San Francisco’s Economic Elite Is Gunning for Chesa Boudin
Wealthy San Francisco residents are pouring money into the recall campaign against progressive district attorney Chesa Boudin, who’s being blamed for out-of-control crime. There’s just one problem: the city’s supposed crime wave is a paranoid fantasy.
San Francisco district attorney Chesa Boudin speaks at a press conference in protest of Mayor London Breed’s plan for more policing in the Tenderloin neighborhood on December 20, 2021, in San Francisco, California. (Gabrielle Lurie / San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)
People in and around San Francisco are worried about crime. Very worried.
In a poll conducted in March, 65 percent of respondents said that they avoid traveling to Bay Area downtowns like San Francisco’s because of concerns about crime. Fewer than half of San Francisco respondents to the poll said they feel that the Bay Area is a safe place to live.
This perception of San Francisco as crime-ridden has fueled significant policy decisions in recent months. Last December, Mayor London Breed declared a state of emergency in the city’s Tenderloin neighborhood to “to disrupt the illegal activity in the neighborhood” — though text messages between Breed and the chief of police suggest that Breed’s motivation may have in part been born of a desire not to see homeless people while on her lunch break.
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