A month after the voters in San Francisco have expelled their progressive prosecutorChesa Boudin, the city has a new top agent.
Mayor London Breed replaced him Thursday with Brooke Jenkins, a former assistant district attorney of San Francisco who became a high-profile critic while campaigning for Boudin’s recall. Jenkins left the district attorney’s office in October after clashing with Boudin over his management style and what she considered to be a lax policy toward criminals.
“We are a city of second chances, but the truth is we have to draw a line with people who choose hatred, violence and a life of crime,” Jenkins, 40, said at a press conference on Thursday.
Nationally, Boudin’s recall was seen as a referendum on how a liberal city handled crime and punishment. Local, residents said the issue was more nuanced† They were frustrated due to a growing perception that misery and burglaries had become too commonplace during the coronavirus pandemic, although there was little evidence that Boudin’s policies directly exacerbated crime significantly.
The changes at the district attorney’s office are the latest in a wave of recalls that have hit San Francisco in recent months. In March, race three parents appointed to San Francisco school board after an impeachment – a decision that has already been made big consequences.
When it came to prosecutors, Breed said she chose Jenkins because of her experience as a prosecutor (Boudin had worked as a public defender) and her determination to hold perpetrators accountable while sticking to progressive reform. “We can and should have both in a city like San Francisco,” Breed said Thursday.
Jenkins won’t have much time to prove himself in the job, as voters will decide in November whether she or another candidate should complete the remaining year in Boudin’s term.
Boudin has not excluded that we will run again† He did not respond to a request for comment on Thursday.
I spoke with Jenkins on the phone on Thursday. Here’s our conversation, slightly edited and abbreviated:
What are some of the things you plan to do to reduce crime once you are in power?
We need to restore our ability to hold repeat offenders accountable. One of the things you learn very quickly as an officer is that there are certain criminals in a city. And often a lot of the statistics are inflated by a small group of repeat offenders. That needs to be addressed very quickly.
We’ve also had to deal with a hate crime problem in San Francisco that has escalated and left our Asian-American community feeling particularly vulnerable. And so we’re going to have to be really serious about how we’re dealing with those cases, not just the ones that already exist, but all the ones that arise as we move forward — to send a clear signal that hatred in San Francisco won’t are tolerated.
I think we need to tackle drug crime in different ways. We can no longer accept that open-air drug markets are just part of big-city and San Francisco life. We must take responsibility for those who choose to continually sell extremely dangerous and deadly drugs such as fentanyl.
You consider yourself a progressive prosecutor, and you have criticized Boudin for what you have described as rigid adherence to progressive policies. How are you going to do things differently? Which legal instruments do you restore as a public prosecutor?
To me, the prosecutor’s discretion is paramount in a prosecutor’s office. So I believe that while we need to think very carefully about inequalities in the system and how we can be fairer, we need to restore the discretion of the prosecutors. And that’s across the board. We should not have general policies that absolutely prevent us from accessing laws we need to pursue justice or hold violators accountable.
Does that mean a return of things like bail or, in certain situations, suing minors as adults? It sounds like you’re saying you want the discretion to use them however you want.
Yes, I want the discretion that if we believe a case is appropriate to be charged in a certain way, we have the opportunity to do what we think is fair and just. That doesn’t mean we won’t be very considerate when we use our discretion to go down a certain path. But we have to make sure we’re honest and accountable, and that requires discretion in each individual case.
Prosecutors left after Boudin took office, some citing his policies, others citing low morale. What will you do to improve morale?
The office has been divided between pre-Chesa employees and post-Chesa employees for some time and we can no longer function like this. We need to be one office, one team with one aligned mission, and that is to make sure San Francisco is safe and we are victims’ advocates.
There is much disagreement about what drives crime in San Francisco. Some people think the pandemic was a bigger driver than Boudin. Do you think Boudin’s policies really led to more crime?
At this point, I’m really trying to distance myself from much of the discussion we had during the recall. Regardless of the reason, San Franciscans don’t feel safe; they feel that they are constantly threatened to be victimized in some way. We have to work hard to be a deterrent to anything that drives crime – be it the pandemic, or the lenient policies that criminals have become aware of.
We need to end this active environment where people feel that there are no consequences here and that this is a safe haven from crime. I do believe that will be critical to reducing crime in San Francisco.
But I never blamed Chesa Boudin for all the crime. No prosecutor can snap their fingers and eliminate all crime. So we will have to work diligently against all the natural factors that always lead to existing crime, which is to ensure that people with substance abuse problems get help and recovery.
Do you expect tangible results from this policy by November when you run for office?
That’s a tough one, because I really believe that people need to be patient. They will have to temper their expectations. Not only is the city in crisis, but the DA’s office itself is also in crisis. We have lost hundreds of years of experience with the prosecution in the past two years. A lot of healing is needed in that office. We need to bring it back to a place where lawyers are equipped to go into the courtroom and do their job effectively.
Where we are traveling
Today’s tip comes from Felicia Thompson:
“When I was a teenager in the 1960s living in Monrovia, one of my favorite places to visit was the Huntington Library in San Marino. It is a beautiful estate built by the railroad magnate Henry Huntington and later transformed into a library of rare books and manuscripts; the beautiful main building was converted into a museum with notable Gainsborough paintings and others, plus beautiful gardens and fountains.
My best friend and I skipped high school one afternoon at the end of our senior year when we were kind of done and headed there. We just loved the place so much for its culture and tranquility. Back then it was free and not crowded at all.”
Tell us about your favorite places to visit in California. Email your suggestions to [email protected]† We will share more in upcoming editions of the newsletter.
What we’re looking at
A new documentary focused on a small group of natural wine producers in California.
And before you go, good news
Dozens of dogs gathered on Huntington State Beach one recent morning — not to frolic or fetch, but to surf.
Sugar, an 11-year-old female surf dog from Huntington Beach, came out on top in the dog competition. It was her second consecutive major surf dog title, That reports the Daily Pilot.
Sugar’s trainer, Ryan Rustan, was emotional after the win. He said it was in honor of his father, Rusty, who passed away this year.
“I’m 40 years old and he used to say, ‘Keep surfing with your dog, son, keep doing it, I love it,'” Rustan said. “Other people go, ‘What are you doing with your life?’ but my father was so excited.”