" was due to shoplifting as opposed to other causes, like employee theft and damaged goods. Across the industry, "external theft" accounts for only one-third of total shrink. That means shoplifting at Walgreens likely amounts to less than 1% of sales.
But Kehoe’s upbeat comments gloss over Walgreens’ central role in fomenting the national panic over retail theft. Just a year ago, Kehoe said that part of the reason Walgreens’ reported lackluster earnings was because of “gangs that actually go in and empty our stores of beauty products.”
“This is not petty theft,” Kehoe insisted at the time. “It's not somebody who can't afford to eat tomorrow.”
Walgreens has been joined by other major retailers who have been echoing similar cries and drumming up fear: Walmart CEO Doug McMillion warned that Walmart may have to raise prices or close stores because theft was “higher than what it has historically been.” Former Home Depot CEO Bob Nardelli stated on national television that retail theft was “spreading faster than COVID.”
Publicly available data, however, contradicts the theft-wave narrative. The number of shoplifting offenses dropped 46 percent between 2019 and 2021, according to the FBI’s crime data explorer. The National Retail Federation (NRF), a trade group that represents retailers like Walgreens and has amplified the theft-wave narrative, has also found that shrink declined to 1.4% of total retail sales in 2021, from 1.6% in 2020. External theft, the NRF found, made up 0.5% of total retail sales in 2021.
In response to a request for comment, Walgreens sent Popular Information the following statement: "Although we are pleased to see retail shrink levels stabilize, this is still a serious national problem affecting us all and all retailers. We have taken a number of steps to address this issue and, most importantly, protect the safety of our customers and team members, including our highly-valued partnerships with law enforcement and security professionals."
So although Walgreens continues to describe retail theft as a "serious national problem," Kehoe was clear that it is not preventing Walgreens from being a profitable company. And yet the company reported a net loss of $3.7 billion in its most recent quarter. Why? The company took "a $5.2 billion after-tax charge for opioid-related claims and litigation." That litigation stems from Walgreens' role in fueling the opioid epidemic by filling illegitimate prescriptions for highly-addictive pain medication.
What happened in San Francisco
In May 2021, Walgreens told the New York Times “that thefts at its stores in San Francisco were four times the chain’s national average, and that it had closed 17 stores, largely because the scale of thefts had made business untenable.”
Months later, the retailer announced the closure of an additional five stores in San Francisco and told the San Francisco Chronicle that “organized retail crime continues to be a challenge facing retailers across San Francisco, and we are not immune to that.” The company said it had to increase investments in private security in San Francisco by “46 times our chain average in an effort to provide a safe environment.”
When the company announced it was closing five stores in San Francisco due to rampant theft, police data obtained by the San Francisco Chronicle revealed that “the five stores slated to close had fewer than two recorded shoplifting incidents a month on average since 2018.” Moreover, the company’s claims that thefts at its San Francisco stores were four times its national average were not reflected in citywide crime data — in 2020, shoplifting had reached its lowest level since they began collecting data in the 1970s.
Moreover, back in 2019, Walgreens announced it would close 200 stores across the U.S. as part of a larger “cost-reduction” plan. The San Francisco Chronicle, in 2021, raised the question of “whether a $140 billion company was using an unsubstantiated narrative of unchecked shoplifting to obscure other possible factors in its decision."
How Walgreens played the media
Mainstream media has historically gravitated toward sensationalist crime coverage that often obscures reality. With Walgreens, a similar pattern emerged: the drugstore chain’s dubious narrative was spread unchecked by some of the largest news organizations in the country.
One of the first viral stories on Walgreens’ alleged theft issue was published by the **New York Times’** San Francisco Bureau Chief Thomas Fuller in May 2021. “The mundane crime of shoplifting has spun out of control in San Francisco, forcing some chain stores to close,” read the subhead. In the piece, Fuller recounts a time in 2016 he saw a man grab “a handful of beef jerky” and walk out of a Walgreens. Based on this five-year-old anecdote and a statement from Walgreens, Fuller declared a “shoplifting epidemic” and called into question a sentencing-reform measure that reduced some thefts from felonies to misdemeanors. The piece, notably, does not include any data on crime rates in San Francisco.
The New York Times’ coverage of Kehoe’s comments acknowledged that “Walgreens received national attention in October 2021 when it announced that it was closing five stores in San Francisco, citing shoplifting as the reason for the closures.” The story acknowledges how Walgreens’ shoplifting claims “fed into political debates about crimes.” The piece, however, fails to mention the critical role the Times itself played in amplifying Walgreens’ claims without supporting evidence.
Since May 2021, the New York Times has published at least six stories warning readers of retail theft. Over the same time period, other outlets provided even more voluminous coverage of the issue. The Wall Street Journal published at least 13 stories on the retail theft “epidemic”, including four from its editorial board. CNN published at least seven articles on the“wave” of retail theft. And Business Insider published at least 18 stories on how retail theft has “ballooned” into a billion dollar problem for companies. According to the Center for Just Journalism, the number of stories featuring the keywords “organized retail crime” or “organized retail theft” increased by more than 270% between 2020 and 2021.
The overblown claims in this media coverage have political consequences. Walgreens’ theft concerns was “a flash point in a stinging criminal justice debate that helped electrify the recall of former San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin.” California Republican Chair Jessica Millan Patterson wrote in an op-ed that the Walgreens closures were evidence that “Democratic policies have created a crime spike.” Boudin was removed from office by voters in June 2022.
mma 6 22
since San Francisco elected Chesa Boudin as its district attorney in 2019, right-wing media have pushed for his removal. Tuesday night’s successful recall vote shows how misleading narratives about lawlessness and crime in liberal cities can undermine progressive reforms in the criminal justice system.
Right-wing media’s cartoonish portrayal of San Francisco evokes the fictional crime-ridden Gotham City more than it reflects the realities on the ground. Headlines from the New York Post like “How looting turned the most upscale part of San Francisco into a ghost town” and “Thieves now mock the rule of law in ‘progressive’ cities like San Francisco” have portrayed a city in decline under Boudin’s tenure, but the data reveals a different picture.
Compared to 2018 — before Boudin was elected — San Francisco’s crime rate is largely down or back to pre-pandemic levels, while violent crime remains at historic lows. While the city’s homicide rate has risen during that time, San Francisco is not an outlier among similarly sized American cities, and still has one of the lowest homicide rates within that group.
Instead of including context on these wider trends, right-wing media coverage isolated and amplified stories about crime in San Francisco, even though California’s Republican-controlled areas actually have more violent crime than Democratic counties. Homicide rates are rising nationally, yet the attacks blamed progressive policies and a supposedly permissive approach to crime. This right-wing line of attack — which is often parroted by mainstream news — ignores the fact that most of the cities that have seen the sharpest upticks in homicides are Republican-led and -leaning cities.
Boudin's policies helped to reduce the incarcerated population in San Francisco and to keep it lowered.While conservatives claim this means Boudin was not enforcing the law, the reality is more complicated. Although Boudin charged 10% fewer crimes in 2020 than his predecessor, George Gascon, did the previous year, in 2021 Boudin filed charges on 54% of the cases brought to his office. “In 2019, when DA George Gascon was in office, the overall filing rate was 49 percent,” according to Mission Local.
Now that Boudin has been recalled, right-wing pundits are taking their victory lap. Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner heralded, “Woke San Francisco waking up to a new day after voters kicked out their progressive district attorney. Their decision has national implications, putting liberal prosecutors and defund-the-police Democrats on notice.”
Fox host Steve Doocy boasted that the recall would be a precedent for future progressive DAs: “There are a bunch of woke DAs across the country that are waking up today going, ‘You know the crime really stinks in my town, too. I wonder if I'm next.’”
Leading up to the recall, right-wing media have painted a picture of urban decay to attack meaningful criminal justice reform and municipal Democratic leadership. Using anecdotes, cherry-picked pundits, and isolated statistics, right-wing media played a significant part in promoting the recall against Chesa Boudin.
- In the first two days after Boudin took office in 2020, Fox News star Tucker Carlson subjected the new DA to smears and ridicule while falsely claiming Boudin was part of a movement turning San Francisco into an “American dystopia.” According to Carlson, supposedly “disastrous” progressive approaches to crime and homelessness had already “destroyed” the city and Boudin promised to make all of those issues worse. Carlson concluded his two-day tirade by warning viewers “what's happening there could be happening in your neighborhood,” and declared “the only way to stop” leaders like Boudin was to “shine a light on what they're doing.”
- In June 2021, Fox News Primetime guest host Tammy Bruce painted Boudin as a menace: “Out in California, far-left DAs in San Francisco and Los Angeles are outright gutting the city's ability to combat crime and to put public safety first. For example, San Francisco DA Chesa Boudin continues to handcuff cops, refuses to prosecute crimes like property damage, and puts violent offenders back on the streets.”
- During an August 2021 special edition of The Ingraham Angle filmed in San Francisco, Fox News host Laura Ingraham claimed the “city's decline” was due to the “destructive policies of the DA Chesa Boudin.” She added, “You don't have to go to Afghanistan to see the bad conditions.”
- Later in that same program, Ingraham interviewed a venture capitalist who was arguing for Boudin to be recalled after her home was burglarized. Introducing the guest, Ingraham said, “And it's beyond clear, more than ever that the DA Chesa Boudin needs to go. He is a menace, he is making criminals' lives easier, and the lives of San Franciscans more dangerous by the day.”
- On an October 2021 edition of Hannity, Fox legal analyst Gregg Jarrett told Fox News host Sean Hannity that Boudin “only cares about helping criminals,” adding, “He has been setting killers free, setting career criminals free so they can commit more crimes.Some of them violent, some including murder. It should surprise nobody. You know, Boudin’s parents were murderers and domestic terrorists in the radical underground. … They murdered two police officers and a security guard, and Boudin the DA has spent most of his time in office in San Francisco lobbying to get his dad out of prison.”
- In November 2021, investment banker John Chachas appeared on Fox & Friends to claim “The city center is a disaster. And the mayor should be embarrassed, frankly. I think Chesa Boudin, the district attorney, better start prosecuting people as opposed to just talking about it and the governor of California better get involved.”
- In December 2021, again on Fox News Primetime, Bruce and Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) attacked Boudin as a “Soros prosecutor.” Cotton said, “Soros prosecutors and the farther left puts ideology before people. And what happens is you get a wake of destruction and death. Look in San Francisco where you have one of the most notorious Soros prosecutors, Chesa Boudin — the city is virtually unlivable.”
- In January, America’s Newsroom hosted a former San Francisco police officer to attack Boudin. The officer complained that the DA was putting an officer on trial for excessive force, asking, “How do you expect officers to come to the San Francisco police department or stay with the San Francisco police department if they don't feel as if they are being backed by the people who are supposed to be our voice?”
- In April, Fox anchor Dana Perino hosted the head of the Recall Chesa Boudin Committee, Richie Greenberg, who blamed crime on “Chesa Boudin and hisradical ideology,” adding, “There is no safety here.It doesn't matter where you are from. It doesn't matter your age, it doesn’t matter young or old, your political leanings — everyone is a potential victim.”
- The Daily Mail criticized Boudin’s sympathy for shoplifters, saying, “Woke San Francisco DA Chesa Boudin DEFENDS shoplifter in infamous Walgreens video and says he was 'desperate', then blames the drugstore's security guard amid city robbery explosion.”
- FoxNews.com gave the recall a platform in an article titled “Left-wing San Francisco DA faces recall petition amid crime spike.”
- Another FoxNews.com suggested Boudin was responsible for crimes committed by an individual released from prison on parole, writing, “San Francisco's left-wing DA on defense after parolee accused of killing 2 women.”
- Another FoxNews.com article used police to criticize Boudin, saying, “DAs backed by Soros, other liberal activists join fray in clash with police.”
- The Daily Wire: “Woke San Francisco DA Offers Excuses For Infamous Walgreens Shoplifter.”
- The Daily Wire: “California D.A.s Challenge New Rule That Could Make 76,000 Inmates Eligible For Early Release.”
- The Daily Wire: “San Francisco DA Celebrates His Terrorist Dad Getting Vaccine In Prison; Sparks Strong Blowback.”
- The Daily Wire: “S.F. Police Union Slams New Progressive D.A., Says ‘It’s Open Season’ On Cops.”
- The Daily Wire: “SHOCKER: San Francisco Elects Radical D.A. Whose Parents Were American Terrorists.”
LAT
Guide to the recall campaign against San Francisco Dist. Atty. Chesa Boudin
San Francisco Dist. Atty. Chesa Boudin
San Francisco Dist. Atty. Chesa Boudin.(Eric Risberg / Associated Press)
BY TIMES STAFF
JUNE 6, 2022 8:50 PM PT
San Francisco voters Tuesday will decide whether to recall Dist. Atty. Chesa Boudin, who was elected in 2019 on a platform of criminal justice reform but has faced backlash over crime and homelessness.
What is the recall about?
Boudin’s election was hailed as a major development for the criminal justice reform movement. He has refused to seek the death penalty or try juveniles as adults, significantly reduced the use of sentencing enhancements and sought to push people accused of low-level crimes fueled by drug addiction into treatment instead of a jail cell.
Boudin’s supporters say he has taken meaningful steps to reduce mass incarceration and hold police accountable. A San Francisco police officer this year stood trial for excessive force, for the first time in the city’s history.
Recall backers claim Boudin’s policies have made San Francisco less safe. They have aired ads highlighting shocking videos of smash-and-grab robberies from high-end retailers in Union Square and drug dealing in the Tenderloin neighborhood.
Overall, property and violent crime both dropped by double-digit percentages during Boudin’s first two years in office, city data show. But some types of crime exploded in the same time frame: Burglaries are up 47%, motor vehicle theft increased by 36% and, mirroring a national trend, homicides have risen since 2019 — though the city that year experienced its fewest killings in more than half a century.
In this photo taken Jan. 30, 2020, San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin poses outside his office in San Francisco. Boudin is announcing a new policy Tuesday, June 9, 2020, allowing victims and witnesses of police violence to obtain crime victims' compensation. “The bottom line is that people should not have to rely on a GoFundMe page to pay for a funeral of their son or daughter when they’ve been killed by law enforcement,” he said. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)
CALIFORNIA
San Francisco’s bitter D.A. recall could set back national justice reform movement
June 4, 2022
Who is Chesa Boudin?
Boudin is a Yale-educated Rhodes Scholar who once worked as a translator for Venezuelan socialist President Hugo Chávez.
His parents were members of the radical left-wing group the Weather Underground. They went to prison when Boudin was a child for their roles in a 1981 armed robbery in New York that left three people dead, including two police officers. (His mother, Kathy Boudin, was paroled in 2003 and died of cancer last month. His father, David Gilbert, received parole last year.)
FILE — In this Jan. 30, 2020, file photo is San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin
POLITICS
How Chesa Boudin’s life made him a lightning rod for the progressive prosecutor movement
March 30, 2022
What’s the bigger picture?
California has been a leader in efforts to reform the criminal justice system, including ending cash bail for some defendants and working to overhaul sentencing rules.
Advocates for criminal justice reform have pushed to elect progressive, reform-minded district attorneys, seeing the office as a weak link in efforts to cultivate a more equal justice system and hold police and public officials accountable.
Progressive prosecutors, even those elected by a wide margin, have faced public pressure. The district attorney of Los Angeles County, George Gascón, is facing his second recall attempt in two years.
incumbent Jackie Lacey and challenger George Gascón
CALIFORNIA
With push for progressive D.A.s, elected prosecutors feel the pressure of a changing profession
Oct. 31, 2020
Los Angeles, CA - June 18: Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon, joined by members of SEIU Local 2015 and other local leaders, addresses a news conference held on the steps of Hall of Justice on Friday, June 18, 2021 in Los Angeles, CA. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
CALIFORNIA
Is it fair to blame Gascón alone for L.A.’s violent crime surge? Here’s what the data show
April 1, 2022
Los Angeles, California-Dec. 8, 2021-Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon, right, bows his head at the beginning a press conference after asking others to observe a moment of silence in honor of the victims of recent shootings in Los Angeles. Supporting him during his press conference were from left to right are Miriam Krinsky, left, Laura Conover, second from left, and Parisa Tafti, third from left. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)
CALIFORNIA
George Gascón wouldn’t compromise, until he did. Now, no one is happy
March 3, 2022
Los Angeles, CA - June 18: Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon, mingles with the attendees of a press conference held on the steps of Hall of Justice on Friday, June 18, 2021 in Los Angeles, CA. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
CALIFORNIA
L.A. County D.A.’s office under Gascón is at war with itself. How does anything get done?
May 3, 2022
Reading from other publications:
Why California might recall its most progressive prosecutor?
(The Atlantic)
What the national media likely to get wrong about the recall
(San Francisco Chronicle)
In San Francisco, Democrats are at war with themselves over crime
(New York Times)
The limits of San Francisco liberalism?
(New York magazine)
Boudin’s uphill battle
(Washington Post)
The debate over protecting victims
(San Francisco Chronicle)
Video: Breaking down the issues
(NBC Bay Area)
CALIFORNIAL.A. POLITICS
https://nypost.com › 2022 › 06 › 06 › san-franciscos-da-chesa-boudin-faces-possible-recall-vote
San Francisco's DA Chesa Boudin faces recall
1 day agoSan Francisco's progressive District Attorney Chesa Boudin, who has been slammed by critics for being soft on crime and for not pursuing criminals aggressively enough, faces a possible recall ...
https://www.foxnews.com › us › san-francisco-chesa-boudin-recall-election-vote-closing
San Francisco DA Chesa Boudin awaits fate as recall election vote comes ...
Todayprogressive san francisco da chesa boudin to face recall election Some 40% of the attorneys in Boudin's office have left over the past three years, The San Francisco Chronicle reported in February.
https://www.cbsnews.com › news › chesa-boudin-recall-election-san-francisco-district-attorney
San Francisco DA Chesa Boudin faces recall amid Tuesday's primary ...
1 day agoSupporters of the recall have raised over $7 million and outspent Boudin 2-1 on a high-profile campaign that could have implications for reform-minded DAs in other parts of the country. Proponents ...
https://nymag.com › intelligencer › 2022 › 06 › chesa-boudin-recall-shows-limits-of-san-francisco-liberalism.html
Chesa Boudin Recall Shows Limits of San Francisco Liberalism
1 day agoAll of this is now falling on the shoulders of San Francisco's district attorney, Chesa Boudin, who — if the polls are any indication — could be recalled by voters on Tuesday. "People are ...
https://ballotpedia.org › Chesa_Boudin_recall,_San_Francisco,_California_(2021-2022)
Chesa Boudin recall, San Francisco, California (2021-2022)
A recall election to remove San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin will take place on June 7, 2022. If a majority of voters support the recall, San Francisco Mayor London Breed will appoint a temporary replacement, who will serve until voters elect a permanent district attorney in November. [1]
https://nypost.com › 2022 › 06 › 03 › pray-that-san-francisco-recalls-da-chesa-boudin
Pray that San Francisco recalls DA Chesa Boudin
3 days agoAP Photo/Eric Risberg Let's pray San Francisco voters send a message to progressive "prosecutors" across America on Tuesday and recall District Attorney Chesa Boudin. Homicides are up 36% from 2019...
https://news.yahoo.com › chesa-boudin-faces-recall-la-060015477.html
As Chesa Boudin faces recall, LA deputy DA warns George Gascon 'you're ...
TodayVoters in San Francisco are poised to recall the city's progressive district attorney, Chesa Boudin, on Tuesday in what has become a nationally watched test of frustrations over rising crime. Boudin has been the target of a multi-million-dollar recall campaign by residents who say the liberal California enclave has become an increasingly ...
https://www.latimes.com › california › story › 2022-06-06 › guide-to-the-recall-campaign-against-san-francisco-dist-atty-chesa-boudin
Recall campaign against San Francisco D.A. Chesa Boudin - Los Angeles Times
TodaySan Francisco voters Tuesday will decide whether to recall Dist. Atty. Chesa Boudin, who was elected in 2019 on a platform of criminal justice reform but has faced backlash over crime and ...
https://www.cbsnews.com › sanfrancisco › news › san-francisco-da-chesa-boudin-recall-effort-polarizes-june-election
San Francisco DA Chesa Boudin recall effort polarizes June election
4 days agoSAN FRANCISCO — District Attorney Chesa Boudin, elected on a platform of reducing incarceration, faces a recall election driven by a pandemic in which brutal attacks against Asian seniors and viral...
https://theintercept.com › 2022 › 06 › 03 › san-francisco-chesa-boudin-recall
What's Stopping Chesa Boudin? - theintercept.com
4 days agoThe San Francisco Police Officers Association has not officially endorsed the recall campaign, but the union began targeting Boudin before he was elected. When he ran in 2019, SFPOA spent at least...
...lAW ENFORCEMENT ISN’T the only group that’s been fighting Boudin since before he was elected. Just three days after Boudin took office in January 2020, someone purchased the domain name “RecallChesa.org” and launched a website at that address later that year that directed people to sign a Change.org petition calling on him to resign. The petition was circulated by political blogger and former Republican San Francisco mayoral candidate Richie Greenberg, who also launched the first effort to recall Boudin last March but failed to gather the required number of signatures to get the measure on the ballot. Greenberg is now a paid spokesperson for the recall campaign.
Speaking to The Guardian, Greenberg said the recall campaign tries “not to get involved with actual policy or analysis. But we need to hold criminals accountable, regardless of their age, whatever is the appropriate accountability method.”
Related
A Tech Investor Is Raising Funds to Investigate San Francisco Prosecutor’s Decarceral Approach
Shortly after Boudin was sworn in, angel investor Jason Calacanis launched a GoFundMe that raised $60,000 with the stated goal to investigate Boudin’s office and “hold him accountable.” Calacanis announced in September that he would use the cash to fund a Substack column by writer Susan Dyer Reynolds, titled “Gotham,” which has published two dozen posts since it started last August. Most of them employ tough-on-crime talking points to attack Boudin, including one post that blamed Boudin’s office for not bringing new charges against a man whom the FBI charged with kidnap and rape of a minor — after Boudin’s predecessor had released him on the same charges. Another is titled: “Yes, sir, it’s time for you to go.”
The single largest donor to the recall is a group called Neighbors for a Better San Francisco Advocacy, which is funded by major Republican donorWilliam Oberndorf and has spent at least $4.8 million on the recall since last year, according to filings with the San Francisco Ethics Commission. It funds several other organizations behind the recall effort, including San Franciscans for Public Safety, which had spent at least $6.5 million by the end of May. Former local Democratic Party Chair Mary Jung is the group’s treasurer and a principal officer, as well as a former lobbyist for the local chapter of the California Association of Realtors, another top contributor to the recall effort. Since 2016, Oberndorf has given at least $5.5 million to the Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC aligned with Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
The campaign against the recall, the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, and two local chapters of SEIU have altogether spent just over $3.2 million so far to oppose the effort. Groups fighting the recall say it’s an example of successful fearmongering by police and a select circle of wealthy outsiders. “Less than two years after massive nationwide protests over George Floyd’s murder sparked a long overdue reckoning with racism in the American legal system, police unions and their wealthy allies are exploiting our fears and the social disruption caused by the pandemic in an effort to reinstate failed policies that devastated the Black community,” read an ACLU of Northern California statement from March.....
thieves now mock the rule of law in 'progressive' cities ...
Jun 17, 2021In January 2020, San Francisco's new "progressive" district attorney, Chesa Boudin (a son of convicted cop killers), made decreasing penalties for nonviolent offenses a cornerstone of his ...
https://www.npr.org/2021/11/26/1059391712/behind-the-loud-pushback-against-progressive-district-attorneys-across-the-count
Nearly two years ago, San Francisco voters elected one of the most progressive district attorneys in the nation. And since becomingDA, Chesa Boudin has promoted the policies he said he would, like rolling back mass incarceration, ending cash bail and ending tougher sentencing rules for most gang members, among other major reforms. But now, amid a rise in crime, some San Franciscans are trying to kick him out of office. NPR's Eric Westervelt reports.
ERIC WESTERVELT, BYLINE: Former Assistant District Attorney Brooke Jenkins is exactly the kind of ally DA Chesa Boudin, who's white, needs to help enact his reformist policies. Jenkins, like Boudin, sees the justice system as biased and broken.
BROOKE JENKINS: That is a part of the reason why I became a criminal prosecutor. I am half Black and half Latina and felt that bringing a diverse background into this role would help assist with those efforts.
WESTERVELT: But in a devastating blow, Jenkins last month resigned in protest and is now volunteering for Safer SF Without Boudin, the campaign to remove her former boss from office. A recall measure goes before voters here next year. Jenkins says the DA's office under Boudin is a chaotic, ideologically driven mess. The former public defender, she alleges, is an inexperienced and imperious manager who reflexively sides with offenders, including chronic and violent ones, by pursuing inexplicably lenient sentences.
JENKINS: We have seen public safety and the rights and needs of victims be disregarded. As crime has increased, he has made decisions not to hold perpetrators accountable in any fashion, and that is not reform.
WESTERVELT: Detractors blame Boudin's progressive policies on bail, gangs and restorative justice for opening the door to criminal mayhem. Unfairly or not, he's being blamed for everything from pharmacy closings to a spike in homicides.For Jenkins, it's personal. A breaking point for her was when her husband's 18-year-old cousin was murdered here.She says Boudin intervened to stop prosecutors from using gang enhancements, a move she says will likely undermine the case.
Jenkins is one of 40 attorneys who have resigned since Boudin took office. That's nearly a third of all attorney positions. The exodus, she says, leaves the most important units, including homicide and sexual assault, run by inexperienced prosecutors and former public defenders Boudin has hired from his previous office.
JENKINS: They have zero experience prosecuting cases, with only a defense background that oftentimes is ideologically opposed to criminal prosecution.
WESTERVELT: Boudin counters that her allegations and the recall effort cartoonishly misrepresent his record.
CHESA BOUDIN: Republicans, operatives, police unions are exploiting changes related to COVID and policies aimed at increasing racial justice to spread fear and undermine reform.
WESTERVELT: Boudin's emphasis on rehabilitation over punishment is influenced by his parents, who spent decades in prison as accomplices to murder and robbery as members of the radical leftist Weather Underground. San Franciscans, Boudin says, elected him to create real alternatives - scalable, restorative and social justice programs, not to simply put more Black, brown and poor people behind bars.
BOUDIN: The trademark policies of my administration - ending bail, creating an independent innocence commission to ensure that innocent people aren't languishing behind bars, creating a primary caregiver diversion program, expanding victim services - those are things that are both wildly popular among San Francisco voters and that are dramatically improving access to justice and public safety.
WESTERVELT: But almost no one here feels safer. Crimes, including assault, theft and homicides, are up in the city. Fatal drug overdoses and crimes against Asian Americans are, too. Over the weekend, dozens of criminals swarmed high-end stores such as Louis Vuitton and Hermes in San Francisco's Union Square in an organized smash-and-grab robbery frenzy that rattled a city already on edge about crime. Cannabis dispensaries here were also robbed.
Marisa Rodriguez heads the Union Square Business Alliance.
MARISA RODRIGUEZ: This is organized crime. These are people who have made a decision to come downtown and to commit vandalism and theft, and it has to stop.
WESTERVELT: Boudin and his supporters dismiss the recall movement as moneyed Republican and police union efforts to derail meaningful reforms. But, in fact, the recall group Safer SF has lots of political and ethnic diversity behind it, a fact they're showcasing in new TV ads. They include an African American dad whose toddler was recently murdered and an Asian American former head of the city's Democratic Party.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: ...Communities of color.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: I never in a million years thought that my son, let alone any 6-year-old, would be gunned down in the streets of San Francisco and not get any justice.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: Chesa's failure has resulted in an increase in crime against Asian Americans.
WESTERVELT: Still, it's not clear the stream of ads and press releases denouncing Boudin is resonating with San Franciscans, says sociologist Patrick Lopez-Aguado, a criminal justice specialist at Santa Clara University.
PATRICK LOPEZ-AGUADO: I don't know that the noise of the backlash is necessarily representative of what most voters think or want.
WESTERVELT: The pushback against reformist DAs in other cities has been loud but so far largely unsuccessful. The fallout from Boudin's efforts at system-wide change is being closely watched by those advocating criminal justice reform nationally.Like the failed recall against Governor Gavin Newsom, Boudin says the backlash is being supercharged by pandemic angst and its historic disruptions to lives, businesses and the courts.
BOUDIN: Look; I've never been in office before 2020. It's a steep learning curve.
WESTERVELT: A somewhat chastened Chesa Boudin insists he's learned from his stumbles, including, he says, the need to do a much better job communicating the why and how of his reforms.
BOUDIN: Of course I've made mistakes, and I've learned a tremendous amount about my office. There's room for improvement, and I'm committed to doing better in the months and years ahead.
WESTERVELT: Boudin responded to the recent organized robbery attacks downtown, sounding more like a traditionalist than one of the nation's most progressive reformers. Boudin, on Twitter, denounced what he called the looting, praised the swift police response and added of those arrested, standby for felony charges. Eric Westervelt, NPR News, San Francisco.