(John McCann, Headline USA) The leftist stronghold of San Francisco may be removing its soft-on-crime district attorney two years into his term.
Chesa Boudin, who was elected promising “radical change” to the cities criminal justice system, appears dead in the water among his constituents.
The recall effort against Boudin has been motivated by the city’s worsening crime and quality of life, according to Blaze Media. An activist group called San Franciscans for Public Safety gathered 50,000 signatures last year to put the beleaguered DA on the recall ballot.
Boudin was part of a wave of so-called progressive prosecutors elected in 2019 on the platform of social justice and minority protection. Within his first two days in office, he fired seven tough-on-crime prosecutors and vowed not to prosecute certain crimes. These crimes largely involved quality-of-life offenses such as public camping, prostitution and public urination. Repeat offenders were often allowed back on the streets.
This soft approach to criminal justice has contributed to rampant crime and homelessness, and many Bay Area residents have had enough. Mary Jung, chair of the recall campaign stated, “It’s clear that San Franciscans have had enough and want a new course for our city — one that doesn’t include Boudin as district attorney.”
One anti-Boudin volunteer summarized his reasons for opposing Boudin by stating, “All the victims, all the cases. We’re protecting the criminals. We’re not protecting the victims.”
A former city prosecutor who resigned in protest of Boudin’s leadership argued that the DA was “personally intervening in a number of cases, including our own cases which involved very serious and violent offenders in order to garner them lenient sentences.”
If Boudin is recalled, it could be a huge blow to socialist efforts to remake how America’s cities are litigated. If a rad-left DA is rejected in a place like San Francisco, it is hard to imagine them succeeding in far less fertile ground.
On Tuesday, June 7, Bay Area residents will decide Boudin’s fate, and how they vote could have a substantial impact on prosecutors across the land.
