America failed Chesa Boudin. California failed him.
And San Francisco damn sure failed him.
It is truly heartbreaking to see the recall of my dear friend and brother Chesa Boudin as DA of San Francisco. He may very well be the single most intelligent and compassionate man I’ve ever met.
And how he became that way is as quintessentially American as any story I’ve ever known. From the time he was a baby until he was a grown man both his mother and father were in prison for murder.
And one day decided that he would throw his life into confronting mass incarceration and injustice in America. After being a brilliant public defender in San Francisco for years, voters voted him into office to be the next District Attorney of the city.
Instead of giving him time to lead, rich, impatient, moderate and conservative residents decided that they’d rather not have a DA that cared about civil rights and human rights.
They’d rather not have a DA that exonerated people and held police and corrupt corporations accountable.
They just want to lock up kids, and homeless folk, and those struggling with addiction and homelessness.
Data showed that CRIME DID NOT INCREASE under Chesa’s leadership. In fact, we saw violent crime decrease by 14%.
But it didn’t matter. Because MILLIONS of dollars from GOP billionaires were poured into the district to lead a campaign of inflated rumors and propaganda.
And the people of San Francisco believed them. Fell for their lies.
It’s so very sad.
What I’m worried about most now is the progressive DAs they’ll go after next. It’s clear this is going to continue happening because our movement is a GIANT threat to them.
We can’t let this happen again. I refuse to see accountable, capable, and justice-minded DAs we helped elect get attacked like this.
This is on us, and now we have to do the work to protect our progressive DAs to carry on the work that Chesa started in other cities. Rush a donation right now to help us do the work to protect our DAs so this NEVER happens again.
Chesa was known for working 24/7.
He worked around the clock to begin finding ways to make the office both fair and just — while still figuring out how to hold police accountable for misconduct, while exonerating wrongly convicted people, while treating kids like kids, while treating drug addiction like addiction and not crime, while treating mental health like a medical issue and not a crime, while treating homelessness like a public health issue and not a crime.
Before Chesa, the San Francisco District Attorneys Office, unlike most big city offices, had never exonerated a single wrongly convicted person, charged a police officer for a murder they committed, or stood against corporations for wage theft.
Chesa was a breath of fresh air, ready to bring the reform people called for. And when people didn’t see immediate results, they gave up on him.
But this kind of reform Chesa, and so many other progressive DAs, worked on takes YEARS to see the real, meaningful results. And it’s WORTH IT.
We can’t let GOP billionaires continue their campaign to tear down that work. They might have succeeded in San Francisco, but that is where this stops.
Are you with us? We need you now more than ever.
In solidarity,
Shaun
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