San Francisco’s experiment with “progressive prosecution” is a total failure

This is what happens when extreme ideologies enter the prosecutor's office

The full details of the Chesa Boudin/Troy McAlister story are about as over the top as you can get. If this was the script of a tv show, people would mock it for being so unrealistic.

San Francisco is known worldwide as a hotbed of far-left politics. However, even many San Franciscans can not stomach Boudin’s latest scandal. There is a growing backlash on social media by local residents.

Chesa Boudin ran for DA in 2019 as an advocate of “progressive prosecution,” this is a belief that prosecutors should play a direct role in reducing the number of people who are incarcerated.  Boudin received campaign money from George Soro’s Safety and Justice PAC, which has pumped millions into the campaigns of those who advocate this ideology.

National columnist Michelle Malkin called Boudin the “Nation’s most toxic DA candidate.” Many thought Boudin’s platform was too radical even for San Francisco. Then, four weeks before the election, Mayor London Breed appointed front-runner Suzy Loftus to be interim DA. A lot of voters viewed this as an act of corruption, and an attempt to manufacture an incumbent advantage. When Loftus accepted the position it actually caused a backlash and her support declined. Boudin would go on to win 35.6% in a three-way race, and then narrowly defeat Loftus with 50.8% in the November 3rd, 2019 election.

King John Babylon was freed when Boudin “set aside” his 18 felony charges.

Scandals began mounting right from the start. Two days after winning the election, Boudin mass fired seven attorneys at the DA’s office and replaced them with fellow radicals. The move was dubbed “Friday Night Massacre” in local media.

In January of 2020, a thirteen-year-old girl went missing. Two days later she was recovered and twenty-two-year-old King John Baylon was arrested. The suspect was charged with 18 felonies including trafficking of a minor, child porn, kidnapping, child molestation, oral copulation of a person under 18, and more. His bail was set at one million dollars.

Two days later King John Babylon walked out of jail a free man because Boudin “set aside” the charges. In other words, he declared that he did not intend to prosecute.

One month after the King Babylon scandal, Boudin announced radical policy changes within the DA’s office. He declared that under most circumstances, city prosecutors would:

No longer prosecute drug charges stemming from petexual police stops

No longer seek an enhanced sentance based on what ype of weapon the defendant had

No longer seek an enhanced sentance if the defendant is part of a gang

No longer seek to prosecute defendants using California’s “three strikes law”

Boudin pontificated that these changes were needed to fight “the legacy of Jim Crow and explicit racism in our criminal justice system.” He said that California’s three strikes law is unfair because it punishes habitual felons for society’s lack of properly rehabilitating them.

“This whole idea of time served is a fallacy for many people, and so for us to then turn around and punish people more harshly because we collectively failed to rehabilitate them, because we collectively set up these roadblocks and obstacles for them is draconian. We don’t need to do that in most cases, so our presumption is we will not do that.” – Chesa Boudin

Now we see the end results of “progressive prosecution.” The local San Francisco media has even become critical of Boudin. Today the Bay Area NBC station reported that the weak plea deal Boudin gave McAlister was a direct result of Boudin’s policy of not seeking to have defendants prosecuted under the three-strikes law.

A new gofundme campaign to finance an investigation of Boudin has raised over $40k from nearly 300 donors.

A pre-existing website, called RecallChesa.org, has exploded in popularity on social media. The website cites three core issues:

Boudin has been presented with numerous arrest cases, to prosecute kidnappers, rapists, etc where rather than bring the perpetrators to justice, he released them.

Drug overdose deaths have outpaced COVID19 deaths this year in San Francisco. Surrendering to drug dealers has a cost that must be measured.

Drug overdoses are up 27%. Arson has increased 47.5%. Motor-vehicle theft is up 20.4%. Homicides have increased 37%. Burglaries have seen a 35% increase.

You can follow the surging amount of crime using the San Francisco Crime Dashboard.

NBC Bay Area Coverage of Chesa Boudin

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