BC Law Hosts Ousted DA

On January 30 and February 1, Boston College Law School’s Rappaport Center hosted Chesa Boudin, former district attorney of San Francisco, for a talk and a panel discussion on progressive prosecution.

Boudin has a checkered background; his parents were imprisoned for their involvement with the Weather Underground, a left-wing terrorist group, and he was raised by fellow member Bill Ayers. 

In July of 2022, Boudin was recalled and removed from office by the residents of San Francisco due to dissatisfaction with his tenure. This fact was brought up during the panel discussion, to which Boudin responded by claiming that the people actually did want him. He blamed funding from right-wing opponents for his recall.

Boudin only received 35 percent of the vote in his 2019 election, but was elected by virtue of the ranked choice voting system for San Francisco district attorney. In his recall election, 55 percent of San Francisco residents, a strong majority in a usually progressive city, voted to remove him from office.

Boudin’s vision for progressive prosecution was to eliminate cash bail, and to avoid practice of the “broken windows” theory, which encourages strict enforcement of minor offenses in order to prevent larger ones. He claimed that this theory is not borne out by the data, and that prosecution of low level crimes are products of Jim Crow.

He argued that the larger share of attention should be given to major crimes, like gun violence and sexual assault. He also claimed that under his tenure, crime went down 20 percent. However, lesser but more common crimes, such as shoplifting and car theft, increased significantly during his tenure.

In California, up to $950 worth of goods can be stolen and still count as simple shoplifting, while in other states theft of that value would be charged as a misdemeanor. Boudin did not want to focus on these lesser crimes during his tenure, and this gave him a poor reputation in San Francisco for his management of crime, for which he was recalled.

Boudin highlighted that progressive prosecutors need to be committed to a vision of justice that minimizes incarceration. Several times during his time as district attorney, there were high profile cases of repeat offenders being released from custody and then going on to commit more crimes.

Despite his rhetoric stating that he was recalled due to a right-wing funded conspiracy, his recall was actually led overwhelmingly by Democrats. In particular, Asian-Americans living in San Francisco, who had especially suffered from anti-Asian hate crimes under Boudin’s watch, supported his recall.

Boudin continues to have a rosy depiction of his vision and his own popularity, despite the results of his policies and the general disapproval for his conduct. Although he claimed that his policies were data driven, San Francisco residents continued to voice their displeasure with his actions. 

His replacement for DA, Brooke Jenkins, has implemented harsher sentencing practices since taking office. She won a November 2022 special election to serve out the rest of Boudin’s term. She received 53 percent of the vote.

James O’Donovan contributed to the reporting on this article.