Lee Heidhues 7.6.2023
Brooke Jenkins in her own words:
“The previous administration’s poor management and ideologies caused immeasurable harm to the public,” she wrote. “This office saw an exodus of experienced and talented attorneys after years of prosecutorial negligence.” – Written statement to SF Gate after one year as SF DA.
Brooke Jenkins will not let herself be interviewed. A tough reporter would question her seriously and, perhaps, unearth some unpleasant truths about this grifter politician on the make.
Jenkins can’t let it go. She needs her scapegoat to validate her precarious perch as The City’s anointed chief law enforcement officer.
Jenkins scapegoating statement says it all about the treacherous political creature who clawed her way into office by destroying a decent honest Progressive District Attorney, Chesa Boudin. Calling herself a “volunteer” only to disclose after she was safely ensconced in office by the equally treacherous Mayor London Breed. Brooke Jenkins disclosed she was paid over 150K for her treachery in the political coup d’etat of June 7, 2022.
This woman has no shame. She refuses to take responsibility for the State of Crime in San Francisco. Continuing to cast aspersions on the Man who promoted her career. Only to turn on him in an act of evil political opportunism.
Brooke Jenkins will pay the political price as crime in San Francisco spirals with no end in sight.
Excerpted from SF Gate 7.6.2023
Taken altogether, how can Brooke Jenkins’ first year in office best be described?
In a statement to SFGATE on Thursday — two days ahead of her first full year in office — Jenkins said, “I believe we have and are making progress every day to improve conditions on our streets. It was years of prosecutorial neglect that contributed to the conditions in our neighborhoods, but we have set a new direction and tone in San Francisco that brazen drug dealing will be prosecuted.”
Evaluating whether street conditions are improving is largely subjective; noted Boudin detractors believe things are getting better, while others who’ve long documented their public safety observations seem to disagree.
Data shows fatal overdoses are rising, and Jenkins’ office is currently struggling to obtain convictions for drug crimes. It also shows violent crime is up under Jenkins, while property crime is down, as first reported by Mission Local. But those data points have caveats, too: The COVID-19 pandemic brought life to a halt in 2020, leading to a decrease in criminal reports that year and in the first half of 2021.
If crime rates are directly linked to DA policy, as Jenkins suggested when she was campaigning against Boudin, then she failed to deliver on her promises in year one. But after taking office, she offered a different benchmark for success.
Lee's Perspective 