Sandy MaloneSan Francisco, CA – Notoriously anti-police San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin announced a host of criminal justice reforms on Friday that will, among other things, allow gun-toting criminals to stay on the streets.
“Today we take action. We send a message that is loud and clear to the police department and to communities of color. We will no longer participate in, condone, tolerate or amplify racist police tactics,” Boudin told reporters at a press conference on Feb. 28, KTVU reported.
The district attorney announced that San Francisco prosecutors will no longer charge suspects for contraband found by police during “stop-and-frisk” searches conducted during the course of another interaction.
That means that going forward, if officers find a gun or drugs inside a vehicle while conducting a traffic stop for a vehicle violation, for example, the district attorney’s office won’t charge the person for the illegal gun or drugs, KTVU reported.
Boudin also announced that the district attorney’s office would no longer apply California’s three-strike law.
And he made good on a campaign promise to do away with gang enhancements to charges that frequently put gang members behind bars for many years longer than called for by the crime they committed, according to KTVU.
Local law enforcement was furious about the policy changes, and the police union released a statement to that effect.
“In his short tenure, Chesa Boudin has demonstrated that he is a clear and present danger to the law-abiding residents, businesses and visitors of San Francisco,” San Francisco Police Officer’s Association President Tony Montoya said. “Get pulled over and have an illegal handgun or AR-15? No problem, Boudin will throw your case out. Have 10 pounds of Meth all in small plastic bags ready for sale? No problem, Boudin will toss that case too.”
“It’s unconscionable that Boudin would let someone with an illegal gun go free, only to allow them the opportunity to arm themselves again. Chesa Boudin is emboldening criminals and we are all going to pay a steep price for his absurd policies,” Montoya added.
The controversial new district attorney fired several senior prosecutors two days after he took office in January.
“I had to make difficult staffing decisions today in order to put in place a management team that will help me accomplish the work I committed to do for San Francisco,” Boudin said in a written statement released after the terminations became public.
The new district attorney is a career public defender who is the son of two cop killers and had never prosecuted a criminal case in his life before he became the district attorney of crime-ridden San Francisco.
Boudin is the son of Kathy Boudin and David Gilbert, two members of The Weather Underground who were convicted of murdering two police officers and a Brinks security guard during an armed robbery in 1981, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
His mother, Kathy Boudin, was released from prison in 2003 after serving 22 years for the murders, but his father, David Gilbert, remains behind bars serving life in prison, NBC News reported.
The newly-elected district attorney ran his campaign on criminal justice reform, claiming that he was also a “victim” of his parents’ armed robbery in 1981 that left three people dead, two of them police officers.
Boudin has claimed he was motivated to run for office because he has experienced the results of the “destructive effects of mass incarceration,” NBC News reported.
He campaigned on a promise of sweeping reforms and beat an establishment favorite, interim District Attorney Suzy Loftus.
Boudin said his victory was a call for refocusing the criminal justice system on rehabilitation instead of incarceration or punishment, the Los Angeles Times reported.