San Francisco's D.A. Says Angry Elites Want Him Out of Office

[tenderfoot]

I brought up property theft in San Francisco and you made a comparison with Manhattan. But Target is limiting its hours in your city, and Walgreens is closing stores explicitly because of too much theft. There’s also those viral videos of flash-mob robberies —

Sorry, David, you’re saying you didn’t see videos of flash-mob burglaries in other cities?

I haven’t, no.

Chicago. Walnut Creek. The notion that this is a San Francisco problem is demonstrably false.

Then that’s my mistake. But property theft in San Francisco is a problem. What needs to be happening differently to address it?

The major change that has happened when it comes to retail theft in particular is that stores like Walgreens have decided it’s not in their interest to have their security detain shoplifters. The reason is that the police almost never make it to the stores in response to a shoplifting call in time to effectuate an arrest. They rely on store security to hold people long enough for the police to arrive. If Walgreens or Target or any other store decides that it’s too risky, in terms of people getting injured or racial-profiling lawsuits or disturbing other customers — if those costs outweigh the benefit of having their staff make arrests, how do they expect me to prosecute? If the police can’t make arrests, to then say it’s the district attorney’s fault simply doesn’t add up.

Let me ask about another subject that I suspect you might say has been distorted nationally: the Tenderloin, which the mayor declared an emergency zone. But whether anything actually new is happening there is almost beside the point. The point is that an open-air drug market is a bad thing for a city. What can you be doing to improve the situation?

The Tenderloin has been an ongoing public-health crisis and state of emergency for at least a decade. This is not a new problem. In fact, one of your colleagues at The New York Times wrote an Op-Ed in which he was highly critical of me. He linked to a video of the Tenderloin and the Civic Center BART station that adjoins it as an example of progressive prosecutors failing. But the video was from 2018. I hadn’t even run for office yet. I’m not saying that to be catty about your colleagues or the fact-checking at The New York Times. I’m making a broader point, which is that the right-wing media — I’m not saying this about The New York Times — has for years loved to point to the Tenderloin as an example of the failures of progressive policies. The reality is that every city in the United States has at least one neighborhood where, historically, through red-lining or policing or zoning, poverty has been consolidated. If you go to New York City, you can’t pretend that the South Bronx doesn’t exist, that deep east Brooklyn doesn’t exist. Those are parts of New York City, just like the Tenderloin is part of San Francisco.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/03/01/magazine/chesa-boudin-interview.html

[kimbutgar]

1. I live in SF

Yesterday I went to a Ross store in a middle class area of SF. There were more security guards than people in the store. The same building has a CVS and again more security guards. It is part of what we are dealing with ALL over the Bay Area. A lot of homeless people come to SF fir services that aren’t from here. It’s not the DAs fault but an overwhelmed homeless problem in the city of outsiders coming here.

[JohnSJ]

2. The DA election in SF was very close as it was. Blaming "elites" for his recall is a complete

cop-out. Newsom did NOT blame "elites" for his recall, but instead worked to tell Californians what his administration is doing, and the dangers to California of those who wanted to replace him, and why HE was better able to serve California.

Instead of blaming others, I would think it would serve him better to instead tell people why the recall should be rejected.

Nina Turner did the same lame excuse why she was not elected over Brown, and she lost.

[tenderfoot]

3. What does he have to do with...

High housing costs, income disparity, lack of access to health care/drug treatment, greedy real estate investors, politically motivation law enforcement that would rather stand down and not to do their jobs?

Are you suggesting that none of those factors have anything to do with what's happening? Or did all of this SUDDENLY happened because of him?

Sounds to me that shit has been happening for long time before he got there.

[live love laugh]

6. 💯

[JohnSJ]

8. That is the debate. Is it related or not. When Boudin ran for DA he said crime was caused by

poverty, wealth inequality, and lack of government spending in social programs.

He declined to prosecute what he called "victimless crimes, such as prostitution, and drug dealing.

The question is was the increase in burglaries, shoplifing, etc related to that?

Boudin argues that the drop in charging for theft is mainly due to the reduced operation of the SF court system caused by the pandemic.

Let's just assume that the recall effort against Boudin was started by the "elites" in the city. It will the people in SF who will determine whether they believe he has done a good job or not in June.

A couple weeks ago three school board members were recalled because the people of SF felt that they were not doing their job.

It won't be the "elites" that determine the recall, it will be the voters of SF

[tenderfoot]

9. I'm in LA and all of the same things are happening here

It's hard not think that the pandemic/MAGA Law Enforcement/developers/dark money are helping to create chaos. It certainly wouldn't take much. Throw some cash at some rubes to commit organized smash & grabs in tandem with an indifferent/compliant law enforcement and BOOM!

One thing he mentioned "stores like Walgreens have decided it’s not in their interest to have their security detain shoplifters." says a lot.

There was a train heist down here in Lincoln Heights. The train company's security couldn't be bothered to respond. Hmmmmm.

Must the DA in LA!

[JohnSJ]

10. I would have to look at the actual stats to see. LA is significantly larger than here in SF, and I

suspect a lot depends on the type of crime, but one thing they both share in common, traffic sucks in both places

You didn't need the sarcasm tag by the way, I understood your point

[live love laugh]

5. You oppose lots of posts. Interesting. Interesting 🧐

[JohnSJ]

7. I am stating my opinion, and you decide to infer that I am a troll. "interesting, interesting".

Little there aren't ya

[live love laugh]

4. Republicans are 🎯 targeting ALL cities.

The crime waves, guns everywhere, economic squeeze of unprecedented inflation — are all aimed at making people suffer. The suffering plays out differently in highly populated urban areas.

Just the other night overhead Lester Holt saying there’s a mass exodus from many cities as a result.

Meanwhile RepubliQkkkans are looking to overtake cities publicly something they’ve never done.