Chesa Boudin is out- and now so are 15 of his most progressive staffers. Are SF citizens getting what they voted for in new DA Brooke Jenkins?

“It’s time the reign of criminals who are destroying our city to come to an end,” San Francisco Mayor London Breed said in December.

In Breed’s estimation, it may indeed have come to an end with the recall of now former DA Chesa Boudin, who San Francisco voters overwhelming opted to fire in June. After the recall, it fell to London Breed to appoint Boudin’s successor until a new election is held in November.

Mayor Breed chose Brooke Jenkins, who, until recently, had been keeping the cards of her new administration very close to the chest. How serious would new San Francisco DA Brooke Jenkins really be about turning things around in places which have gotten really out-of-control, like the notorious Tenderloin District?

The answer, it would seem, is “very serious.”

“New San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins makes wave of firings,” reported the San Francisco Gate gravely on July 15, 2022. “Progressives call it ‘terrifying.’”

“Brooke Jenkins Begins Firing Chesa Boudin Hires, Announces New All-Female Senior Management,” declared the San Francisco Standard that same day.

“Jenkins began firing her predecessor’s hires one-by-one late Friday morning, axing nearly a dozen attorneys, including his spokesperson and one of his most ardent followers, Rachel Marshall,” wrote the Standard, a line sure to be savored by every San Francisco resident who voted to recall Boudin.

Boudin staffers ousted under the direction of the new District Attorney include Boudin’s former chief of staff Kate Chatfield, assistant chief of general crimes Tal Klement, and Lateef Gray, who managed the department in charge of investigations into SF police officers.

San Francisco’s far left progressives have made no secret of their displeasure, taking to Twitter, releasing statements and talking to members of the press to roundly condemn the move.

“The sentencing innocence commission unit: gone,” began Kate Chatfield on Twitter July 15, 2022. “Police accountability: gone. Data and transparency: gone. Police corruption investigation: gone. Champion for victims and children: demoted.”

Chatfield attached the above comment to one of her previous tweets: “In 30 months, we reduced the jail pop. by 38%. We reduced the SF prison pop. by 35%. We stopped charging kids as adults and reduced the # of kids in jail by 50%. We have seen victims forgive and those who harmed atone. All while violent crime has gone down. We have already won.”

What she leaves out is that Neighborhood Scout now gives San Francisco a 4 crime index rating: Out of 100, pointing out anyone visiting San Francisco has a 1 in 20 chance of being the victim of a crime.

While media outlets, politicians and members of the press parse and attempt to explain away SF’s rising crime rate by cherry picking favorable stats and ignoring everything else, the fact remains that companies are shuttering stores in SF, leaving neighborhoods without pharmacies and grocery stores.

Pharmacies, restaurants and grocers are all taking extraordinary security measures to stay ahead of gangs of shoplifters taking advantage of the fact that SF doesn’t prosecute thefts under $1,000.

Problem is, some of the “shoplifters” are stealing $1,000 each from multiple stores in a single day; and returning to the same benighted stores day after day. Residents are fleeing the city, too; making no bones about why: Crime.

Not everyone agrees crime is a problem in San Francisco. For some progressives, California’s high rate of incarceration is a far bigger concern.

“San Francisco has taken 10 giant steps backwards,” said Cat Brooks, executive director of the Justice Teams Network and Anti Police-Terror Project. “Jenkins was dangled in front of us because she is a Black woman, which was supposed to make us feel better, but the firings are terrifying. I hope this raises the ire of the left, and makes us realize we must fight or we will lose. We always say a shift to the right can’t happen in California, but it is happening right here in San Francisco.”

“After over 2 years of tireless and devoted service to the City and Cty of SF, I was unceremoniously fired without cause via phone by the Mayor’s appointed DA,” wrote Arcelia Hurtado on Twitter July 15, 2022. “I am the highest ranking Latina/LGBTQ member of the management team at the office.”

“While en route to Santa Barbara for a wedding with fam, new SF DA Brooke Jenkins called and fired me on spot,” wrote fired staffer Ryan Khojasteh on Twitter July 15, 2022 in the first of a thread of tweets. “Odd choice to fire a non-management felony prosecutor in the courtrooms every day that never lost a case (~40 preliminary hearings and a grand jury indictment).”

Not every shift away from progressive policies is a shift rightward, however. These clashes in San Francisco, firings, recalls, vicious primaries, have almost nothing to do with the Republican Party.

There are very few Republican Party voters in San Francisco, and as a result, very few Republican officials- elected or appointed.

A shift away from policies which are- obviously- not working for voting members of the community isn’t a condemnation of progressive values or even a departure from them. It is an attempt to save progressive ideals like criminal justice reform and reducing the prison population from public officials implementing them very poorly.

The voters of San Francisco, who can hardly be painted as Trump supporters by the LA Times, but will be anyway, have spoken: Democratic Party voters feel increasingly unsafe in San Francisco and they want change.

Needless to say, what former DA Chesa Boudin managed to accomplish during his abbreviated tenure as SF DA- from skyrocketing rates of crime, to a staggering increase in hate crimes against Asian-Americans, to companies like Walgreens pulling up shop in crime-afflicted areas- he did not accomplish alone.

Boudin’s team wasn’t on the recall ballot; but they were hired by Boudin. As far as the majority of San Franciscans are concerned, Boudin, his office and all his deputies failed in their most basic public safety duties to SF citizens.

Brooke Jenkins, it is to be hoped, will deliver on the promises she and the Mayor have made about safer streets.

“Today, I made difficult, but important changes to my management team and staff that will help advance my vision to restore a sense of safety in San Francisco by holding serious and repeat offenders accountable and implementing smart criminal justice reforms,” SF’s newest DA said in a statement.

“I promised the public that I would restore accountability and consequences to the criminal justice system while advancing smart reforms responsibly,” DA Jenkins said of the staffing changes. “My new management team, which will include the addition of three women of color, with decades of prosecutorial experience at the highest levels, will help our office deliver on that promise. I have full faith and confidence that these women will promote and protect public safety while delivering justice in all of its various forms.”

“Ana Gonzalez, who worked in the DA’s Office previously but was fired by Boudin in 2020 because she did not align with his vision for the office, will be Jenkins’ second in command,” reported the SF Gate. “Alameda County Deputy District Attorney Nancy Tung, who ran against Boudin in 2019 and was considered for Jenkins’ job, will be Jenkins’ chief of special prosecutions; and Tiffany Sutton, the director of crime strategies division for the San Francisco Police Department, is joining in a yet-to-be-specified position.”

However hard ousted progressives are taking the news, San Francisco voters who opted to boot Boudin from office during the recall may be getting exactly what they wanted. Elections have consequences; flawed or poorly-implemented policies have consequences as well.

(contributing writer, Brooke Bell)