Vote No on H: Keep Chesa Boudin Working as Our District Attorney

We want a safer City

We all know someone, or are someone, who’s experienced a car break-in, a bike theft, or worse.

We deserve to live in a City where we can feel safe. But enforcing laws—making sure that people who choose to commit a crime are held accountable—is not the only part of creating safety. It’s equally important to make sure people’s needs are met so they don’t commit crimes of desperation or get recruited into and exploited by crime rings.

Chesa Boudin is doing his job as our District Attorney

Our police department is supposed to investigate reported crimes, identify and arrest suspects, and refer those suspects and the evidence against them to the District Attorney for prosecution. The DA’s office does not become involved until that point, when it picks up the investigation and presents the case in court.

Our DA’s office issues an annual report. The most recent one describes what our DA, Chesa Boudin, has been doing through 2021. Here are a few things we’d like to highlight.

To start with, DA Boudin’s office prosecutes the cases that they receive from the police. In fact, it has prosecuted more of those cases per year than any other San Francisco DA in the past decade.

He has also kept his promise to use diversionary programs to help prevent crime by addressing its root causes. Incarceration can be part of a cycle of violence that keeps people coming back to crime again and again for lack of a better option. Diversionary programs can help break that cycle and bring people back into law-abiding society.

Our District Attorney also holds killer cops accountable. We believe that when cops kill people, they should be accountable for their decision to use force. DA Boudin believes it, too.

The police aren’t doing their job—they’re passing the buck

There’s an important qualifier above: the DA’s office can only prosecute cases that they receive from the police. Too often, our Police Department chooses not to investigate cases, but blames the District Attorney for it. SFPD is notorious for cops who simply refuse to investigate reports, claiming that “the DA won’t prosecute” even though Boudin does prosecute cases his office receives. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy, and it’s a scam.

The police are manipulating us. When they refuse to even write up reports, people doubt statistics that show crime is falling, because they wonder how much crime is going unreported—and they disbelieve the PD’s claim that crime is down because it contradicts their own experiences.

The District Attorney can’t do the police’s job for them. He can only do his own job, and he does it when he can, which requires the police to launch an investigation, identify a suspect, and arrest that person. The SFPD only makes an arrest 8% of the time, but when it does, the DA’s office can and often does prosecute.

Why are the police trying to make our District Attorney look bad, even when he does his job and they don’t? Possibly because, as we mentioned, DA Boudin holds killer cops accountable. People—including cops—who want cops to be able to kill without consequence oppose DAs like Boudin who stand with the people in wanting to be safe from police violence.

Keep Chesa Boudin working for San Francisco—Vote NO on Prop H

District Attorney Chesa Boudin is doing his job. He’s doing his part to make our City safer. Considering he’s got one hand tied behind his back, he’s doing amazing.

Keep Chesa Boudin working for San Francisco. Vote NO on the recall—NO on Prop H.

Volunteer opportunities

The ACLU of Northern California, which has its own statement against the recall, is running text and phone banks to reach voters to encourage them to vote NO on Prop H and return their ballots before the June 7 deadline. Sign up for a shift today!