Chesa Boudin and the soul of SF

San Francisco's hot button DA doubles down

Are you feeling a little isolated? Lonely? Wish you could have a serious, meaningful conversation about something?

Have I got a solution for you. During your next Zoom get-together, you only need to utter two words:

Chesa Boudin.

San Francisco’s district attorney is the city’s hottest button. And he’s right in there fanning the flames. There have been Twitter spats, tin-ear comments on violent incidents and now a recall effort that seems to have real legs.

Honestly, it seems like whenever San Franciscans talk, sooner or later someone says, “So what’s your take on Chesa Boudin?”

So OK.

First, I am going to begin by saying something unpopular. This is not all Boudin’s fault. He’s in his first term as DA. He’s right when he says he’s being blamed for things that happened before he had the job.

C’mon, we have been complaining about San Francisco’s revolving door legal system for decades. I was hearing from cops 30 years ago who talked about arresting someone, taking them to the station and watching them walk back out before they finished the paperwork.

So it isn’t as if Boudin, an unapologetic progressive, showed up and suddenly everyone’s charges were dismissed.

However . . .

This is a scary, paranoid time. The city has been shut down. Horrible, violent videos seem to show up every evening. Deadly, infuriating attacks on elderly Asians. Carjackings. Muggings. People are on edge.

And in the midst of that mind set, some very troubling, deadly incidents have occurred. And in the most egregious cases, a career criminal, with multiple recent arrests, killed innocent people. And it looks like there was very little oversight by Boudin’s office.

You know the cases, but just quickly . . .

Troy McAlister, 45, allegedly blew through a red light in a stolen car, while intoxicated, and killed two women on New Year’s Eve. McAlister was on probation for a 2015 gun store robbery and had been arrested several times since he was released for that in April. Boudin’s office did not charge him for new crimes, but sent the matter to state parole. Nothing happened.

In early February, police say Jerry Lyons, 31, ran a red light on Lake Merced Boulevard, hit several vehicles and killed a pedestrian. In October Lyons was arrested for driving a stolen vehicle, receiving stolen property and drug charges. He has six other cases in SF since 2007 and over 20 in San Mateo County. Lyons was arrested for DUI on Dec. 3, but he was released, pending blood test results. When they came back positive, they couldn’t find Lyons. Then the crash happened.

It goes on and on. The carjacking suspect, who stole a van — with two children inside — while wearing a court-ordered GPS ankle monitor. The creep who assaulted a San Francisco mother, was arrested and convicted, only to find that the same guy was arrested about three months later for the same kind of attack.

Those aren’t misunderstandings. Those are tragic, serious cases. In this fraught time, it isn’t surprising that some public voices want Boudin to speak to the incidents and explain his decisions.

Unfortunately, he’s been his own worst enemy. He gets defensive. Susan Reynolds, executive editor of the Marina Times, has been all over Boudin. Last week, for instance, The Times Tweeted:

TheMarinaTimes@TheMarinaTimes

So since taking office @chesaboudin has tried 1 auto burglary, 1 home burglary, 1 gun felony (no conviction), and 3 sexual assaults (only 2 convictions). He tried 1 vehicular homicide and lost the case. He tried zero homicides.

Subscribing to a newsletter is a very 2021 thing. Not as cool as Clubhouse, but then, what is? The difference here is, you don’t have to talk, or even pay attention. Just click.

Boudin’s response to these kind of prompts has been to get on Twitter and amp up the volume. On March 10, a Twitter request by The Times for stats devolved — somehow — into accusations of pedophilia.

Boudin sat for an interview with ABC7’s Dion Lim about the horrific crash that killed the two women, but he didn’t help himself.

He did admit that referring McAlister to parole, rather than charging him with new crimes before the fatal crash, “was a mistake.”

But then he went on to point fingers in every direction. Although he said, more than once, “this is not about blaming the police,” some of it clearly was. The SF police, he said, “didn’t report” the parole violation. And Daly City police knew McAlister was in a stolen car but didn’t arrest him.

It looks like a pattern with Boudin. He’s about as tone-deaf a publicly elected official as you are going to find.

You remember 19-year-old Antoine Watson, who, unprovoked, shoved an 84-year-old Asian man to the ground in January. (Another scary video.) The elderly man died.

In an interview, Boudin told the New York Times that Watson was having “some sort of temper tantrum.” Temper tantrum? The guy went back to his car and got his phone to take pictures of the man’s body. The dead man’s family is furious.

In January, Boudin unexpectedly joined a debate on “Clubhouse,” the uber-trendy, invite-only discussion app. The conversation quickly grew to over 3,000 listeners.

And a part of the time was taken up by a debate about whether Boudin worked for Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez.

Which, oddly enough, I think is the crux of the whole Boudin issue.

Boudin is an unabashed progressive. He came into office with grand goals of increasing racial equality and helping to reform the prison system. And I’ll bet he could hold a seminar on those topics and it would be very interesting.

And that would be swell.

Another time.

Passing this newsletter on to others is free and easy. No seriously, it’s free. And it is easy. Just click the button.

This is a time to leave the ivory tower and concentrate on the streets of San Francisco.

ABC7’s Lim, who has been leading the way on this, obtained a report with some real numbers. It found that from the previous DA, George Gascon in 2019, to Boudin in 2020, there was “an 18 percent increase in cases sent to parole, probation or post-release supervision.” And the amount of time a defendant spent “in custody dropped 51%.”

It is not unreasonable to look at those numbers, cross-check them with these truly terrible crimes, and say this isn’t working. City officials, including Mayor London Breed, are doing it.

Supervisor Catherine Stefani listed break-ins, home invasions and the car-jacking with kids that happened in her district.

“We cannot keep releasing dangerous individuals back onto the streets after arrests,” she said, “only to see them commit more crimes. Enough is enough.”

Mayor Breed was blunt: “The criminal justice system in our city has failed.”

So, Mr. D.A., you’ve effectively alienated the police, the mayor and members of the Board of Supervisors. Burn bridges much?

However — deep breath — here is where we get to some actual promising news.

Last month Mayor Breed, SFPD and Boudin got together to announce a new safety push. Among the ideas is that the police will provide the D.A.’s office with a list of the city’s “most prolific offenders.”

The idea is not to follow those people around, but if they commit a crime, Boudin’s office would take into consideration that the person is a career criminal.

It goes back to the idea that a small group is committing a large proportion of the crimes. It isn’t that the streets are full of mobs of lawless bad guys. It is that a few guys like McAlister are committing more than their share of the crimes.

It was the kind of announcement that would play well in moderate San Francisco. And it was a chance for Boudin to say “This is what we are taking to make you safer.”

And is that what he did?

Of course not. Boudin said the lists have come “infrequently” and need to have better data.

Sigh.

Contact C.W. Nevius at cwnevius@gmail.com. Suggestions and compliments gladly taken. Criticism, not so much. Twitter: @cwnevius