I’m glad to see San Francisco’s Police Chief, Bill Scott, stand up to the city’s District Attorney, Chesa Boudin, in what can only be described as the Chief making it clear he’s had quite enough of Boudin’s soft on crime behavior. Boudin, widely perceived as being tougher on cops than on criminals, is likely to be recalled later this year due to voter anger at his permissiveness, and Scott through his criticisms is letting the public know how he feels.
Scott will have public opinion on his side, because people are coming to understand just why it is that career criminals are routinely returned to the streets, released by DAs like Boudin who refuse to prosecute them, or who strike plea deals that result in little or no jail time. We need DAs who are as tough on crime as the public wants them to be—tough not just on seriously violent crimes, like murder, but on lesser offenses like sideshows, smash-and-grabs, shoplifting, mugging and rioting. These crimes may be less violent than murder, but they have negative consequence on the lives of thousands of residents, who suspect—rightly, in my opinion—that anyone who breaks into a parked car or steals brazenly from CVS is likely to graduate into violent crime.
This cascading effect was aptly described by the late Senator from New York, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, in his book “Defining Deviancy Down.” He pointed out what one reviewer called “the toxic consequences of the normalization and expanded acceptance of destructive behavior.” Criminals, especially younger ones, often test the system to see what it will tolerate; and when they learn how easy it is to get away with seemingly anything, their youthful experiments in lawbreaking can turn into lifetime careers of increasingly predatory violence.
Here in the East Bay, we have a contest for Alameda County District Attorney coming up in November. The Coalition already has endorsed Jimmie Wilson, in our belief—based on conversations with him—that he will be tougher on crime than the current DA or any of the other announced candidates. From my contacts within the Oakland Police Department, I have the impression that cops favor his election.
In Oakland, we also have a mayoral election coming up, and my hope is that the Negotiated Settlement Agreement OPD has been locked into for the last 19 years will become a major issue. Whatever rationale the NSA might once have had has long since exceeded its expiration date. There is a widening viewpoint—shared by me—that its overseer, Robert Warshaw, will continue to find petty excuses to continue it indefinitely; were the NSA to end, so would Warshaw’s hefty salary. Just as we’re seeing Chief Scott, in San Francisco, stand up to Boudin, I hope that our next mayor will stand up to Warshaw and say, “Sorry, I’m canceling the NSA. See you in court.”
Steve Heimoff