San Francisco “In the late ‘90s, early 2000s … it was just a lot of overt racism.”

Lee Heidhues 6.13.2022

Take a look at the genuinely “Progressive” county. Right next door. Alameda.

San Francisco is the faux “Progressive” town which saw Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk gunned down in City Hall.

That’s the Real San Francisco. Intolerant of change.

It proves once again that all the nonsense about San Francisco being “Progressive” is totally misplaced and potentially dangerous for those who believe it.

San Francisco is Conservative Law and Order at its core.

Controlled by a political establishment which will hold onto its power by any means necessary. The Coup d’etat which drove District Attorney Chesa Boudin from office is the latest example. Chesa has never been considered one of the “The In-Crowd”.

People want to believe Hippies, Herb Caen, Fisherman’s Wharf, The Greatful Dead and The Castro are San Francisco.

The 7MM Reactionary funded Coup d’etat resulting in Chesa Boudin’s ouster is emblematic of the Real San Francisco. Chesa will be just fine getting out of this law and order swamp. There are plenty of places and institutions which will welcome him.

San Francisco doesn’t deserve such an honest, ethical and intelligent District Attorney

San Francisco will be much the worse for Chesa’s overthrow in what amounts to a political lynching.

Excerpted from The San Francisco Chronicle 6.13.2022

“The city (San Francisco) has become very, very different from the rest of the Bay Area, in my view, and has been for a long time. I can remember trying cases there in the late ‘90s, early 2000s, and it was just a lot of overt racism...”

“… In contrast, Oakland remains a center of Black activism”, Civil Rights attorney and first place finisher in the race to become the next Alameda District Attorney, Pamel Price put it bluntly.

The civil rights attorney and community activist Pamela Price continued: “San Francisco has become a city of billionaires. … poor people have been forced out of the city, particularly the dwindling number of Black residents.”

Anybody who thinks Boudin’s recall is somehow indicative of the entire region, she says, “doesn’t know anything about the Bay — the Bay Area is a lot bigger than San Francisco.”

“I think that it’s wrong just to look at what happened in San Francisco and say … people don’t want criminal justice reform,” said Nicole Lee, the executive director of Urban Peace Movement, a youth-focused, grass-roots racial justice organization in Oakland. “We can’t let what happened in one city — as much attention as that city gets in the Bay Area — overshadow the bigger picture.”

Over the weekend, Yesenia Sanchez jumped above the 50% threshold in her bid to become Alameda County’s next sheriff. If her lead holds, she’ll claim the job and avoid a November run-off, beating a long-time incumbent on a reform-minded platform that included more programs and job training for prisoners, increased transparency and new approaches to crisis intervention and de-escalation.

Her potential win would be another sign that criminal justice reform is alive in the Bay Area despite San Franciscans ousting progressive District Attorney Chesa Boudin. In the East Bay, voters rallied behind Sanchez as well as two progressive district attorney candidates: Diana Becton won a second term in Contra Costa County, while civil rights attorney and community activist Pamela Price held a commanding lead in Alameda County and will head to a run-off. If elected, Price would be the county’s first non-white district attorney.