San Francisco, CA – San Francisco’s far-left, anti-cop district attorney blasted San Francisco Mayor London Breed’s planned crackdown on crime in the city, saying we “cannot simply arrest and prosecute our way out of problems” affecting the community.
Breed’s announcement on Dec. 14 came about a year after her efforts to defund the police cut the city’s law enforcement budget by $120 million, KPIX reported.
The mayor announced an emergency police intervention in the crime-ridden Tenderloin neighborhood that would target the pipeline of illegal drugs that she said had been fueling the area’s gun violence problem and resulted in so many deadly fentanyl overdoses.
Breed came across as fed up, angry, and aggressive during the press conference, KPIX reported.
“It’s time the reign of criminals who are destroying our city, it is time for it to come to an end,” the mayor said. “And it comes to an end when we take the steps to more aggressive with law enforcement. More aggressive with the changes in our policies and less tolerant of all the bulls-t that has destroyed our city.”
Breed declared a state of emergency in the Tenderloin that is supposed to help expedite emergency programs by waiving some zoning and planning codes.
San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin, whose soft-on-crime policies have put criminals back out on the streets, held a press conference with activists on Monday to denounce the mayor’s strategy, FOX News reported.
Boudin is facing a recall election in June after infuriating critics who have said he is too easy on criminals.
“We all share the concern and the pain about the situation in the Tenderloin,” Boudin told reporters on Dec. 20. “Personally, I am outraged every time I walk or drive through Tenderloin. The raw human suffering, the flagrant violations of law, the neglect, and the circumstances that we see that are going in direct violation of our most basic core human principles – about caring for others in need.”
“Arresting people who are addicted to drugs, jailing people who have mental health struggles, putting folks who are vending hot dogs or other food on the streets in cages will not solve these problems, and they are certainly not the only tools available,” he continued.
“Right now in San Francisco, it is easier to get high than it is to get help,” the district attorney said, according to FOX News. “That must stop. That must change right now.”
“We cannot simply arrest and prosecute our way out of problems that are afflicting the Tenderloin and so many parts of our city,” he continued. “We can’t continue to wait for the police to respond and make an arrest before we intervene. We must as a city intervene before crimes are committed, before damage is done.”
Instead of police intervention, Boudin proposed affordable housing, universal mental health care, and building more supervised drug use facilities, FOX News reported.
The controversial and beleaguered district attorney defended himself in an op-ed in the SFGate on Tuesday.
In the column, Boudin claimed to be “vigorously pursuing” the accountability of criminals and lambasted detractors who “have wrongly accused progressive prosecutors like me” of being soft on crime.
Boudin has made headlines for dropping charges against violent criminals. Earlier this year he dropped charges against a teen who was caught on camera attacking and carjacking a 75-year-old woman. Boudin also repeatedly dropped charges against a domestic violence suspect who went on to murder a baby.
The DA also refused to charge a violent career criminal because the criminal was already on parole; that suspect went on to kill two women.
“We are at a tipping point in San Francisco; we are in danger of making [a] decision driven by fear,” the district attorney wrote. “We should not return to the days of locking up every person who commits any offense, no matter how small — a practice which not only failed to stop crime but also disproportionately impacted over-policed communities of color. Returning to those criminal justice policies offers no solution. We can have both safety and justice.”
Breed’s spokesman pushed back after the scathing column ran, FOX News reported.
He said the mayor was working to open a temporary site in the Tenderloin that would help connect people in crisis with services.
“The reality is that our outreach teams are out there every day, and while many people accept services to get themselves indoors and to get the help they need, others don’t,” Jeff Cretan, the mayor’s spokesman, said.
Cretan said Breed planned to continue to invest in social services “but people will not be allowed to reject these services and continue to break the law,” FOX News reported.
Holly Matkin
