CNN writes:
On Tuesday, San Francisco voters registered their disquiet by recalling District Attorney Chesa Boudin amid concern that he was advancing progressive policies as a national criminal justice reform advocate at the cost of their safety. It was a move that signaled just how far the political pendulum has swung since the 2020 election cycle when many Democratic voters cited police accountability and criminal justice overhauls among their top concerns -- a debate that reached a crescendo following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
I call B.S. CNN draws several false dichotomies — between wanting police accountability and wanting safe cities (not inconsistent) and, most importantly, between opposing Chesa Boudin and supporting Progressive ideas.
Chesa Boudin is not a Progressive icon or even, IMHO, a Progressive in any real sense. He’s a flawed man, with flawed ideas, who was an incompetent DA. He may have been very well suited to be a public defender, but his personal views were inconsistent with his job responsibilities as a DA. The many resignations from the SF DA’s office, which has been shaped by a series of liberal/progressive city leaders, is ample evidence of that.
A simple example of Chesa’s incompetence: In a city with hundreds of people dying of Fentanyl overdoses, Chesa Boudin was unwilling to prosecute the dealers whose actions were causing those deaths. That’s not Progressive at all.
The real hallmark of a Progressivism seeks to use the tools of government to support political policies that help ordinary people. Chesa Boudin lost sight of that fact. Instead of trying to make dangerous neighborhoods overwhelming populated by SF’s people of color safer, he turned his back on those people to pursue a policy that he apparently thought would make him an icon and bolster his national ambitions. It is the worst form of white privilege. Fortunately, SF’s able and competent and caring female black Mayor, London Breed, called B.S. on Chesa, arguing:
"I think a lot of people, like some members of the Board [of Supervisors], like Boudin, did not grow up in poverty in San Francisco," she said. "They did not grow up in these kinds of conditions. They have a theory as to what they believe based on their ideology. But they’re also white. They are not Black people who’ve had these unfortunately traumatizing experiences in communities where there’s not trust with the police, but also there’s a desire to be safe, right? And I’ve worked many of my years of growing up in this community to really turn that around because of the violence. "
That argument had a lot of sway with the voters of San Francisco. The rejection of Chesa Boudin’s particularly insidious form of white privilege by SF voters was not a rejection of Progressive values, it was an affirmation of them.
Unfortunately, the narrative pushed now by CNN is a direct product of Chesa Boudin’s dishonesty. He has run his race against recall not by defending his positions and actions (post-election he now says “mistakes were made”), but by claiming that all folks supporting recall were conservatives plotting against him. That argument was effective in getting him votes. I know smart people who bought his line … until the real issues were explained to them and London Breed’s position was laid out. I talked to a number of people who were embarrassed for supporting Chesa Boudin after they learned what London Breed has said of him.
Chesa Boudin’s B.S. defense, pushed on the streets and subways as an intellectually dishonest defense to deceive voters is now used by CNN to run a story that seeks to create the appearance that “even liberal San Francisco” has had it with Progressives. Nothing could be further from the truth. Chesa Boudin should be ashamed for his lies. I doubt he has the maturity or conscience to feel that shame.