9 ms·

San Francisco residents are fed up with city inaction on open-air drug use

69 points by Bostonian 5y ago

hourislate 5y ago
>There is only so much law enforcement can do, though. San Francisco district attorney Chesa Boudin resists prosecuting the dealers whom officers arrest, claiming that these individuals, often illegal immigrants, are victims of trafficking (there is scant evidence for this assertion) who should be protected by the city’s sanctuary policy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chesa_Boudin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chesa_Boudin >Boudin was born in New York City to Jewish parents.[4] His parents, Kathy Boudin and David Gilbert, were Weather Underground members, both convicted of murder.
- jollybean 5y ago
  "and served as a translator in the Venezuelan Presidential Palace during the administration of Hugo Chavez." You literally couldn't write that as a comedy any better. He's like the Left Coast Trump.
- jahnu 5y ago
  Why are the crimes of his parents relevant at all?
  - unity1001 5y ago
    For the needed character assassination?
  - josephcsible 5y ago
    Having convicted criminals for parents is almost certainly a contributing factor to why he's so pro-criminal.
  - JumpCrisscross 5y ago
    > Why are the crimes of his parents relevant at all? I've seen Chesa speak once. He referenced his parents when telling his story and has lobbied for their early release [1]. We aren't defined by our parents. Their crimes aren't our own. But if a child defends his parents' crimes and advocates against their prosecution, it's fair to bring it up. [1] https://sfist.com/2020/11/25/da-chesa-boudin-lobbying-to-get-clemency-for-his-incarcerated-father/ https://sfist.com/2020/11/25/da-chesa-boudin-lobbying-to-get...
    - pmoriarty 5y ago
      Chesa Boudin's connection to his imprisoned Weathermen parents and his appeal for clemency has been brought up on HN multiple times. But not once, not once has anyone ever mentioned why he is seeking their release, as if that's not even relevant. From the article: "The move comes after a separate request for Gilbert's clemency last week, reported by the Chronicle, that was signed by 45 faith leaders, including Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s daughter, and Mohandas Gandhi's granddaugther. Also appealing to Gov. Cuomo since the prison in question is in his state, they wrote that "We see daily that elders in prison, especially those with compromised immune systems and underlying health concerns, are in grave danger and many have died. For us, like you and your father before you, opposition to the death penalty is a religious and moral principle."" "New York's Department of Corrections and Community Supervision data shows that in that state, there have been 3,400 coronavirus cases and 23 deaths in the prison system. Boudin told the Chronicle there are more than 100 cases at his father maximum security prison, Shawangunk Correctional Facility. ""I'm worried my father could die of COVID-19 in prison. He has always expressed great remorse for the victims and he has never tried to deny or minimize the role he played in a serious crime," he added, to SFGate. "There is no compelling reason for my father to remain incarcerated.""
      - JumpCrisscross 5y ago
        > not once has anyone ever mentioned why he is seeking their release It's literally in the subtitle of the article in the comment to which you're replying.
        pmoriarty 5y ago
        But the actual HN comments don't mention that. They only ever mention that he wants them released, but never why. It's a fact that a lot of HN readers never actually click through to read the articles people post anyway, so most people go by the contents of the comments not the articles. I'd bet you anything that most people who read this thread didn't click through and read that article itself, which is why I quoted it. Now they damn well know what it says.
    - 5y ago
  - shadilay 5y ago
    He was raised by friends of his parents who were part of the same group.
  - eplanit 5y ago
    Parents shape one's character (usually), where the offspring generally become similar to the parent, or in other cases the antithesis. In this instance, it seems the apple didn't fall far from the tree. https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/the+apple+doesn't+fall+far+from+the+tree https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/the+apple+doesn't+fall+...
  - wayneftw 5y ago
    How is discovering and discussing the backgrounds of people running things not relevant to an informal discussion of the current events? I was quite intrigued by this Wikipedia article below. > The Weather Underground was a radical left wing militant organization... [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weather_Underground https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weather_Underground I also had some fun researching how the CIA (I thought was probably) involved in all of this. Found some stuff on Wikispooks.com about Chesa Boudin and also this comment (and more) from [1]: > The whole Weather Underground was a project of Cointelpro-New-Left. The idea was to brand students as radical and violent marxists and put out propaganda about them to break up genuine student organizing in opposition to the Vietnam War. It’s a classic guilt-by-association strategy – by labeling progressive policies as “Crazy San Francisco” it causes a reactionary policy implementation almost everywhere else. Boudin is so obviously CIA as was Gascon and now we have yet another phony CIA culture war that gets everyone outraged, divided, and distracted. [1] https://californiaglobe.com/section-2/san-francisco-da-blames-system-for-parolees-hit-and-run-killing-2-pedestrians/ https://californiaglobe.com/section-2/san-francisco-da-blame...
  - merpnderp 5y ago
    Dude, because he's defended their actions. Last year didn't he refuse to press charges against a guy snuck up behind two cops and fractured one's skull with a glass bottle and cut the other's face open, all caught on video? How many rapes has he refused to prosecute? And then he turns around and blames the cops, even though the reason they are overwhelmed is he keeps letting repeat offenders off to immediately commit new crimes. His views on justice are incredibly twisted, likely starting with the pretzel he had to turn is brain into to justify his parents being murderers.
    - pmoriarty 5y ago
      "And then he turns around and blames the cops, even though the reason they are overwhelmed is he keeps letting repeat offenders off to immediately commit new crimes." You're implying the reason cops are abusing their power is that they're overwhelmed? How about the sadistic, power tripping cops among them that actually murder people, assault or torture them, plant evidence, lie and frame people, etc... No, being overwhelmed (even if they are) doesn't remotely excuse any of that. "he keeps letting repeat offenders off to immediately commit new crimes" What crimes? If they're crimes of drug possession, in my eyes they should be let off because the War on Drugs is unjust, ineffective, and wrong.
      - merpnderp 5y ago
        No one said anything you think they said. What you are talking about is a completely different subject. If you actually paid attention to what is going on, this DA is saying the cops aren't bringing him enough cases to prosecute. The cops say they're arresting people with multiple outstanding violent offenses against them, so that they can't ever reduce the number of offenders because they keep getting let back out. Do you not give a shit about assaults, rapes, robberies and violent people being let out over and over? You one of crazy people who would rather just get rid of all the cops and enjoy some Wild West mob justice/lynchings? Cause humanity went without cops for far longer than it had cops, and we know exactly how that works out. Yes cops need reformed, but tell that to someone who's daughter was raped by a repeat felon, awaiting multiple trials, who some turd DA thinks restorative justice means license to rape.
- refurb 5y ago
  Wait, he’s saying there is nothing can be done? He’s actually just letting them go? As a SF resident I’d be furious. You damn well know Chesa lives somewhere he doesn’t deal with the ramifications. Since Chesa is under a recall campaign there is a concerted social media effort to defend him on places like Twitter. Look up the efforts to discredit Dion Lim who has done stories about the Asian American victims of crimes committed by career criminals who were released by Chesa.
  - boringg 5y ago
    This incessant and inaccurate campaign against Chesa Boudin is unreal. Go do your research and you aren't an SF resident.
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
- boringg 5y ago
  You are not defined by your parents actions. I see how you are trying to run a smear campaign on Chesa Boudin.
  - jollybean 5y ago
    You are if you are raised in a family of radical activism. "Boudin translated Understanding the Bolivarian Revolution: Hugo Chávez Speaks with Marta Harnecker" Etc.. This is a sympathetic action towards one of the most deplorable and despicable authoritarian murderers in recent history. Literally as we speak, the Venezuelan exodus has reached unimaginable levels: "More than 5.6 million have left the country since 2015, when it had a population of 30 million, escaping political, economic and social hardships. It has become the largest external displacement crisis in the region’s history, " [1] (And this is from the Guardian, not some right wing news source.) [1] https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/jun/21/latin-america-will-never-be-the-same-venezuela-exodus-reaches-record-levels https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/jun/21/l...
    - pmoriarty 5y ago
      I hope the people who have so much sympathy for Venezuelans fleeing the country are willing to open their own country's doors to them. Somehow, though, I suspect those very same people will instead give them the middle finger and build a wall to keep them out, because they really don't give a shit about Venezuelans but just want to score political points by being against a left-wing government.
      - josephcsible 5y ago
        It's not sustainable to take in unlimited numbers of immigrants from every badly-governed country in the world. It'd be way better to fix Venezuela's government so people don't need to flee anymore.
        pmoriarty 5y ago
        Who's talking about unlimited? Let's start with allowing in more immigrants than we do now. But, no, instead the racists and xenophobes (because that's what they are) are always pushing for less.
- pkdpic_y9k 5y ago
  Im a little confused, what are the arguments for and against Boudin here?
- eplanit 5y ago
  Wow. It seems that SF is getting exactly the outcomes they voted for, which is actually justice (though perverted). Policy-making in SF (and many other (cough)blue(cough) places) is done by emotion, not economics. And, political ideology there has literally replaced religion -- nobody in power dare vote against the severe orthodoxy, even if that means feces and human despair littering the streets and parks. What is their goal, I wonder?
  - throwaway0a5e 5y ago
    Tolerating homelessness and the tent cities and open air drug use which victimize nothing but the eyes and noses of the uptight need not be analogous with tolerating rampant car break-ins, package theft and other petty "crime with a victim". Furthermore, the "real crime" that greatly reduces quality of life is not necessarily committed by the people shooting up on the sidewalk. Enforce laws against theft. Enforce laws against public indecency and disorderly conduct. Enforce laws which will have the most positive impact on everyone's quality of life. People being homeless isn't the problem. People being allowed to get away with all these other behaviors that reduce quality of life for everyone else is the problem.
    - merpnderp 5y ago
      You may think it isn't a crime to shit in public, and stand in the middle of the street moaning and pissing yourself because you are so high you are mostly catatonic. So I hope you and people like you never move to where I live.
      - throwaway0a5e 5y ago
        People using everywhere as their bathroom certainly decreases quality of life for everyone else but it's not even a blip on the radar when you lose a couple packages a month and your car gets broken into once a year. Solve the most impactful problems first.
        josephcsible 5y ago
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- pmoriarty 5y ago
  "There is only so much law enforcement can do" Drug abuse should not be a law enforcement issue, but a medical issue. The problems on that street are a failure of the mental health system, lack of social safety nets, and the abject failure of the war on drugs which forces people to use unsafe drugs in unsafe ways instead of making sure that safe drugs can be used safely (which is what legalization or at least decriminalization would help ensure).
  - JumpCrisscross 5y ago
    > Drug abuse should not be a law enforcement issue, but a medical issue The comment you're replying to concerns itself with drug dealers. Not users. Theirs is not a medical issue, but a law enforcement one.
    - pmoriarty 5y ago
      Drug dealers should not be arrested either! The whole War on Drugs is completely unjust, immoral, misguided, and ineffective. People should not go to jail for using or selling drugs. Both should be made legal and regulated.
guessbest 5y ago
I've been seeing articles like this for years, but the people I have talked to in the real world say they don't see any of these problems like how they are reported online. There must be some kind of perception gap going on.
- jollybean 5y ago
  SF is a highly compartmentalized city. If you walk through some areas to go to work, you see it. If you live just 400m away, you may never. That actually may possibly be part of the problem.
  - pkdpic_y9k 5y ago
    Thats a really good point.
  - the_snooze 5y ago
    I was in Berkeley for a couple years, living in the hills and working downtown. The two areas are just a 20 minute walk apart, but you wouldn't ever see the deep social issues and poverty on the streets if you never left the hills.
- ghoul_hunter 5y ago
  This article is just a piece of the long-running right-wing propaganda campaign aimed at discrediting Chesa Boudin. In SF, it's driven by VCs furious that he's sued gig economy companies for worker misclassification. In other cities, like Philadelphia, the backlash is driven by police unions (the DA in Philadelphia was the subject of a similar string of articles in the local and national press and then won reelection by a 2:1 margin over his closest rival).
  - ta988 5y ago
    Where can I read about that? Is anybody documenting these pressure groups across the country?
    - 5y ago
happynacho 5y ago
but that's what they voted for...
unity1001 5y ago
Right wing opinion hit piece from a conservative private think thank, using alarmist, far right talking points and dog whistles. https://www.manhattan-institute.org/ https://www.manhattan-institute.org/ "The sky is falling all the time" is the modus operandi of such alarmism. Yet in actual reality, SF is SO bad that literally half of the world's tech professionals are crowding themselves into the city. In the conservative American cities with 'better policies' and 'better policing' and near zero taxes to 'promote business', crickets are chirping instead of the prophesied economic miracles. Free market religion combined with cultural conservatism not being able to stomach their belief not being proven true, needing to make hit pieces about the successful 'heretics'. "How can they be successful without having the faith and doing how we do." That's what it is.
- abalone 5y ago
  Not to mention Miami, which was putting ads up around SF, actually has a higher violent crime rate than SF. It just has more segregation.
abalone 5y ago
Please don’t publish this trash on HN. That is a right wing journal whose sister publication just published an attack on Critical Race Theory.[1] It does not meet basic journalistic standards. All the author does is publish anti Chesa Boudin screeds.[2] All this poster does is post right wing political stuff to HN.[3] [1] https://www.manhattan-institute.org/battle-over-critical-race-theory https://www.manhattan-institute.org/battle-over-critical-rac... [2] https://www.city-journal.org/contributor/erica-sandberg_1384 https://www.city-journal.org/contributor/erica-sandberg_1384 [3] https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=Bostonian https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=Bostonian
- adamrezich 5y ago
  >It does not meet basic journalistic standards. what does this even mean exactly in this day and age
  - callmeal 5y ago
    >>It does not meet basic journalistic standards. >what does this even mean exactly in this day and age From the fine article: >Scores of dealers, nearly all young males from Mexico and Central America, openly sell narcotics. Score means 20. Scores to me mean at least 40 (more than one score). Is the writer implying that there are at least 40 drug dealers in a tiny dead-end street [0]? [0]: https://goo.gl/maps/4NbqnwHibWyM9KLDA https://goo.gl/maps/4NbqnwHibWyM9KLDA
    - josephcsible 5y ago
      My reading of the article is that there are "scores of dealers" in the entire Tenderloin, not just on that one street.
    - adamrezich 5y ago
      that's like arguing about the proper use of the word "decimate." but I don't think the above commenter was referring to this article, they were either referring to some other article about CRT or about the publication as a whole
callmeal 5y ago
Putting my snarky hat on: Are they finally going to ban smoking in open-air? Reading the article: wow it's like a warzone out there. >Scores of dealers, nearly all young males from Mexico and Central America, openly sell narcotics. ... Oh it's that kind of writer. kthxbye.
- adamrezich 5y ago
  what kind of writer? is the statement untrue? I don't know as I don't live there. I'm just curious as to what this vague statement means
  - callmeal 5y ago
    I see two things wrong with that statement: 1: the obvious attempt whip up racism/xenophobia, and 2: Score means 20. Scores to me mean at least 40 (more than one score). Is the writer implying that there are at least 40 drug dealers in a tiny dead-end street [0]? [0]: https://goo.gl/maps/4NbqnwHibWyM9KLDA https://goo.gl/maps/4NbqnwHibWyM9KLDA
    - adamrezich 5y ago
      what makes you assume this specific intent?
    - josephcsible 5y ago
      As I've said elsewhere, why do you think that statement was talking about just that street? It's totally reasonable to think there's at least 40 drug dealers in the whole Tenderloin.
      - callmeal 5y ago
        >It's totally reasonable to think there's at least 40 drug dealers in the whole Tenderloin. And that they're all from Mexico/Central America right?
    - readflaggedcomm 5y ago
nextstep 5y ago
There’s a lot of “ideological boilerplate” being thrown around in these comments. @dang maybe you can step in and moderate the responses? This right-wing propaganda seems to be triggering a flamewar.
andymoe 5y ago
Pretty much every issues they are laying at the feet of our DA predates his tenure by decades. He’s got responsibility to work to improve the situation now but the previous approaches did not work any better and he’s certainly not the cause of these problems.
- josephcsible 5y ago
  It's true that San Francisco had a lot of problems even before he was DA. The problem is that not only is he not making them any better, but that he's actively making them all worse.
- readflaggedcomm 5y ago
  Prosecutorial discretion is up to the DA, and he's quoted in an article linked to this one defending it. Maybe the residents believe prosecuting crimes would help.
GoodJokes 5y ago
Legalize drugs and regulate them.
pmoriarty 5y ago
Hyperbolic, breathless, moralistic anti-drug propaganda. "Tucked deep in San Francisco's sixth district is Dodge Place, a residential street located in the notorious Tenderloin neighborhood. It's been overtaken by drug users who come to get high, descend into madness, and then destroy themselves and their surroundings." Never even considering that there could be any causes for any of this other than drugs. Many people have mental health issues even before trying any drugs, and many self-medicate or try to cope with street drugs because the established mental health system and social safety net has failed them. "At any given time, dozens of people congregate in the small alley to inject or smoke their substance of choice." Where else are they supposed to go? Many of them are homeless, after all, and if they have homes they may not want to do drugs in front of their families so as not to set a bad example or because their families would not be supportive. In some countries there are clean facilities where you can get clean drugs and clean needles and be monitored by medical staff. In the US you're forced to use mystery drugs that you could easily overdose from because you neither know what you're getting, what the purity is, or the dosage is, use dirty needles, and/or do your drugs on the street where you can get attacked while you're passed out. This is a failure of society, not of drug abusers, who are victims and need medical help not sensationalistic, moralistic screeds. "Teenagers to seniors, of all races and demographics, jab needles into their bloody, bloated limbs, hands, and feet." They're bloody and bloated because they're not getting adequate medical care. Again, a failure of society and of the medical system. "One inexplicably common figure is a man neatly dressed for a day at the office who drives syringes deep into other people's necks. Soon after imbibing, users stand still as statues but bent at the waist, colloquially known as the "fentanyl fold." Some collapse and crawl, while others sit listlessly on the curb, lining the walls." What many people who've never tried heroin (which is probably what this reporter is describing) don't understand is that when the high hits you feel incredibly good, and users are just paying attention to the overwhelming internal sensations as the outside world becomes not as relevant. So give these people somewhere clean and safe to lie down, if the mere sight of them harshes your mellow and offends your delicate sensibilities so much. "Or they wander, run, or flail, screaming at each other as well as invisible demons." More mental health funding would be in order here, not demonization of people suffering from mental issues. "Many urinate and defecate in their clothes, on the pavement or doorsteps, despite the 24-hour facilities nearby." 24-hour facilities which are dangerous to go in because they're windowless and you could be jumped when you get out... and "nearby" is often not nearly near enough if you're sick or under the influence of drugs that make you lose control of your bowels or bladder. Again, there's a right way to deal with all these issues, which is to provide clean, safe facilities for drug use and make drugs legal.. and a wrong way: which is to demonize drug users and support the failed policy of prohibition.
nevinera 5y ago
I certainly expect that there's a problem to solve here, but it's completely obvious how much this writer is trying to steer my opinion by the third paragraph. I can't treat this as journalism, it's just a constant stream of appeals to emotion and accusations. Does anyone here pass through that area? How bad is it actually?
- ac29 5y ago
  The twitter account linked in the article is pretty grim. Link is here, but be warned, its graphic: https://twitter.com/DTenderloine https://twitter.com/DTenderloine
  - nevinera 5y ago
    Well of course it is - any persuasive piece is only going to link to sources that push the same position it does. That's why I was asking for a personal experience of the place. My expectation is that there is a drug problem in the area, the 'article' is exaggerating it by an order of magnitude, and that that the real goal is political and not humanitarian.
boringg 5y ago
Is this an asto-turfing effort putting this article on hackernews?

69 points by Bostonian 5y ago

>There is only so much law enforcement can do, though. San Francisco district attorney Chesa Boudin resists prosecuting the dealers whom officers arrest, claiming that these individuals, often illegal immigrants, are victims of trafficking (there is scant evidence for this assertion) who should be protected by the city’s sanctuary policy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chesa_Boudin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chesa_Boudin >Boudin was born in New York City to Jewish parents.[4] His parents, Kathy Boudin and David Gilbert, were Weather Underground members, both convicted of murder.

jollybean 5y ago
"and served as a translator in the Venezuelan Presidential Palace during the administration of Hugo Chavez." You literally couldn't write that as a comedy any better. He's like the Left Coast Trump.
jahnu 5y ago
Why are the crimes of his parents relevant at all?
- unity1001 5y ago
  For the needed character assassination?
- josephcsible 5y ago
  Having convicted criminals for parents is almost certainly a contributing factor to why he's so pro-criminal.
- JumpCrisscross 5y ago
  > Why are the crimes of his parents relevant at all? I've seen Chesa speak once. He referenced his parents when telling his story and has lobbied for their early release [1]. We aren't defined by our parents. Their crimes aren't our own. But if a child defends his parents' crimes and advocates against their prosecution, it's fair to bring it up. [1] https://sfist.com/2020/11/25/da-chesa-boudin-lobbying-to-get-clemency-for-his-incarcerated-father/ https://sfist.com/2020/11/25/da-chesa-boudin-lobbying-to-get...
  - pmoriarty 5y ago
    Chesa Boudin's connection to his imprisoned Weathermen parents and his appeal for clemency has been brought up on HN multiple times. But not once, not once has anyone ever mentioned why he is seeking their release, as if that's not even relevant. From the article: "The move comes after a separate request for Gilbert's clemency last week, reported by the Chronicle, that was signed by 45 faith leaders, including Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s daughter, and Mohandas Gandhi's granddaugther. Also appealing to Gov. Cuomo since the prison in question is in his state, they wrote that "We see daily that elders in prison, especially those with compromised immune systems and underlying health concerns, are in grave danger and many have died. For us, like you and your father before you, opposition to the death penalty is a religious and moral principle."" "New York's Department of Corrections and Community Supervision data shows that in that state, there have been 3,400 coronavirus cases and 23 deaths in the prison system. Boudin told the Chronicle there are more than 100 cases at his father maximum security prison, Shawangunk Correctional Facility. ""I'm worried my father could die of COVID-19 in prison. He has always expressed great remorse for the victims and he has never tried to deny or minimize the role he played in a serious crime," he added, to SFGate. "There is no compelling reason for my father to remain incarcerated.""
    - JumpCrisscross 5y ago
      > not once has anyone ever mentioned why he is seeking their release It's literally in the subtitle of the article in the comment to which you're replying.
      - pmoriarty 5y ago
        But the actual HN comments don't mention that. They only ever mention that he wants them released, but never why. It's a fact that a lot of HN readers never actually click through to read the articles people post anyway, so most people go by the contents of the comments not the articles. I'd bet you anything that most people who read this thread didn't click through and read that article itself, which is why I quoted it. Now they damn well know what it says.
  - 5y ago
- shadilay 5y ago
  He was raised by friends of his parents who were part of the same group.
- eplanit 5y ago
  Parents shape one's character (usually), where the offspring generally become similar to the parent, or in other cases the antithesis. In this instance, it seems the apple didn't fall far from the tree. https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/the+apple+doesn't+fall+far+from+the+tree https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/the+apple+doesn't+fall+...
- wayneftw 5y ago
  How is discovering and discussing the backgrounds of people running things not relevant to an informal discussion of the current events? I was quite intrigued by this Wikipedia article below. > The Weather Underground was a radical left wing militant organization... [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weather_Underground https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weather_Underground I also had some fun researching how the CIA (I thought was probably) involved in all of this. Found some stuff on Wikispooks.com about Chesa Boudin and also this comment (and more) from [1]: > The whole Weather Underground was a project of Cointelpro-New-Left. The idea was to brand students as radical and violent marxists and put out propaganda about them to break up genuine student organizing in opposition to the Vietnam War. It’s a classic guilt-by-association strategy – by labeling progressive policies as “Crazy San Francisco” it causes a reactionary policy implementation almost everywhere else. Boudin is so obviously CIA as was Gascon and now we have yet another phony CIA culture war that gets everyone outraged, divided, and distracted. [1] https://californiaglobe.com/section-2/san-francisco-da-blames-system-for-parolees-hit-and-run-killing-2-pedestrians/ https://californiaglobe.com/section-2/san-francisco-da-blame...
- merpnderp 5y ago
  Dude, because he's defended their actions. Last year didn't he refuse to press charges against a guy snuck up behind two cops and fractured one's skull with a glass bottle and cut the other's face open, all caught on video? How many rapes has he refused to prosecute? And then he turns around and blames the cops, even though the reason they are overwhelmed is he keeps letting repeat offenders off to immediately commit new crimes. His views on justice are incredibly twisted, likely starting with the pretzel he had to turn is brain into to justify his parents being murderers.
  - pmoriarty 5y ago
    "And then he turns around and blames the cops, even though the reason they are overwhelmed is he keeps letting repeat offenders off to immediately commit new crimes." You're implying the reason cops are abusing their power is that they're overwhelmed? How about the sadistic, power tripping cops among them that actually murder people, assault or torture them, plant evidence, lie and frame people, etc... No, being overwhelmed (even if they are) doesn't remotely excuse any of that. "he keeps letting repeat offenders off to immediately commit new crimes" What crimes? If they're crimes of drug possession, in my eyes they should be let off because the War on Drugs is unjust, ineffective, and wrong.
    - merpnderp 5y ago
      No one said anything you think they said. What you are talking about is a completely different subject. If you actually paid attention to what is going on, this DA is saying the cops aren't bringing him enough cases to prosecute. The cops say they're arresting people with multiple outstanding violent offenses against them, so that they can't ever reduce the number of offenders because they keep getting let back out. Do you not give a shit about assaults, rapes, robberies and violent people being let out over and over? You one of crazy people who would rather just get rid of all the cops and enjoy some Wild West mob justice/lynchings? Cause humanity went without cops for far longer than it had cops, and we know exactly how that works out. Yes cops need reformed, but tell that to someone who's daughter was raped by a repeat felon, awaiting multiple trials, who some turd DA thinks restorative justice means license to rape.
refurb 5y ago
Wait, he’s saying there is nothing can be done? He’s actually just letting them go? As a SF resident I’d be furious. You damn well know Chesa lives somewhere he doesn’t deal with the ramifications. Since Chesa is under a recall campaign there is a concerted social media effort to defend him on places like Twitter. Look up the efforts to discredit Dion Lim who has done stories about the Asian American victims of crimes committed by career criminals who were released by Chesa.
- boringg 5y ago
  This incessant and inaccurate campaign against Chesa Boudin is unreal. Go do your research and you aren't an SF resident.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
boringg 5y ago
You are not defined by your parents actions. I see how you are trying to run a smear campaign on Chesa Boudin.
- jollybean 5y ago
  You are if you are raised in a family of radical activism. "Boudin translated Understanding the Bolivarian Revolution: Hugo Chávez Speaks with Marta Harnecker" Etc.. This is a sympathetic action towards one of the most deplorable and despicable authoritarian murderers in recent history. Literally as we speak, the Venezuelan exodus has reached unimaginable levels: "More than 5.6 million have left the country since 2015, when it had a population of 30 million, escaping political, economic and social hardships. It has become the largest external displacement crisis in the region’s history, " [1] (And this is from the Guardian, not some right wing news source.) [1] https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/jun/21/latin-america-will-never-be-the-same-venezuela-exodus-reaches-record-levels https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/jun/21/l...
  - pmoriarty 5y ago
    I hope the people who have so much sympathy for Venezuelans fleeing the country are willing to open their own country's doors to them. Somehow, though, I suspect those very same people will instead give them the middle finger and build a wall to keep them out, because they really don't give a shit about Venezuelans but just want to score political points by being against a left-wing government.
    - josephcsible 5y ago
      It's not sustainable to take in unlimited numbers of immigrants from every badly-governed country in the world. It'd be way better to fix Venezuela's government so people don't need to flee anymore.
      - pmoriarty 5y ago
        Who's talking about unlimited? Let's start with allowing in more immigrants than we do now. But, no, instead the racists and xenophobes (because that's what they are) are always pushing for less.
pkdpic_y9k 5y ago
Im a little confused, what are the arguments for and against Boudin here?
eplanit 5y ago
Wow. It seems that SF is getting exactly the outcomes they voted for, which is actually justice (though perverted). Policy-making in SF (and many other (cough)blue(cough) places) is done by emotion, not economics. And, political ideology there has literally replaced religion -- nobody in power dare vote against the severe orthodoxy, even if that means feces and human despair littering the streets and parks. What is their goal, I wonder?
- throwaway0a5e 5y ago
  Tolerating homelessness and the tent cities and open air drug use which victimize nothing but the eyes and noses of the uptight need not be analogous with tolerating rampant car break-ins, package theft and other petty "crime with a victim". Furthermore, the "real crime" that greatly reduces quality of life is not necessarily committed by the people shooting up on the sidewalk. Enforce laws against theft. Enforce laws against public indecency and disorderly conduct. Enforce laws which will have the most positive impact on everyone's quality of life. People being homeless isn't the problem. People being allowed to get away with all these other behaviors that reduce quality of life for everyone else is the problem.
  - merpnderp 5y ago
    You may think it isn't a crime to shit in public, and stand in the middle of the street moaning and pissing yourself because you are so high you are mostly catatonic. So I hope you and people like you never move to where I live.
    - throwaway0a5e 5y ago
      People using everywhere as their bathroom certainly decreases quality of life for everyone else but it's not even a blip on the radar when you lose a couple packages a month and your car gets broken into once a year. Solve the most impactful problems first.
      - josephcsible 5y ago
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pmoriarty 5y ago
"There is only so much law enforcement can do" Drug abuse should not be a law enforcement issue, but a medical issue. The problems on that street are a failure of the mental health system, lack of social safety nets, and the abject failure of the war on drugs which forces people to use unsafe drugs in unsafe ways instead of making sure that safe drugs can be used safely (which is what legalization or at least decriminalization would help ensure).
- JumpCrisscross 5y ago
  > Drug abuse should not be a law enforcement issue, but a medical issue The comment you're replying to concerns itself with drug dealers. Not users. Theirs is not a medical issue, but a law enforcement one.
  - pmoriarty 5y ago
    Drug dealers should not be arrested either! The whole War on Drugs is completely unjust, immoral, misguided, and ineffective. People should not go to jail for using or selling drugs. Both should be made legal and regulated.

guessbest 5y ago

I've been seeing articles like this for years, but the people I have talked to in the real world say they don't see any of these problems like how they are reported online. There must be some kind of perception gap going on.

jollybean 5y ago
SF is a highly compartmentalized city. If you walk through some areas to go to work, you see it. If you live just 400m away, you may never. That actually may possibly be part of the problem.
- pkdpic_y9k 5y ago
  Thats a really good point.
- the_snooze 5y ago
  I was in Berkeley for a couple years, living in the hills and working downtown. The two areas are just a 20 minute walk apart, but you wouldn't ever see the deep social issues and poverty on the streets if you never left the hills.
ghoul_hunter 5y ago
This article is just a piece of the long-running right-wing propaganda campaign aimed at discrediting Chesa Boudin. In SF, it's driven by VCs furious that he's sued gig economy companies for worker misclassification. In other cities, like Philadelphia, the backlash is driven by police unions (the DA in Philadelphia was the subject of a similar string of articles in the local and national press and then won reelection by a 2:1 margin over his closest rival).
- ta988 5y ago
  Where can I read about that? Is anybody documenting these pressure groups across the country?
  - 5y ago

happynacho 5y ago

but that's what they voted for...

unity1001 5y ago

Right wing opinion hit piece from a conservative private think thank, using alarmist, far right talking points and dog whistles. https://www.manhattan-institute.org/ https://www.manhattan-institute.org/ "The sky is falling all the time" is the modus operandi of such alarmism. Yet in actual reality, SF is SO bad that literally half of the world's tech professionals are crowding themselves into the city. In the conservative American cities with 'better policies' and 'better policing' and near zero taxes to 'promote business', crickets are chirping instead of the prophesied economic miracles. Free market religion combined with cultural conservatism not being able to stomach their belief not being proven true, needing to make hit pieces about the successful 'heretics'. "How can they be successful without having the faith and doing how we do." That's what it is.

abalone 5y ago
Not to mention Miami, which was putting ads up around SF, actually has a higher violent crime rate than SF. It just has more segregation.

abalone 5y ago

Please don’t publish this trash on HN. That is a right wing journal whose sister publication just published an attack on Critical Race Theory.[1] It does not meet basic journalistic standards. All the author does is publish anti Chesa Boudin screeds.[2] All this poster does is post right wing political stuff to HN.[3] [1] https://www.manhattan-institute.org/battle-over-critical-race-theory https://www.manhattan-institute.org/battle-over-critical-rac... [2] https://www.city-journal.org/contributor/erica-sandberg_1384 https://www.city-journal.org/contributor/erica-sandberg_1384 [3] https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=Bostonian https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=Bostonian

adamrezich 5y ago
>It does not meet basic journalistic standards. what does this even mean exactly in this day and age
- callmeal 5y ago
  >>It does not meet basic journalistic standards. >what does this even mean exactly in this day and age From the fine article: >Scores of dealers, nearly all young males from Mexico and Central America, openly sell narcotics. Score means 20. Scores to me mean at least 40 (more than one score). Is the writer implying that there are at least 40 drug dealers in a tiny dead-end street [0]? [0]: https://goo.gl/maps/4NbqnwHibWyM9KLDA https://goo.gl/maps/4NbqnwHibWyM9KLDA
  - josephcsible 5y ago
    My reading of the article is that there are "scores of dealers" in the entire Tenderloin, not just on that one street.
  - adamrezich 5y ago
    that's like arguing about the proper use of the word "decimate." but I don't think the above commenter was referring to this article, they were either referring to some other article about CRT or about the publication as a whole

callmeal 5y ago

Putting my snarky hat on: Are they finally going to ban smoking in open-air? Reading the article: wow it's like a warzone out there. >Scores of dealers, nearly all young males from Mexico and Central America, openly sell narcotics. ... Oh it's that kind of writer. kthxbye.

adamrezich 5y ago
what kind of writer? is the statement untrue? I don't know as I don't live there. I'm just curious as to what this vague statement means
- callmeal 5y ago
  I see two things wrong with that statement: 1: the obvious attempt whip up racism/xenophobia, and 2: Score means 20. Scores to me mean at least 40 (more than one score). Is the writer implying that there are at least 40 drug dealers in a tiny dead-end street [0]? [0]: https://goo.gl/maps/4NbqnwHibWyM9KLDA https://goo.gl/maps/4NbqnwHibWyM9KLDA
  - adamrezich 5y ago
    what makes you assume this specific intent?
  - josephcsible 5y ago
    As I've said elsewhere, why do you think that statement was talking about just that street? It's totally reasonable to think there's at least 40 drug dealers in the whole Tenderloin.
    - callmeal 5y ago
      >It's totally reasonable to think there's at least 40 drug dealers in the whole Tenderloin. And that they're all from Mexico/Central America right?
  - readflaggedcomm 5y ago

nextstep 5y ago

There’s a lot of “ideological boilerplate” being thrown around in these comments. @dang maybe you can step in and moderate the responses? This right-wing propaganda seems to be triggering a flamewar.

andymoe 5y ago

Pretty much every issues they are laying at the feet of our DA predates his tenure by decades. He’s got responsibility to work to improve the situation now but the previous approaches did not work any better and he’s certainly not the cause of these problems.

josephcsible 5y ago
It's true that San Francisco had a lot of problems even before he was DA. The problem is that not only is he not making them any better, but that he's actively making them all worse.
readflaggedcomm 5y ago
Prosecutorial discretion is up to the DA, and he's quoted in an article linked to this one defending it. Maybe the residents believe prosecuting crimes would help.

GoodJokes 5y ago

Legalize drugs and regulate them.

pmoriarty 5y ago

Hyperbolic, breathless, moralistic anti-drug propaganda. "Tucked deep in San Francisco's sixth district is Dodge Place, a residential street located in the notorious Tenderloin neighborhood. It's been overtaken by drug users who come to get high, descend into madness, and then destroy themselves and their surroundings." Never even considering that there could be any causes for any of this other than drugs. Many people have mental health issues even before trying any drugs, and many self-medicate or try to cope with street drugs because the established mental health system and social safety net has failed them. "At any given time, dozens of people congregate in the small alley to inject or smoke their substance of choice." Where else are they supposed to go? Many of them are homeless, after all, and if they have homes they may not want to do drugs in front of their families so as not to set a bad example or because their families would not be supportive. In some countries there are clean facilities where you can get clean drugs and clean needles and be monitored by medical staff. In the US you're forced to use mystery drugs that you could easily overdose from because you neither know what you're getting, what the purity is, or the dosage is, use dirty needles, and/or do your drugs on the street where you can get attacked while you're passed out. This is a failure of society, not of drug abusers, who are victims and need medical help not sensationalistic, moralistic screeds. "Teenagers to seniors, of all races and demographics, jab needles into their bloody, bloated limbs, hands, and feet." They're bloody and bloated because they're not getting adequate medical care. Again, a failure of society and of the medical system. "One inexplicably common figure is a man neatly dressed for a day at the office who drives syringes deep into other people's necks. Soon after imbibing, users stand still as statues but bent at the waist, colloquially known as the "fentanyl fold." Some collapse and crawl, while others sit listlessly on the curb, lining the walls." What many people who've never tried heroin (which is probably what this reporter is describing) don't understand is that when the high hits you feel incredibly good, and users are just paying attention to the overwhelming internal sensations as the outside world becomes not as relevant. So give these people somewhere clean and safe to lie down, if the mere sight of them harshes your mellow and offends your delicate sensibilities so much. "Or they wander, run, or flail, screaming at each other as well as invisible demons." More mental health funding would be in order here, not demonization of people suffering from mental issues. "Many urinate and defecate in their clothes, on the pavement or doorsteps, despite the 24-hour facilities nearby." 24-hour facilities which are dangerous to go in because they're windowless and you could be jumped when you get out... and "nearby" is often not nearly near enough if you're sick or under the influence of drugs that make you lose control of your bowels or bladder. Again, there's a right way to deal with all these issues, which is to provide clean, safe facilities for drug use and make drugs legal.. and a wrong way: which is to demonize drug users and support the failed policy of prohibition.

nevinera 5y ago

I certainly expect that there's a problem to solve here, but it's completely obvious how much this writer is trying to steer my opinion by the third paragraph. I can't treat this as journalism, it's just a constant stream of appeals to emotion and accusations. Does anyone here pass through that area? How bad is it actually?

ac29 5y ago
The twitter account linked in the article is pretty grim. Link is here, but be warned, its graphic: https://twitter.com/DTenderloine https://twitter.com/DTenderloine
- nevinera 5y ago
  Well of course it is - any persuasive piece is only going to link to sources that push the same position it does. That's why I was asking for a personal experience of the place. My expectation is that there is a drug problem in the area, the 'article' is exaggerating it by an order of magnitude, and that that the real goal is political and not humanitarian.

boringg 5y ago

Is this an asto-turfing effort putting this article on hackernews?