San Francisco’s hygiene crisis will likely not improve in the time ahead.
Chesa Boudin, the newly elected district attorney pledged not to prosecute some “quality-of-life” crimes such as public urination, public camping, and soliciting or offering sex.
Boudin defeated Suzy Loftus by over 2,400 votes. According to SF Examiner, the latest results from the election showed that Boudin won with 85,950 votes against Loftus’s 83,511 votes.
Mayor London Breed had appointed Loftus as interim district attorney weeks before the election, and the San Francisco Police Officers Association had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on ads against him.
“The people of San Francisco have sent a powerful and clear message: It’s time for radical change to how we envision justice,” Boudin said. “I’m humbled to be a part of this movement that is unwavering in its demand for transformation.”
Boudin is the son of former members of the domestic terrorist group “Weather Underground” who were imprisoned on murder charges. Boudin was then raised by leaders of the Weather Underground organization Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn.
Boudin’s response to an American Civil Liberties Union questionnaire, reported by The San Francisco Chronicle, regarding “quality-of-life” crimes was:
“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. Many of these crimes are still being prosecuted, we have a long way to go to decriminalize poverty and homelessness.”
Interim district attorney Loftus, who conceded the race on Nov. 9, answered the same question, saying: “Past practices of an over-reliance on citations are costly, redirect vital resources away from significant crimes and disproportionately impact working class, juvenile, immigrant, and indigent populations. Over-reliance on charging quality-of-life infractions has not proven effective at deterring aberrant behaviors. I will prioritize taking a problem solving-approach to quality of life concerns that engages our city partners and community based organizations to more effectively remedy neighborhood concerns.”
Loftus conceded the race and wrote on Twitter, “I didn’t win the race–but we won the support of so many San Franciscans who are demanding that our city work more effectively together to build safety,” Loftus said. “Congratulations to Chesa Boudin. I will work to ensure a smooth and immediate transition.”
2020 presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) had endorsed Boudin in October.
Sanders congratulated Boudin’s victory on Twitter, “Now is the moment to fundamentally transform our racist and broken criminal justice system by ending mass incarceration, the failed war on drugs and the criminalization of poverty,” wrote Sanders, “Congratulations [Chesa Boudin] on your historic victory!”
“There can be no justice when we utilize prison and jail as the solution to all of our problems,” Boudin said after he won the race, “We must think differently.”
