The backlash against the progressive agenda continues, even in liberal parts of the country. On Tuesday, San Francisco voters recalled District Attorney Chesa Boudin, in part because of his handling of rising crime in the city.
More than six in 10 voters supported the recall, Fox News reported. Boudin was elected in 2019 with 51 percent of the vote and was sworn in as San Francisco’s 29th district attorney in January 2020. He faced an onslaught of criticism over his progressive criminal justice policies as those supporting his recall pointed to an increased murder rate, violent crime, shoplifting, smash-and-grab robberies, burglaries, open-air drug trade, and homeless camps taking over large swaths of the city as reasons to vote for his removal from office.
Boudin is backed by radical leftwing billionaire George Soros as part of a larger effort to install radical district attorneys and prosecutors across the nation. He was also raised in the radical home of two former members of the terrorist group Weather Underground. His parents, Kathy Boudin and her partner David Gilbert, spent years behind bars after they took part in a deadly 1981 holdup of a Brink’s armored truck in Nyack, New York, on Oct. 20, 1981. Guard Peter Paige and two Nyack police officers, Sgt. Edward O’Grady and Officer Waverly Brown were murdered.
Critics say Boudin’s views on crime differed little from that of his parents.
After news of his loss, Boudin said at an election-night watch party that his push for progressive policies in criminal justice and prison reform was not over. “This is a movement, not a moment in history,” he said. “The coalition that we built… it is broad, it is diverse, it is strong. And it is a coalition that is deeply committed to justice.”
Boudin blamed his loss on corporate interests who outspent him “three to one” as he fought against the recall effort. He also said he grew up in two worlds — one where he had every opportunity, and another in which he was “shackled to an existence mired in degradation and humiliation, one known to far too many Americans because of our addiction to caging human beings.”
San Francisco Mayor London Breed, who in recent weeks has appeared skeptical of Boudin’s prosecutorial work but did not endorse his recall effort, will select his replacement. Another recall effort is in the works against Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón, and the organizers believe Boudin’s loss should be a warning sign.
“Tonight showed that voters from every community and every walk of life, regardless of political ideology, are rejecting pro-criminal policies that are masked as criminal justice reform,” a representative of the Recall Gascon Campaign said. “George Gascón and Chesa Boudin’s failed social experiments have destroyed communities while doing nothing to meaningfully reform the system. If LA County voters sign and return their recall petitions, Gascon will be walking the same plank in the near future”
–Alan Goforth | Metro Voice
