San Francisco may have been a world-class city once, but is now a stinky cesspool covered in human poop and urine. And if the newly elected district attorney has anything to say about it, the problem is going to get even worse.
Chesa Boudin campaigned on a promise not to prosecute public urination and other “quality of life” crimes if he was elected. In response to an ACLU questionnaire on the issue, Boudin said, “We will not prosecute cases involving quality-of-life crimes. Crimes such as public camping, offering or soliciting sex, public urination, blocking a sidewalk, etc., should not and will not be prosecuted.”
According to Boudin, “Many of these crimes are still being prosecuted, we have a long way to go to decriminalize poverty and homelessness.” So, I guess that means because these are crimes typically committed by the poor and homeless, it’s wrong to prosecute them. One might interpret this to mean that under District Attorney Boudin, the laws simply do not apply to the poor and homeless.
Boudin’s parents were anti-war radicals who were sent to prison when he was still a toddler. They’d been members of the radical left-wing Weather Underground. According to NBC News, Boudin’s parents “dropped him off with a babysitter and took part in an armored car robbery in upstate New York that left two police officers and a security guard dead.” His mother served 22 years and his father is likely to spend the rest of his life in prison, which the newly-elected district attorney has managed to turn into a sob story during his campaign.
In a campaign video, he states, “I know what it’s like to be impacted by the criminal justice system. When I was an infant, my mother was sentenced to decades in prison. My father may never get out. My earliest memories are walking through steel gates to visit them.”
That their actions resulted in the deaths of two police officers and a security guard is not mentioned in the video. Boudin gives the impression that his parents are victims of the criminal justice system. According to Boudin, his childhood experiences influenced him as a public defender, and it’s obvious they will as a district attorney.
While the discussion about an overburdened criminal justice system is worth having, Boudin clearly looks at criminal justice in a very dangerous way, where criminal acts are going to be left unpunished, making the existing problems plaguing San Francisco even worse. From Boudin’s campaign ad, it is clear he believes that the rich and poor have separate justice systems, and his pledge to let people pee and poop in the city without fear of the law seems like his sick way of leveling the playing field.
With his parents in prison, Boudin was raised by Weather Underground leaders Bernardine Dohrn and Bill Ayers.
Yup. That Bill Ayers.
I’ve never been to San Francisco, and it looks like I won’t be for the foreseeable future.
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