San Francisco
As I walked to lunch last week in Little Saigon, a few blocks from City Hall, I hurried across Eddy Street to avoid an obvious group of drug dealers. The sidewalks were filthy, filled with homeless tents and a god-awful smell. Distracted, I almost tripped over a squatting man sticking a hypodermic needle between his toes. Two cops leaned against a police car nearby. Meanwhile, pedestrians lawfully waited at a traffic light before crossing. Why bother?
No wonder Chesa Boudin, if polls are correct, will be recalled as San Francisco district attorney on Tuesday via Proposition H. He’s a big source of the city’s current rot.
I’m reluctant to convict someone based on his parents’ background, but Mr. Boudin’s provides many clues. Former members of the Weather Underground domestic terrorist group, his parents were jailed and convicted for being getaway drivers in the 1981 Brink’s robbery and murders. He was then raised by the Weather Underground’s Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, who, you may remember, were friends with Barack Obama. Mr. Boudin says he didn’t learn to read until age 9, later graduated from Yale, Oxford and Yale Law School, and even served as an interpreter for Hugo Chávez, Venezuela’s socialist president, although that somehow was left off his LinkedIn profile. He supports San Francisco as a “sanctuary city.”
In November 2019, with help from George Soros, Mr. Boudin was elected district attorney after running on a platform of “decarceration” and ending cash bail. Asian-Americans were big supporters. Not anymore. After leading a successful February recall of three school-board members—one member, Alison Collins, said that merit is “racist”—Asian-Americans in San Francisco are now fed up with increased personal and property crimes against them that often go unprosecuted. Flaw and disorder.
San Francisco has seen a rash of robberies. Stealing items valued at less than $950 is considered a misdemeanor. Last fall, organized “smash and grab” looters hit Louis Vuitton and other luxury stores. Eleven Walgreens have closed since 2019. In a remarkably still-open CVS near Eddy Street, nearly every item is locked behind plexiglass. Is this the future?
Don’t be fooled by the Orwellian newspeak of the “unhoused” that completely ignores the problem of mental illness and addiction rampant in San Francisco.
