Progressive San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin lost his recall election in a landslide on Tuesday. And yes, that absolutely is a commentary on how quickly consensus on the need for criminal justice reform evaporated.
In red states, reform was over before it started. And even here in California, the narrative that longer sentences might somehow solve homelessness or curb the disastrous effects of the more potent new meth, which makes users far more violent, is itself a powerful hallucinogenic.
Still, those dancing around celebrating the recall of the 41-year-old San Francisco prosecutor that racists refer to as “Soros-funded” and a “Jewish communist” are seriously mistaken. And those arguing that Boudin is out of a job because his policies turned the town where Tony Bennett left his heart into a dystopian den of homelessness and drug abuse have gotten a few things wrong.
First, there’s that phrase, “Even in the most liberal city in America …” Yes, San Francisco is heavily Democratic, but it’s also a place where mostly only millionaires can now afford to live. Key Democratic constituencies that are in short supply in the city include working families and Black people; only 5.6% of San Franciscans are African Americans.
Then there’s the storyline that crime skyrocketed as a result of Boudin’s permissive approach.
That’s just false; in fact, crime in Sacramento, where District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert, a Boudin critic, rose even faster.
Both violent crimes and property crimes fell dramatically during Boudin’s first two years as D.A.
In 2020, homicides in San Francisco rose 16.7%. But that’s compared to an increase just shy of 30% in Sacramento, where Schubert cannot be accused of ever going soft on anybody.
Despite a series of high-profile smash-and-grab robberies in luxury stores in Union Square, overall robberies have been down every year for the last five years in San Francisco.
Boudin was right not to seek the death penalty, because capital punishment is barbaric, unjustly applied, and does nothing to deter violent crime. It also costs as much as 70% more to try a capital case.
He was right, too, not to try juveniles as adults, because to do otherwise is not only merciless but ignorant of all we now know about brain development.
Of course, we also know now that voting is based more on emotion than on facts. And San Franciscans aren’t wrong to feel that their beautiful city is less beautiful now. They’re not wrong to feel that their streets are scarier now, either — thank you, new meth — as is the case across America.
But they could elect a younger, saner Rudy Guiliani as district attorney, and that wouldn’t change.
It’s satisfying to feel that you’ve cracked down on crime, restored order and set things right. But we’ll be very, very surprised if that’s what happened on Tuesday.
