The faux progressivism of cities where real estate and cop unions rule.
Sorry, you forfeit the title of "progressive" when you want to put kids in adult prisons.
In an interview with Chinese-language media, San Francisco Mayor London Breed slammed “white liberals” who attack Black female leaders in San Francisco by casting them as “somebody’s puppet or slave.”
The Mayor didn’t elaborate about which white liberals, in the city of San Francisco, would refer to D.A. Brooke Jenkins as a “slave” (seriously? Did these “white liberals” deny the Holocaust next and say Native Americans were better off post-Columbus?).
But it’s true that more than one person has raised concerns about the close relationship between the Mayor’s office and Jenkins, yes, going so far as to say that Jenkins’ loyalty to Breed and Breed’s agenda sealed her appointment. That agenda, quite a few people I spoke with formerly with the DA’s office agreed, is driven by real estate, business interests, the tech sector, and police unions—all major funders of Breed’s Mayoral campaign.
This is not sour grapes as Jenkins has suggested, or some kind of racist, progressive version of dog whistling as Breed suggests above, but a conclusion based on the basics of power: why wouldn’t a Mayor appoint the person most likely to hew to her agenda?
Because, outside of sticking it to Chesa Boudin extra hard by hiring the face of his recall, there’s not a lot to recommend Jenkins beyond a promise to return to tough-on-crime policies. She was a mid-career prosecutor when she quit her job to join the recall and lacks management experience. Breed and Jenkins’ cite a return to law and order, yet could you possibly get any more disruptive and chaotic than appointing the face of the Boudin recall campaign, who then sacks 15 prosecutors the first week? Jenkins has pledged to review pending settlements in drug cases, practically guaranteeing pandemic-overburdened courts get extra clogged. The prosecutors I spoke with were not opposed to Jenkins because they love violent crime; they worry that her focus on drug crimes and “quality of life” stuff: (homelessness) will shrink resources for prosecuting violent crimes. And despite the bloodbath of firings of outspoken Boudin supporters, there are staffers who remain in the office seething to work for the woman who spent six months blaming them for everything wrong in the city.
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