{"id":22088,"date":"2022-04-19T12:05:23","date_gmt":"2022-04-19T19:05:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=22088"},"modified":"2022-04-19T12:07:17","modified_gmt":"2022-04-19T19:07:17","slug":"sfs-chinese-community-is-polarized-by-the-recall-election-of-da-chesa-boudin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2022\/04\/19\/sfs-chinese-community-is-polarized-by-the-recall-election-of-da-chesa-boudin\/","title":{"rendered":"SF\u2019s Chinese community is polarized by the recall election of DA Chesa Boudin"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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by\u00a0YUJIE ZHOU<\/a><\/strong> APRIL 18, 2022 (MissionLocal.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Two years ago, Chesa Boudin won the District Attorney\u2019s election by a mere 2,840 votes, boosted in the ranked-choice voting system by 13,162 votes from his Chinese American competitor Nancy Tung. Much was made of Boudin\u2019s support from a generally conservative voting bloc, a win helped by his ability to speak some Cantonese to Chinese voters. <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the 2022 San Francisco District Attorney recall election just two months away, however, Chinese voters appear to be more polarized than ever over the progressive they helped to elect. In part, the backlash appears to be part of a recall fervor and a reach for scapegoats to blame for anti-Asian incidents as well as a general \u2013 albeit not entirely correct \u2013 impression that crime has escalated. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alison Wong, 62, a Sunset homeowner who supports the recall, would like nothing better than to buck the criminal justice system of California as a whole. For her, it is not a discussion of Boudin\u2019s performance or his attitudes toward criminals, but longstanding anger at a system that she disagrees with and she feels affects her life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cChesa Boudin is just a part of the San Francisco system. He\u2019s collaborating with the mayor and the police,\u201d she said. \u201cThe officers above Boudin protect the criminals, and he is bound to obey.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Boudin, in fact, defeated Mayor London Breed\u2019s preferred candidate, Suzy Loftus \u2014 whom Breed took the extraordinary step of installing as DA only 24 hours before ballots were set to be mailed to voters. His relationship with the mayor remains acrimonious. He was pilloried by the Police Officers Association before, during, and after his campaign and is in the midst of an overt political war with Chief Bill Scott and the police department. But, to Wong, these facts hold no appeal. She is angry about the way her city is run and even though he is an outsider in that system, she sees him as part of it.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI voted to recall the governor last year,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd if I could vote to recall the mayor, I\u2019d do that too.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many elected officials and community leaders accuse recall supporters of either misunderstanding or misconstruing the facts around crime \u2013 though those in the pro-recall camp seemed unmoved by these arguments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s a worse DA than Chesa Boudin in America; he\u2019s probably the worst,\u201d said Leanna Louie, a recall supporter who\u2019s been a San Francisco resident for 42 years. \u201cYou know, there are some DAs who actually prosecute criminals, right?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Others disagree \u2013 strongly. \u201cI think they have not heard that Boudin is doing more for Chinese Americans than any district attorney,\u201d said former Richmond District supervisor Sandra Lee Fewer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo be honest, the biggest fear that I have is that our community is being used at this moment to advance a political agenda,\u201d said Joyce Lam, another recall opponent and the political director of the Chinese Progressive Association. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The boos Boudin received at last month\u2019s Lunar New Year Parade<\/a> might even be taken to indicate the majority of the community is against Boudin. Still, the lack of reliable polls, coupled with the hesitancy of the Chinese community towards voting, make it difficult to predict the role they\u2019ll play in the June election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you ask the Chinese living in the Sunset, I believe some 80 percent are against Boudin,\u201d said Alison Wong. \u201cBut when it comes to voting, it\u2019s a different story.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe\u2019s too soft on crime,\u201d say the recall supporters<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Wendy Wong, and many others, the problem with Boudin centers around a concern about perceived increases in crime and Boudin\u2019s attitude towards the police.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo me, hate crimes towards Asians, hate crimes to the elderly, targeting some weak and disabled people, those crimes have been increasing in the last two years. And what I saw was he let people go without any bail \u2013 he advocates for that \u2018zero-dollar\u2019,\u201d said Wong, who is the spokesperson for the San Francisco Coalition for Good Neighborhoods<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Boudin launched the so-called \u201czero-dollar bail policy\u201d right after taking office in January 2020<\/a>, a measure that prohibited prosecutors from asking for money bail. The policy, which reflects Boudin\u2019s belief that \u201cno one should be jailed for poverty<\/a>\u201d has been temporarily adopted statewide; similar policies are also being tested out in other states<\/a>. And, despite Wong\u2019s arguments, a 2020 study<\/a> from the MDRC suggests that reducing money bail does not lead to increased rates of re-arrest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Voters like Wong are difficult to sway. When thieves broke into her car parked four blocks from the police station, \u201cpolice didn\u2019t even want to take my report.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taking that report is, ostensibly, a police officer\u2019s job. But instead of blaming the police for dereliction of duty, she blames Boudin. \u201cIt\u2019s because the DA will not prosecute those small crimes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, in fact, most crimes have declined and Boudin has charged more than any DA since 2011, according to data from the DA\u2019s office<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nevertheless, in interview after interview, members of the Chinese community cited San Francisco\u2019s rising crime levels as a reason to recall Boudin. While homicide and gun violence rose during the pandemic, San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott has said the rise reflected a national pattern. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The overall crime levels in San Francisco remain significantly lower<\/a> than they were before the pandemic began.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CHECK CRIME RATES FOR 2021<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Explore: How crime rates changed in San Francisco last year<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>by\u00a0WILL JARRETT<\/a><\/strong> JANUARY 30, 2022<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chinatown merchants, also want to see more from the DA\u2019s office. Storeowners there have grown nervous following rampant cases of petty shoplifting \u2013 last month, 10 stores<\/a> were reportedly hit by theft and robbery in 24 hours.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The occasional theft of jade, fruit and groceries has added to already sluggish business during the pandemic, according to Edward Siu, chairman of the Chinatown Merchants United Association. \u201cThe merchants make very little money selling their goods, and I would even go so far as to say that probably more than half of the money is stolen,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Siu feels Proposition 47 of 2014 is responsible because it recategorizes nonviolent offenses below $950 as misdemeanors rather than felonies \u2013 a price tag rarely reached by the goods in Chinatown stores. \u201cWhen people see others stealing without consequences, they will also steal,\u201d Siu said. According to him, shopkeepers sometimes rejoice when the thief is an old Chinese woman whom they can threaten with the prospect of her crime being reported to her family members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Siu is not the only person to put forward this argument, though the reality may be more complicated. So far, research<\/a> suggests Proposition 47 has not led to a significant increase in crime rates, though it has widely become a \u201cscapegoat\u201d blamed for the perception of increasing crime rates. And while $950 might seem high, the threshold in most states is now $1,000 or more<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, every time someone mentions the law, they inevitably think of Boudin. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI understand the police because they are also passive \u2018middlemen\u2019,\u201d said Siu. But for him, the DA is different. \u201cBoudin can\u2019t bypass the state law, but there must be something he can do to help us, and he didn\u2019t try.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey\u2019re being used,\u201d say the recall opponents <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Chinese on the other side of the recall issue have also invariably felt the pain of anti-Asian violence in the city \u2014 but they distrust not just the recall campaign\u2019s arguments but the campaign itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe recall campaign is exploiting the trauma that many Asian community members have felt and experienced over anti-Asian hate incidents,\u201d said Henry Der, former chair of Chinese for Affirmative Action and an opponent of the recall. \u201cI think the recall campaign against Chesa Boudin is based on a lot of disinformation and lies about what he and his office have done since he took office.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s good that Chesa used to be a public defender, because he\u2019s learned to find out more about the defendant, and the district attorney should do that too,\u201d said Bill Ong Hing, former police commissioner and a professor of law and immigration studies at the University of San Francisco. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the duty of the district attorney to question the police,\u201d Hing said. If they\u2019re truly being demoralized, then \u201cit means the police have to make sure that they understand what their duty is, what their responsibility is, and that there should be better education of the police as well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hing also feels that, in comparison to his predecessor, George Gasc\u00f3n, Boudin\u2019s has done a \u201cparticularly good job on anti-Asian violence,\u201d launching measures including staffing a hate crime hotline, appointing Chinatown native Kasie Lee as chief of Victim Services, and a recent training program for SFPD officers on the evidence needed to prove hate crimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recall supporters like Wendy Wong, however, feel the exact opposite. \u201cStop going to communities doing a PR job. Just do his real job by prosecuting people,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Former District 1 supervisor Sandra Lee Fewer feels the problem results from a misunderstanding of the jurisdiction of the DA, the SFPD, the courts and even the jails. And based on her years of experience communicating with police, Fewer added that, \u201cPeople who commit crimes are not thinking three steps ahead: After<\/em> they get arrested, after<\/em> they get in jail, that they\u2019re not thinking, \u2018Oh, well, the District Attorney is not going to press charges,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cTheir first and foremost thing in their mind is, \u2018Am I going to get caught by the police?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The experts concur with that: Research<\/a> on diversion programs does indeed show that \u201cPeople who are not prosecuted for misdemeanors are much less likely to find themselves in a courtroom again within two years.\u201d)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vincent Pan, a former police commissioner and executive director of the non-profit Chinese for Affirmative Action, described himself as independent in relation to the recall. Still, he said he understands that many Chinese Americans place faith in the idea of \u201clocking them up,\u201d but treating it as a cure-all oversimplifies the complexity of the criminal justice system. \u201cIf that was a solution, America would already be the safest country. We lock up more people than anybody.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A similar gridlock has fallen over the uncertainty of who will be appointed by the mayor as the next DA if Boudin is recalled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Pan, the format of the recall election itself is an obstacle. \u201cIn the past when we had our elections, we\u2019d posted candidate forums or debates, you can kind of ask each candidate, \u2018will you do this?\u2019, or \u2018will you do this?\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cOne of the difficult things about recall elections is we don\u2019t know who the replacement would be.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

David Ho, one of Boudin\u2019s hired consultants, offers a particularly vigorous defense in response. \u201cYou cannot name one single individual leader or entity that is supporting the recall of Chesa Boudin as district attorney. Because people who\u2019ve been doing this kind of work in this space for decades, year in year out, understand the complexity of the criminal justice system.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But this split between community leaders and the base is only more evidence for Richmond District homeowner Meina Young\u2019s argument: \u201cNow you know how out of touch they are.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alvin Lee, also a member of Boudin\u2019s campaign, partially attributed the perception of a higher crime rate to the pandemic. \u201cPeople are at home more nowadays,\u201d he said. \u201cSo they might be seeing a few more things. A lot of people are on Facebook, on Twitter every day, and they\u2019re on Nextdoor.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why blame Chesa Boudin? \u201cIt\u2019s easier to find a scapegoat,\u201d said Norman Yee, former Board of Supervisors president and opponent of the recall. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to change people\u2019s mind once they grab on to a particular narrative.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alex Tom, former Chinese Progressive Association executive director and opponent of the recall, sees the DA recall campaign as driven by the Chinese right-wing, which has been emboldened by both Trump and their overwhelming recent victory in the school board recall election. \u201cWhat we noticed nationally for the Chinese right-wing is that people spreading rumors, misinformation, disinformation, a lot of them tend to be more educated. They will put stuff out on WeChat, and really take advantage of people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, Tom remains optimistic about the community and its ability to grasp the situation. \u201cChinese people are very savvy because they went through a lot,\u201d he said. \u201cThey see through people very quickly. And when Chinese people see people\u2019s political intentions, that\u2019s when it\u2019s going to become clearer.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

THE NUMBERS ON CHARGING RATES AND THE DATA ON RECALL FUNDING<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Data shows Chesa Boudin files charges more than prior DAs<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>by ELENI BALAKRISHNAN<\/a><\/strong> APRIL 11, 2022<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Explore: See who is funding the Boudin recall<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>by WILL JARRETT<\/a><\/strong> DECEMBER 15, 2021<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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YUJIE ZHOU<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

yujie@missionlocal.com<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yujie Zhou is our newest intern. Before falling in love with the Mission, she covered New York City, studied politics through the \u201cstreet clashes\u201d in Hong Kong, and earned a wine-tasting certificate in two days. She\u2019s proud to be a bilingual journalist. Follow her on Twitter @Yujie_ZZ.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by\u00a0YUJIE ZHOU APRIL 18, 2022 (MissionLocal.org) Two years ago, Chesa Boudin won the District Attorney\u2019s election by a mere 2,840 votes, boosted in the ranked-choice voting system by 13,162 votes from his Chinese American competitor Nancy Tung. Much was made of Boudin\u2019s support from a generally conservative voting bloc, a win… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22088"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22088"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22088\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22092,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22088\/revisions\/22092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}