Political nonfictions
Down goes San Francisco’s DA, and the kvetching reads like this:
Property crimes, which rose during the first year of the pandemic, are generally moving back toward more normal levels, with some exceptions like car thefts.
Car thefts and smash and grabs are more notable and aggravating than a business getting robbed. Years ago a bar / restaurant I frequented had been broken into, a makeshift board placed over glass so the business could continue opening. The co-owner / manager of the establishment was semi-indifferentand could piece together roughly what probably happened — at any rate, the thieves grabbed something that seemed as though it should’ve valuable but really wasn’t. In terms of police reports, this would keep getting shuffled to the bottom of the pile. He imagined when the motion activated video footage was shown, the thief would have a bandana over him and would be unidentifiable — at least, he hoped he would be as the case was not worth it and better to get the insurance money for minor repairs and steel themselves from further misdemenors.
If this crime is down while car thefts are up, that is not good and to phrase it as such is a tad tone deaf.
But regardless of the numbers, Boudin’s opponents have pointed to specific high-profile incidents as a way to bolster their case that the district attorney has failed to keep people safe: After a parolee named Troy McAlister killed two women during a hit-and-run on New Year’s Eve 2020, some residents blamed Boudin’s office, which previously referred McAlister to parole agents rather than filing new charges after some of the man’s prior arrests. Other San Franciscans argue Boudin has not done enough to hold perpetrators accountable for violent attacks against Asian American elders in the city.
Boudin’s office is also just one piece of a complicated legal system: The city’s police department has been arresting far fewer people than it used to, with its lowest clearance rate in a decade.
More sophisticated progressive analyses has it that this is a case of one guy who deserved to be gotten rid of regardless of how other cities shape up, and I can imagine the case is… Probably. You would like elections to be taken in a vacuum, and some counter-veiling realities to permeate: Biden beat out the “defund the police” contingent to win the nomination, did he not? An ex-Republican cleared into the top spot of a “Top two” primary for mayor of Los Angeles. Good for him — though the only thing this gets portrayed as is a victory for Kevin McCarthy as Speaker in November. (Ted Wheeler, I should point out, the much mocked in conservative circles mayor of Portland, was an ex-Republican.)
Another fine moment for the Democrats comes in Colorado, as the strategy of “pick the opponent” brings up Ron Hanks so Michael Bennett will win. I suppose it is not quite as big stakes risk as Pennsylvania’s gubernatorial race, but one senator who will toss aside electoral results is one Senator who will toss aside electoral results. Meantime, I note a Twitter thread from a self described “middle of the road”-er not much caring for the January 6th hearings when crime and mass shootings and inflation need addressing — this a person who, mind you, was all agog against Trump during the events. This is the dilemma of the hearings — and always would be — we live in a world of problems and that happens to be one of them, address it and less oxygen exists with these other problems. Perception wavers against the Democrats. Though it is probably not taken in with the general public, Democratic Party’s cynical actions in Pennsylvania and Colorado undercut their message on January 6, and lead into the ” partisan hatchet job” counter-attack.