Lee Heidhues 3.14.2022
The Oped in Sunday’s Examiner says it all. “His (Boudin) narrow victory upset a local political establishment with cliquish manners and a long memory.” THAT SENTENCE nails it. London Breed will not forget that Chesa beat her pick for DA.
Hope San Francisco Mayor London Breed enjoys her 10 days in Europe. Typical American tourist itinerary.
Moving right along.
Looking at the local morning paper’s piece about the Mayor’s 10 day junket to London, Paris, Frankfurt and Rome to drum up tourism for San Francisco I was struck by the fact that some folks are bringing up the upcoming DA Recall vote into the conversation.
The pitchfork crowd which has been calling for the DA’s head since the day he assumed office on January 8, 2020 can’t resist taking a shot even when the Mayor’s foreign trip is the topic.
However there were some surprising comments amongst the ususal anti-DA blather.
I appreciate the fact that FINALLY some folks in The San Francisco Chronicle ‘Conversation’ are waking up to the harsh reality of what the DA Recall is all about.
It’s obvious to many people that SFPD has made a conscious decision to step back and not pursue perps.. Why? The cops want Chesa out by any means necessary. This is a craven insidious dangerous political strategy which the MSM has blithely ignored as it climbed in bed with the POA. This treachery will not go unanswered.
Excerpted from San Francisco Examiner – Gil Duran – 3.13.2022
With the school board recall out of the way, San Francisco voters face yet another consequential decision: Whether to boot District Attorney Chesa Boudin from office in June. If I had to bet, I’d put my money on Boudin getting recalled.
It will have little to do with his policy decisions. After all, Boudin’s doing what he said he would do when voters elected the former public defender as their chief prosecutor, making him one of those rare politicians who follows through on promises. No, Boudin will likely pay because he’s an inexperienced outsider politician — and because he makes a perfect scapegoat for our collective dissatisfaction with life in the 21st century.
Scapegoating is an ancient practice that’s even mentioned in the Old Testament. The word comes from the crude ritual of projecting all blame or sin onto a goat, then banishing the creature into the wilderness. I see a similar thing happening with Boudin.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/scapegoat
“Chesa Boudin is the scapegoat in The City for anything that happens that isn’t positive,” Supervisor Hillary Ronen told the San Francisco Chronicle last month.
I support holding politicians accountable, and I believe that people who depend on public approval for their jobs tend to get what’s coming to them. But the local outbreak of what some call “Chesa Boudin Derangement Syndrome” is on another level.
It’s absurd because one relatively green politician who’s only held office for two years cannot logically bear responsibility for decades of societal failure. Addiction, crime and poverty existed here 150 years before Boudin’s ascension and will persist after he fades into history.
In today’s San Francisco, however, everything seems to be the fault of Boudin. That’s because Boudin is more than a public official. He’s a symbol. Born to parents with infamous Weather Underground roots, educated at elite universities, he’s a bit like radical royalty. This pedigree might normally help him in a progressive city, but he’s an outsider here. His narrow victory upset a local political establishment with cliquish manners and a long memory. He benefited from The City’s convoluted ranked-choice voting process, beating the mayor’s hand-picked favorite, Suzy Loftus, by just over one point.
His close win signaled a key victory for the national movement to elect more progressive DAs, but timing is everything. The COVID pandemic, a national spike in violent crime and surging drug overdose deaths all provide his opponents with plentiful fodder to use against him. He also earned the ruthless scorn of the police union when he righteously decided to uphold his pledge to prosecute police brutality.
Of course, the police union also despised his predecessors.
Opinion: ‘Chesa Boudin Derangement Syndrome’ grips S.F. politics
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