Today’s news that “San Francisco police officers stepped up street enforcement in significant ways after District Attorney Chesa Boudin was recalled” comes as a reassuring breath of fresh air. San Franciscans fed up with vandalism, illegal dumping, trespassing and people camping on sidewalks finally have a District Attorney, Brooke Jenkins, who will fight for them by supporting cops, instead of filing charges against them.
Which makes the upcoming race for Alameda County District Attorney all the more vital. We have one candidate, Pamela Price, who clearly is made from the same mold as Chesa Boudin. Her political positions on crime are just dreary reformulations of the same failed agenda long pushed by such radical progressives as Cat Brooks and Carroll Fife—policies that most Americans have solidly rejected, but that somehow remain alive in Oakland.
A study of Price’s platform shows more of the same old “blame the police” mentality for just about everything that goes wrong in criminal justice. She vows to go soft on criminals “between 18 and 25” years of age because God forbid these babies should have to suffer the indignation of jail. Like other defund-the-police types, Price complains that “If you are a Black person in Alameda County, you are 20 times more likely to be incarcerated than a white person. That’s an unacceptable, intolerable level of racial injustice…”. But she never admits the possibility, or the reality, of Black persons committing crimes out of proportion to their percentage of the population. She is committed to a “decarceral” approach to sentencing; in particular, Price would like to empty the jails, and instead apply “restorative justice” techniques.
What is restorative justice? “An approach to justice that seeks to repair harm by providing an opportunity for those harmed and those who take responsibility for the harm to communicate about and address their needs in the aftermath of a crime.” Under this approach, the criminal—let’s say it’s David DePape, the maniac who broke into Nancy Pelosi’s house—and the victim who was harmed—Paul Pelosi—would “communicate about and address their needs.” I can just see it:
DePape: “I want to tell you why I fractured your skull with a hammer and why your wife is such a b***h.”
Paul Pelosi: “Please, go right ahead. I’d like to understand. Would you like a cup of coffee? Cookies?”
And so on, and on. In Price’s fantasy, DePape and Paul Pelosi would emerge as best friends, neither one harboring a grudge against the other. No criminal charges would be filed against DePape. District Attorney Price would announce that, all parties in the matter having settled their grievances, charges against DePape would be dropped.
In short, Pamela Price’s elevation to D.A. would be a disaster, not only to the people of Oakland and Alameda County, who would see countless everyday crimes being entirely ignored by cops who know that Price would never prosecute criminals (especially POC) even if they arrested them, but disastrous also to the cops themselves. Already reeling from decades of being insulted, abused and wrongly accused by defund-the-police types, Oakland’s cops would find themselves squaring off with a hostile District Attorney, who—in true Chesa Boudin style—would rather file charges against police officers than against the sociopaths who victimize us. Please vote for Terry Wiley for D.A., not Pamela Price!
AN URGENT PLEA
As the 2022 election looms, Harold Lowe, our candidate for City Council in District 2, needs your help! He’s got a real chance of upsetting Nikki Bas, but can only do it with you by his side. Please visit his website and offer to volunteer. Give Harold a few hours of your time!
Thank you.
Steve Heimoff