The Ongoing Saga of Chesa Boudin

In France, and all around the globe, eyes are focused on the French presidential election, though not many citizens seem to be hot and bothered about the candidates and the race. In San Francisco, where the citizens tend to be concerned with themselves and all things local, eyes are focused on the rapidly approaching recall election. Chesa Boudin, SF's righteous, embattled D.A., is fighting what will surely be the political and personal battle of his lifetime. His own fight is also, pundits say, a test case in the ongoing ideological war between “the left” and the “right.” Republican billionaire, William Oberndorf, has donated $900,000 to the cause to remove Boudin from office. Oberndorf’s “people,” if he can be said to have any, claim that crime has skyrocketed in the city, though the facts don’t support that contention. As is so often the case, it’s the perception that counts. 

Over the past two-years, Boudin has shaken up the D.A.’s office and done plenty to rile the right, though it sometimes seems that he’s reviled because of his lefty, biological parents, Kathy Boudin and Dave Gilbert, as well as Bernardine Dohrn and Bill Ayers who raised him from infancy. The “sins” of the mothers and father are visited on the son. An old American story. Republicans figure that if they can remove Boudin from office in liberal SF they can remove anyone from office anywhere in the US that they don’t like. Boudin’s supporters are digging in for a siege. 

Born in 1980 and now on the cusp of 42— also a Yale graduate who worked in Venezuela in Hugo Chavez's government—Boudin is fighting to keep his job and continue the mission he began 27 months ago. That has been to overhaul the broken criminal justice system in a city that likes to think it walks the equality walk and talks the equality talk. 

The evidence shows something very different. With a population that's three per cent Black and that adds up to 50% of the incarcerated, something isn't right on the scales of justice. 

There are less than two months to go before citizens cast their ballots for or against Boudin. The police union is against him, Black mayor, London Breed, is against him, conservatives are against him, and big outside money from billionaires like Oberndorf is also squarely against him. Boudin’s supporters include the city's cast of usual suspects who include progressives, liberal lawyers like Stuart Hanlon and members of the Hallinan clan, plus social activists and even some cops who know from experience how corrupt cops can be.

Recently, when I arrived at a spirited fundraiser at a spiffy SF law office in the financial district, I saw Boudin across the crowded room, made a beeline for him and shook his hand. "You're obviously a long distance runner," I said. He looked at me, smiled and said, "How did you know that?" I replied, "Because you've been running an intense, spirited campaign ever since you were first elected DA and then began to serve in January 2020." He smiled again and said, "That's true. I'm also a real long distance runner, though I don't run for as long or as far as I used to run." "So, you're both a literal and a figurative long distance runner," I quipped. Boudin looks and sounds physically fit. He speaks without notes and without prepared remarks. That was not the case with James Bell, a lawyer and the only apparent Black person in the crowd, who has worked in South Africa with the African National Congress and with both Palestinians and Israelis to find alternatives to incarceration for juveniles. 

Wearing a baseball cap that read "1619," Bell shuffled a sheaf of papers, looked up at the crowd and down at his notes. Appropriately enough, it was the same day that the U.S.Senate confirmed Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court—making her the first Black woman to serve as one of the Supremes. ''Since the founding of this country, the justice industry has reinforced racial inequality," Bell said. "Chesa is scaring people. We need to peacefully disrupt the institutions of social control." He added, "This fight is about democracy."

In a suit and tie, Boudin came up next and listed the achievements of his office: closed an unsafe city jail; reduced the number of children behind bars; advocated for basic income; provided housing for survivors of domestic violence; expanded the victim assistance program; appointed the first Chinese speaker to his office; covered funeral expenses for impoverished mothers who had lost their sons; and held people accountable for the crimes they committed. 

What he still hoped and wanted to do, he explained, was to go after the companies that manufacture illegal guns, aka "ghost guns," that find their way to the bloody streets of San Francisco. On the same day as his fundraiser, Boudin filed charges against teen robbery suspects arrested with ghost guns. Perhaps after all was said and done, he wastough on crime.

Sandra Lee Fewer, a Chinese woman married to a retired ex-cop— and also a former member of the city’s board of supervisors—called upon the audience to give money and enable Boudin to carry on his campaign for justice. "We're on the right side of history," Fewer said. "This is the fight of our time. D.A.s are getting beat up from Philly to L.A and San Francisco. Let's fuckin' show the rest of the country what this crazy city can do."  

By the end of the afternoon, it seemed that, as James Bell said, "This election is about who will be the kept and who will be the keeper." 

Boudin's achievements are impressive, though in public institutions like the city’s libraries and on the gritty streets of the Mission District and elsewhere, it can be challenging to see signs of the reforms he has instituted. Men and women who seem to be mentally challenged act out before curious spectators, and even in front of the police who appear to be reluctant to make arrests. 

Also, passengers who are likely homeless, sleep on street cars from one end of the line to another, while some women who walk alone on side walks even in the daytime, tell me that they’re called names. SF civility is fragile. In wealthy neighborhoods atop places like Nob Hill, there are no visible homeless people. The streets are clean and quiet. The homeless are clustered in certain areas, including right around city hall. At night, parts of SF can seem like places of despair. That’s what Lyft, Uber and Yellow Cab drivers who cruise the city after midnight tell me.

Recalling Boudin won't solve the social problems that are deeply rooted in class and racial injustices and economic disparities. Kicking him out of office which now seems likely—68% of the citizens favor recall—might make some well-off white people feel safer than they now feel. Recall will also likely give the green lights to cops to beat more people over their heads, drag them to jail and lock them up—the same old same old that landed the city in the mess that Boudin inherited when he first became D.A. 

The fundraiser I attended brought much needed cash to his campaign and his able staff members. It was also a shot in the arm that will keep him running for another six or seven weeks. Still, win or lose, he will have reminded the city's citizens that it has a long way to go to reach even a modest plateau of social justice for one and all.

 (Jonah Raskin lives in San Francisco at Ocean Beach.)